{"id":18897,"date":"2019-09-06T10:34:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-06T14:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/?p=18897"},"modified":"2023-09-18T10:38:24","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T14:38:24","slug":"pro-groups-volunteer-leave-policy-encourages-employees-to-give-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/news\/pro-groups-volunteer-leave-policy-encourages-employees-to-give-back\/","title":{"rendered":"PRO Group\u2019s Volunteer Leave Policy Encourages Employees to Give Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">One common thread across most home improvement retailers is that they understand the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hardwareretailing.com\/how-retailers-have-expanded-their-community-endeavors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">importance of giving back<\/a>\u00a0to the communities that support them. And when they\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hardwareretailing.com\/how-to-build-strong-community-partnerships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">give back to their communities<\/a>, whether through financial assistance or other resources, they set the example for their employee, encouraging them to volunteer their time as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pro-grouppublic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PRO Group Inc.<\/a>, based in Denver, has found its own unique way to model that community spirit. In addition to the hard work they do for their distributor members, PRO encourages their employees to give back to the places where they call home. PRO\u2019s volunteer leave policy encourages employees to become involved in their children\u2019s school activities or with charitable non-profit community service organizations by providing paid time off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">To learn more about the program,\u00a0<em>Hardware Retailing<\/em>\u00a0spoke with Drew Eflin, marketing manager at PRO Group, who volunteers with a non-profit that helps underprivileged youth learn how to skateboard and snowboard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><em>Hardware Retailing<\/em>\u00a0(HR): Would you tell me a little about PRO\u2019s volunteer leave policy and how it works?<br \/>\nDrew Eflin (DE):<\/strong>\u00a0PRO Group has an amazing company policy that allows employees to volunteer for the organization of their choice for 16 paid hours a year. All employees can choose a charitable organization and are given two paid days a year that they can volunteer. Many of PRO\u2019s employee\u2019s use this to help at their kids\u2019 schools, but for the younger employees it\u2019s a great opportunity to choose an organization they\u2019re passionate about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>HR: Can you describe what you do with the Chill Foundation and how long have you been working with that program?<br \/>\nDE:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ve been working with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chill Foundation<\/a>\u00a0for 2 years now. Chill is a non-profit organization that takes underprivileged youth out to do different board sports and teaches them how to overcome challenges they face in their everyday life. Volunteering with Chill, I have participated in all kinds of different activities, such as getting kids sized and geared up for snowboarding\/skateboarding, teaching kids the basics of snowboarding and skateboarding, being a mentor for groups of kids of different ages from ages 10-18, taking photos and videos of the programs, playing games and activities with the kids, etc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>HR: Why did you choose this foundation as a place to serve?<br \/>\nDE:<\/strong>\u00a0I had heard about this program a while ago \u2013 it was founded by Jake and Donna Carpenter (founders of Burton Snowboards) and always thought it would be awesome to share some of my passions with kids who may have never even thought about snowboarding or skateboarding. A lot of the time snowboarding isn\u2019t on the table for many underprivileged kids, so being able to go for free, and discover something new that they may really like is awesome to me.\u00a0 Snowboarding and skateboarding were my life growing up and being able to share it with someone who might not be able to go do these things on their own is a privilege for me!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">My hope is that this is something positive they could use as an influence in their life. I grew up hanging at skateparks all summer, and hanging at a resort all winter and honestly focusing on skateboarding and snowboarding kept me out of trouble. I hope it can do the same for kids today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>HR: What are some of the other ways PRO employees use their volunteer hours?<br \/>\nDE:<\/strong>\u00a0Employees from all generations and at all levels of the company participate. The organizations where they choose to spend their time range from local to national. Several people use their time to help out at their children\u2019s schools, whether it\u2019s helping with a high school football fundraiser or helping with an elementary school music program. Another employee joined her daughter in volunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission, setting the example for her children on the importance of giving back. Several employees volunteer at other non-profit organizations, such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Project Angel Heart, which delivers meals for people living with serious illnesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>HR: Why do you think it is important that PRO offer its employees this opportunity? 9<br \/>\nDE:<\/strong>\u00a0I think it is amazing that PRO offers this opportunity to its employees and it\u2019s an amazing way to encourage employees to give back to their communities. I think it speaks to PRO as a company, and how they want to take care of their employees and give them all the benefits you might get from a bigger company, yet we\u2019re very small. Because of this benefit, I started volunteering for this program in my free time as well, which I hadn\u2019t really considered doing before we were offered this opportunity!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One common thread across most home improvement retailers is that they understand the\u00a0importance of giving back\u00a0to the communities that support them. And when they\u00a0give back to their communities, whether through financial assistance or other resources, they set the example for their employee, encouraging them to volunteer their time as well. PRO Group Inc., based in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>PRO Group\u2019s Volunteer Leave Policy Encourages Employees to Give Back | Chill Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/news\/pro-groups-volunteer-leave-policy-encourages-employees-to-give-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PRO Group\u2019s Volunteer Leave Policy Encourages Employees to Give Back | Chill Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One common thread across most home improvement retailers is that they understand the\u00a0importance of giving back\u00a0to the communities that support them. 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PRO Group Inc., based in [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.chill.org\/news\/pro-groups-volunteer-leave-policy-encourages-employees-to-give-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chill Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-06T14:34:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-18T14:38:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brittany Powell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brittany Powell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" 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