What’s the view in your company of people taking company time off to volunteer for non-profit causes?

Our reader poll today asks: What’s the view in your company of people taking company time off to volunteer for non-profit causes?

• We encourage it strongly and have programs to support it 53.39%
• We encourage it but don’t have formal programs 17.80%
• We’re okay with it but it needs to be limited 14.84%
• We tolerate it but don’t really like to do it 4.23%
• We discourage it and only support it in extreme cases 1.69%
• We prohibit it. Do it on your own time 8.05%

Supporting Non-Profit Support. 70% of you work for organizations that support employees contributing to non-profit causes (with 53% of you having formal programs at work for doing so). That 70% jumps to 85% when there are clear limits on how much time people dedicate to such support. If your company does support time contributions to non-profit causes, it may be worthwhile to formalize your program. First, doing so sends a strong message to employees that you support those causes. Second, it can put in place limits on how much time people dedicate to those programs. You may as well get credit for supporting things you’re already doing and avoid the headache of not being clear about boundaries. Formalize and communicate your programs now to increase participation and minimize confusion.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.