Employers + Service Years
Now more than ever, employers are thinking critically about the impact that their business has on the world around them. Whether a company is interested in solving a community challenge or struggling to find skilled employees, service years are a solution. Supporting service years isn’t just good — it’s good business.
Service Year Alums Bring Skills to Employers
Participating in a service year develops essential skills that make service year alums high-quality employees at any organization or company. The resources below outline the skills service year alums bring to the table:
Top 5 Skills AmeriCorps Alums Bring Employers. This resource highlights the top skills gained through a service year and shares alum stories of success.
Pathways After Service: Education and Career Outcomes of Service Year Alumni, Burning Glass Technologies, Dec 2018. This study highlights where service year alums outshine their peers in employment and education outcomes.
AmeriCorps Alumni Outcomes Study, Corporation For National and Community Service, Aug 2017. This study looks at self-reported data from service year alums that indicates they are more civically engaged, more prepared for careers, and more confident in their abilityto solve programs and plan strategically than before their service year experience.
Want to learn more about the skills of service year alums? Contact us at [email protected]
Become an Employer of National Service
Employers of National Service is an initiative that connects service year alums with over 600 employers from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. Through this initiative, employers have increased access to a dedicated, highly qualified, and mission-oriented pool of potential employees, and service year alums have additional opportunities to connect with employers that value their skills.
To become an Employer of National Service, employers pledge to recognize service year experience in their hiring practices. Read more about the benefits of joining.
Join Employers of National Service
Employers of National Service is an initiative co-sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service, Peace Corps, the National Peace Corps Association, and Service Year Alliance. Questions on Employers of National Service? Contact us at [email protected] for support.
Build a Talent Pipeline with Service Year Programs
Many employers find that the mission of specific service year programs aligns with the experience they look for when hiring. For example, Farmers Insurance hired service year alums that worked in disaster recovery, and Franklin Energy hired from Green City Force, a service year program that teaches skills on green energy and LED.
Farmers Insurance
Franklin Energy/Green City Force
Curious what service year programs are in your communities or align to your needed skills? Service Year Alliance can make that connection - let us know at [email protected]
Create a Service Year Program
In looking for employees that are deeply engaged with specific issues, some companies create a service year program that facilitates a direct employment pipeline or interest in a growing field. Service Year Alliance partnered with Home Instead Senior Care, an organization that supports seniors to receive vital care in their own homes, to create Champions Of Aging, a service year program where young people spend a year working intensively on aging related issues. Through their service year, young people learn how aging affects all parts of life, and can bring that experience and perspective to any future work they do.
Another option is to create a policy where your employees can defer employment or take a sabbatical to do a year of service. Service Year Alliance partnered with Citi on the Citi Service Year Program which offers their first-year analysts an opportunity to defer their full-time job offer to do a service year.
Want to explore the option of building a service year program? Reach out to us at [email protected] to connect with our team to get started.
Offer Discounts & Benefits to Service Year Corps Members and Alums
Though everyone doing a service year receives a modest stipend to meet their basic needs, discounts and benefits help resources last and provide additional value to a service year or to service year corps members as they transition to being an alum.
Does your organization offer a product or service that your would like to offer to service year corps members and alums? Reach out to us at [email protected] to let us know.
Want to learn more?
If you have additional ideas or questions on how employers can be connected to service years, we want to hear from you! Reach out to us:
