SRS Encourages Employees to Give Back With Paid Volunteer Hours

RCS Influencer Julissa Chavez says giving back is crucial to the health and functionality of a growing organization. 

Editor's note: Following is an interview with RCS Influencer Julissa Chavez about helping employees to give back. You can listen to the interview below or keep scrolling to read the transcript. 

Megan Ellsworth: Hello everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth, here again with an influencer topic, and this month's is, how do you help your employees give back? And this is for November 2021, and I'm here with Julissa Chavez. 

Julissa Chavez: Hi, Megan. 

Megan Ellsworth: Hello. So glad to have you here. 

Julissa Chavez: Thank you for hosting me once again. Very happy to be here with RoofersCoffeeShop. 

Megan Ellsworth: Yay. We're happy to have you as an influencer this year, so thanks for being here. So how do you guys over there help your employees give back to their community? 

Julissa Chavez: Absolutely, Megan. When I saw this as a topic for November, I definitely wanted to speak on behalf of SRS. As you know, our company motto is, make money, have fun, and give back. So the give back part is truly very important for us as a company, and so what we have done in order to give employees a way to give back to their communities is, every employee at SRS is allowed eight hours of a hundred percent paid volunteer leave every year on their anniversary. 

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, wow. 

Julissa Chavez: Yes, very cool, very unique. This is one of my favorite parts about working with SRS, is that we believe so much in giving back. It's not just a tagline for us, it's a way of life. So our employees are encouraged to take this time off to volunteer with the local charity of their choice within their community. Obviously, we want and promote for the communities or their charity to align with the SRS Raise the Roof mission pillars, which fall in their three categories, disaster relief, which there's a lot of that lately, seems like every time there's a new storm coming up or more communities being impacted, so that's a big focus for us, and then the second part would be to support veterans and first responders. We believe very much in heroes that wear no capes that show up every day, day in and day out, so we definitely want to support all veterans and first responders, very important to us. And then the third pillar of the SRS mission pillars is support children and families in crisis. 

Megan Ellsworth: Ugh, that's so important, all three of those. Oh my gosh. 

Julissa Chavez: It is, and when it comes to, do you have to take your whole eight hours in one event, that is not the case, so you can basically divvy it up. So if you want to do a half a day with one organization and save your other four hours for another organization, you're more than welcome to split that eight hours up as long as your supervisor approves of your time. 

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's great. And that falls on the anniversary of when you started with SRS? 

Julissa Chavez: Yes. So after you hit one year of being an SRS employee, when you look in your Workday app, you should see an extra paid eight hours to select your volunteering in your local community. 

Megan Ellsworth: Wow. May I ask what you have done in the past? 

Julissa Chavez: Oh, yeah. So what we've done in the past is, we went to volunteer at soup kitchens to feed the homeless people, especially around the holidays. That's when I do my leg of the work of when I get involved with volunteering. It's definitely around the holiday season, going to shelters, women's shelters, homeless shelters, and just helping out as much as I can, but also bringing my nephews and nieces to be part of that with me so that giving back is part of a foundation that they have seen since they were little kids, so very important for us. 

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's great. It's a whole family affair. 

Julissa Chavez: It is, it is, and it's important because they need to see how good they have it and how many people are in need, so it's a great lesson for them to see it. 

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for sharing that beautiful story and your traditions at SRS. So any last words on giving back? 

Julissa Chavez: No, I would encourage more companies to adopt what we're doing. It definitely shows how you give back to your local communities. And while we don't ask people to only affiliate with the organizations that we support from our Raise the Roof Foundation, as long as you're in the three pillars of disaster relief, veterans, first responders, children and family in crisis, it's pretty broad, so we're just happy to be able to offer that to our employees so that they can feel like they have an opportunity to give back, which is very important for us. 

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. That's so special. Thank you so much for thank you doing that. That's great. 

Julissa Chavez: Thanks Megan. I appreciate the time that you guys give me to speak, especially on such an important topic for SRS. 

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. Well, we'll be chatting with you next month for the December topic. 

Julissa Chavez: Yes. Thanks, Megan. 

Megan Ellsworth: Thanks, bye. 

Julissa Chavez is the program manager, Latin X Marketing and Sales at SRS Distribution. See her full bio here.