Giving Compass' Take:

• TriplePundit reports on the new trend of "unlimited volunteering," in which companies let employees take off as much time as they want to give back to their communities.

• Could this benefit your own organization? The upside includes higher employee satisfaction as well as greater engagement among colleagues. And for those worried about too much time off, the success of unlimited vacation offered by many corporations is cited as a precedent, showing few abuse the policy. Like any new implementation, though, it should be evaluated based on individual work culture.

• Need some ideas on where to give time? VolunteerMatch has you covered.

Unlimited volunteering is a new trend in corporate social responsibility. Similar to the increasingly popular policy of unlimited holiday — where employees are given unlimited vacation allowance — unlimited volunteering means giving employees unrestricted time off work to volunteer. This may seem a counterintuitive way to run a successful business, but the idea has now caught on in companies such as Virgin and Mercedes-Benz, who are reportedly very happy with their decision.

So, is unlimited volunteering something your business should be adopting?

Employer-supported volunteering is often promoted as a win-win. Non-profit organizations benefit from increased volunteer power, while employees and businesses get the chance to make a difference and access development opportunities. But employer-supported volunteering often doesn’t live up to this ideal. A sudden influx of employees on an annual training day can be more panic-inducing than helpful for many charities, who scramble to find something for all their new volunteers to do — poorly-executed painting projects being the most infamous example. This fails to put employees’ professional skills to good use, wasting an excellent chance for development.

Unlimited volunteering could be the solution. For instance, unlimited volunteering time allows employees the flexibility to become involved with charities in the longer term — in ways that complement their skill set and professional development needs, improving their job performance, and allowing them to have a greater positive impact.

Read the full article about the unlimited volunteering trend by Helen Bates at TriplePundit.