USU Researcher Examines How Employee Volunteering Affects Productivity

In June of 2022, U.S. News surveyed 200 large companies, and found that 46% of them offer paid time off to volunteer.

According Huntsman School of Business Assistant Professor Grazia Xiong and her research colleagues, that perk is one of the fastest-growing areas of employee benefits.

But how does that affect productivity, outside of the workplace as a volunteer, as well as back at the office as an employee?

Well, Xiong, as well as her co-author Andrew Newman from the University of South Carolina, wanted to look into this.

They crafted a study to look into how different types of workplace support encouraged employees to volunteer, how much they engaged with volunteering, and when they returned to work, how they interacted with their coworkers and helped out around the office.

All of this, however, is done through computer simulation, and in a laboratory setting. In this video, learn about the researchers’ findings, and how they hope their data guides the future of these workplace volunteer time off benefits.