2013 VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Awards: A Look at Finalist Humana

May 10, 2013 1:15 PM ET

VolunteeringIsCSR.org

On May 16, 2013, winners of the 2013 VolunteerMatch Corporate Volunteer Awards will be announced at our annual VolunteerMatch Client Summit in New York City, NY. In this series of posts, we’ll introduce you to people and ideas behind the ten most effective employee volunteer programs in our family of corporate clients compared against our annual benchmarks.

Humana provides Medicare services as well as individual and employee health insurance to millions of Americans. The company is a leader in employee volunteering and community involvement – initiatives which extend out from the company’s identity and core capabilities as a business focused on helping people achieve lifelong well-being. As our client sees it, “healthy people make choices every day to eat right, stay active, and exercise their minds.”

And they also volunteer. This year, we are pleased to include Humana as a Finalist for Employee Volunteer Program of the Year in our Large Business category. Humana will go head to head with Nationwide, United Airlines, UnitedHealth Group and last year’s winner, Morgan Stanley, for the award.

Through its Humana Volunteer Network, Humana and the Humana Foundation provides associates with support, resources and recognition for their commitment to volunteerism. Associates are encouraged to log their volunteer hours for corporate recognition such as the Spirit of Philanthropy award, which honors employee teams that display exceptional commitment with a $25,000 Humana Foundation grant to a nonprofit where they volunteer.

Other recognition awards at Humana include their “Dollars 4 Doers” and “Volunteer of the Year” awards which both provide opportunities for the winners make grants to nonprofits.

The foundation also created the Humana Volunteer Fellowship, a skills-based volunteer opportunity for a team of Humana employees from a specific location to work at a nonprofit full-time for four weeks. During that time, the Humana volunteer team works with a nonprofit on a special project to create transformational change for the organization.  According to Humana, this innovative model of volunteerism is a way to honor and challenge associates as well as an opportunity to have real impact in the community.

Humana’s top accomplishments in 2012 include:

  • 25% growth in hours logged
  • 76% growth in unique volunteers
  • 56% growth in associate participation (2011: 9% participation; 2012: 14% participation)
  • 400% growth in new volunteer groups (2011: trained seven new groups; 2012: trained 35 new groups)

We are thrilled to recognize Humana for its outstanding work in volunteering!

Read profiles of all the finalists here.