Where Does the Value of Employee Volunteering Come From?

Conventional employee volunteering programs operate from a fundamental blindspot – they approach community engagement from an outdated industrial model of value creation. Leadership defines the causes and interventions, providing resources and opportunities that employees then “deliver” through volunteer labor. 

The research reveals this transaction-based approach misunderstands how true value actually emerges. The authors of the academic paper “Making sense of value and value co-creation in service logic “offer a perspective-shifting model: Value isn’t something companies produce and distribute, but something that gets created through the personal contexts and experiences of the people they aim to serve. 

The Value-in-Use Revolution 

In their research, the two Finnish scholars uncovered a profound truth – real value only materializes through “the user’s accumulating experiences with resources, processes and/or their outcomes in social, physical, temporal and/or spatial contexts.” 

Value, in other words, isn’t embedded in the goods, services or resources companies provide. Those are just sources of potential value. Actualized value – the meaningful impacts we all pursue – emerges through how those resources get used, experienced and infused with personal context by the end users. 

This “value-in-use” model upends traditional production-centric business logic. Companies can no longer think of themselves as value creators who package up value and directly deliver it to customers or beneficiaries. Their role is more humble – they are value facilitators who supply the ingredients that may enable value creation within the personal value spheres of the end users themselves. 

For corporate volunteering, this revelation is game-changing. Designing employee volunteering as a way for companies to inject value into communities is a fundamental misfire. True value and impact can only emerge from within the lived experiences, needs and contexts of the people in those communities. 

The Value Co-Creation Opportunity 

While companies can’t autonomously produce value that gets accepted by beneficiaries, the research identifies a powerful opportunity: collaborative value co-creation between providers and end users. 

By structuring initiatives that facilitate direct interactions between employee volunteers and community members, companies can bridge into those personal “value spheres” where value actually takes shape. With empathy, mutual learning and co-creative design, companies can positively influence how their provided resources actualize as value within the unique contexts of end users. 

Rather than one-way “value delivery,” this model enables a reciprocal value co-creation process. Employees gain insights into the lives, motivations and environments shaping how community members experience and derive value. Communities work hand-in-hand with companies to design how volunteered capabilities get most meaningfully applied. 

An Accumulating Journey 

Another key insight: Value isn’t a static endpoint but an accumulating experience over time. The researchers contrast this with traditional value models that see value as singular payoffs embedded in transactions or outputs. 

Effective volunteering models, therefore, shouldn’t pursue discrete service events but nurture ongoing journeys of personal growth and collaborative evolution. By blending hands-on projects with immersive learning experiences, employee volunteers travel transformative arcs that reshape their mindsets while responding to shifting community needs. 

This expanded timeframe allows the interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic impacts that the research identifies as true value-in-use. Employees experience personal development that enriches their employee experience and well-being. Simultaneously, their co-creative efforts enhance value actualization within community contexts. 

A Catalyst for Transformation 

By grounding our approach in this academic framework, we at Realized Worth offer a breakthrough path for employee volunteering and civic engagement. Our programs don’t start from the assumption that companies deliver value through resources and service events. Instead, we position companies and employee volunteers as co-creators supporting how value emerges organically from the personal spheres and life contexts of community members themselves.

This framing catalyzes reciprocal transformation – employees experience perspective expansion, leadership growth and renewed passion for their work. Communities gain empowered co-creators dedicated to facilitating meaningful, contextual impact. And companies earn authentic relationships and stakeholder trust by leading through humble partnership, not corporate primacy.

In an era where businesses can no longer be robotic value extractors but must embrace roles as social actors, this co-creative model represents an important shift. Together, we are equipping companies to become nodes of transformation that generate renewable, holistic value across employees and communities.