Students who apply for summer internships at Bankers Trust Co. not only need solid resumes, but a willingness to volunteer in the community.

About five years ago, Bankers Trust added a community service component to its internship program, according to Renee Hardman, the bank’s senior vice president of human resources. Under the program, interns are required to create a volunteer project that they will carry out over the summer. Last week, Bankers Trust’s 10 interns spent time at the Ronald McDonald House doing various cleanup tasks and serving a meal to the families staying there.

Hardman said company President and CEO J. Michael Earley talks to new hires during employee orientation about the importance of being active in the community. Employees take Earley’s message to heart, Hardman said. In 2005, Bankers Trust’s 350 employees logged volunteer hours with 321 local non-profit organizations.

“We are a community bank, and so we need to be a part of the community,” Hardman said. “Of course, we believe there’s a personal reward in giving back to your community, but number two, you have the opportunity to learn great leadership skills and nurture relationships that can be beneficial down the road.”

Bankers Trust is one of a growing number of companies across the country that have boosted their efforts in recent years to promote volunteerism among employees. According to a report last year from the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College, 68 percent of companies have increased investment in corporate citizenship over the past two years.

Local companies such as Bankers Trust, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Principal Financial Group Inc. have found that employees who volunteer often perform better in the workplace as well, making corporate volunteer programs good for business and for the community. According to Laura Dunn of Principal’s media relations department, employees who volunteer gain leadership ability and specialized skills, get to know the community better, learn something about themselves and their capabilities and feel better about themselves, all of which can translate to how they do their jobs.

Principal’s Volunteer Network is in its 34th year, making it one of the longest-standing programs of its kind in the area. Each year, the company offers employees up to eight hours of paid time off to do volunteer work of their choice, in addition to a half-day off during United Way of Central Iowa’s annual Day of Caring. Other companies have added their programs to encourage volunteerism more recently.

Wellmark launched its BluesCare Volunteer Program five years ago, according to Andrea Smith, a senior communications consultant in community relations for the company. It offers up to three days of paid time off for employees to volunteer during the workday for health-related charities or to participate in an activity that addresses health issues. About 15 percent of Wellmark’s 1,700 employees took advantage of the time off for volunteering last year.

On June 1, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., the parent company of Des Moines-based Allied Insurance, launched the On Your Side Volunteer Network with a searchable database of volunteer opportunities in the community. Through Nationwide’s program, employees earn up to two days off per calendar year based on their service work in the community. It takes 25 hours of volunteering, or the donation of two pints of blood, to earn a full day of paid time off. Also, anyone who volunteers for an organization for 25 hours during a year can submit a form to have a $100 grant made in his or her name to that organization.

Allied commercial underwriter Tracy L. Robinson started logging her volunteer time after learning out about the grant opportunity. She serves as a board member and volunteer with Children and Family Urban Ministries.

“I wasn’t going to report my volunteer hours because I didn’t really need the time off, but when I found out that the organizations where we volunteer can get money based on how much time you volunteer, I wanted to do it,” Robinson said.

Robinson’s motivation for volunteering comes from her family history. Knowing that her father faced many challenges on his road to success, she started volunteering as a young adult in hopes of improving the lives of others. She was already doing volunteer work before Allied introduced its program, but for other people, the incentives offered by a company become motivation to get more involved in the community.

Shirley Burgess, the volunteer engagement director for United Way of Central Iowa, says corporate volunteer programs are a great way to capture the interest of new volunteers. She sees an increase today in skill-based volunteering, in which people are honing their professional skills through their volunteer efforts.

“A company might encourage an employee to get involved with a non-profit as a way to do some good for the community and develop particular skill sets,” Burgess said. “For someone in sales working to refine their delivery of a presentation, they might join a speakers bureau for an organization to get more experience.”

Wellmark’s Smith said her company works to place its management-level employees on the boards of directors of non-profit organizations both as a way to give back to the community and as a way to use their leadership skills outside the workplace.

“Employees want to feel like they have an outlet for some of their talents, and it’s also a nice professional development opportunity if they really get engaged as a board member,” Smith said.

When companies place such a strong emphasis on community involvement, hiring managers take notice of job candidates with volunteer experience. If two prospective employees are equally qualified for a job based on work experience, an applicant’s history of community service could tip the scales in his or her favor, according to Hardman from Bankers Trust.

“We are very interested in hiring people who are well-rounded,” Hardman said. “A history of volunteerism would indicate to me that the person has interests aside from themselves.”

“It takes energy to get up off the couch and commit your time to an organization,” making volunteer experience a sign of a person’s level of motivation, said United Way’s Burgess.

Likewise, companies that demonstrate sound corporate citizenship are more likely to attract and retain employees who are passionate about community involvement. Robinson said she applied to work at Allied based on what she had read online about the company’s commitment to community involvement. She felt that it was so important to work for a company whose goals were closely aligned with her own that she moved to Des Moines last October from North Carolina to work for Allied.

“I interview a company when it comes to choosing a place to work,” Robinson said. “With Allied, it’s nice to know that my supervisor is going to understand if I have to miss a little work on occasion because of my volunteer duties. I don’t have to have the stress of worrying about how to split my time between the two.”