Re: Mentors: How does your company support you?
 

I can't thank you all enough for your participation in this thread. I've summarized what I have heard here and other interviews I've conducted. It is my hope that this reference can be helpful to mentors working with their companies looking to boost participation in FIRST and organizations like this.

I appreciate all the sentiments regarding volunteering being it's own reward and I agree with them. However, there are companies (and teams) looking to increase participation in programs like these and are looking for the best ways to help encourage the participation of qualified people and steer them towards these types of deserving activities. By summarizing and documenting what is happening in the community I hope to offer some level setting for companies looking to put programs in place to help remove barriers to participation.

Here is my summary of what I'm reading the responses above and what I have heard in my other interviews.

I divided the Support into the following categories: (The percentages won't add up because some companies offer more than one type of support.)

No Support (20%)
(Interesting thing here is that the sentiment is almost that the employer is working against the mentor rather than just not supporting them.)

Indirect or Informal Support (30%)
This includes supportive managers and flexible scheduling.

Support through recognition (10%)
Awards, pins, company newsletter articles.

Support through company assets (20%)
Donation of shop time, administrative help, copying, meeting space etc.

Support through financial donation (25%)
Direct financial support of team or regional.

Support through Employee compensation or Reimbursement (44%)
Includes bonuses, paid days off, travel, lodging, payroll account charge for volunteer hours.

20% of companies have a volunteer hour tracking that may or may not offer incentives based on set milestones.

I'm still working on a complete report for my company, but I hope this will help summarize what was posted here and give a reasonable reference source for everyone.

Good luck at Regionals!

Thank you,

Re: Mentors: How does your company support you?
 

The Company I just started working for is very flexible with days and they are giving me the days off for regionals and not taking away vacations days.