How important is your volunteer work? Regardless of what exactly constitutes our individual volunteer work, it adds a great value in many ways. Firstly, its almost a kind of personal soulfood. It does wonders to ones spirit just knowing we are helping a cause. Secondly, there is no question as to where wed be as a nation without the selfless giving of the volunteer. Our volunteer commitment as a collective is absolutely staggering!

The dollar value of volunteer time for 2006 is estimated at $18.77 per hour. Further, 44 percent of adults in the United States volunteer, translated 83.9 million American adults volunteer, representing the equivalent of over 9 million full-time employees at a value of $239 billion. A breath taking sense of commitment indeed!

Granted, we dont volunteer to be recognized, but should the work, the effort, be properly recognized? We know that today, many employers are taking a more holistic approach to recruiting. Meaning, they are finally looking at the complete potential employee when hiring. Beyond your core competencies, education and experience, what are your richest character qualities, that can be quickly evaluated by a potential employer. Look anywhere online these days, talk to CHRPs with the latest skill set, and it becomes very clear that volunteering is without a doubt, the single most important personality qualifier that employers pay instant attention to.

Again, none of us do the volunteer work to be recognized, but it is clearly being noticed. Larger companies like Cisco, Microsoft and GE all have in house programs to assist the employee who has a strong involvement as a volunteer in the not-for-profit sector. Why, it may be self serving for these companies but the simple truth is, these companies know full well the intrinsic value of having a positively charged staff. In the big picture, it means less employee sick time, less people leaving the company and all the costs associated with that. Like universities that enhance their faculty by supporting them while they get another degree, large companies are helping to grow their strongest employees and doing so because they know their sense of commitment is the exact quality they want in their staff.

As a person who spent 35 years working and volunteering in the private sector, I do firmly believe that the volunteer deserves to be properly acknowledged. And no, not with a financial reward for time given, but more of an earned designation. If you have spent at least five years at the executive level as a volunteer, by any standards, you have to be considered a professional, a professional volunteer.

As mentioned, employers are giving resumes a great deal more weight when they see a tenured volunteer commitment. It speaks directly to the character of the individual. The new Human Resources recruitment model does include the holistic approach. As such, the professional volunteer should be encouraged to give their volunteer experience a front row seat on their resume.

We are all individually proud of our volunteer work. There now seems to be a collective interest in showcasing it, especially when there is a large body of work to speak to. Five or more years of unpaid work at the executive level within the not-for-profit sector is considered a large body of work, very much deserving of proper acknowledgment.

Mike Perras is the Executive Director of The International Institute of Certified Professional Volunteers. You can reach him at http://www.iicpv.com