Giving your employees the opportunity to volunteer is good for them, good for business and good for your community. It boosts mental health, promotes well being, provides the perfect opportunity to enhance personal and professional development and makes an enormous contribution to the community you are working in.

A study from Deloitte shows that volunteering not only helps others but improves morale in the workplace, promotes a better brand perception and can attract and retain the best talent who want to feel that their work environment is a caring one.  Research by Legal and General, states that during the pandemic the number of volunteers has soared, with 1 in 5 adults volunteering their time for community activities since the start of the first lockdown. It makes good business sense to capitalise on the additional skills and experiences your employees have gained by volunteering and to give them the opportunity to continue to pursue these new interests.

People who volunteer through work are twice as likely to rate the business culture as positive, be satisfied with career progression and happy with their employer. They also feel loyal and proud to work for the company.

Volunteering is an essential pillar of any CSR strategy. There is an increasing number of companies that promote ‘Employer Supported Volunteering’ whereby they allow staff to take a day or two to take paid time off to contribute to a charity in their local or wider community.  Some allow employees to pursue their own interests with their own favourite causes, recognising that this gives them to opportunity to learn new or build on existing skills in a completely different environment. For many charities, the opportunity to tap into the knowledge, experience, qualifications and training that they wouldn’t normally be able to afford is invaluable. Other companies prefer to be more structured about their employee’s volunteer time, seeing it as a great opportunity to do some rewarding team building activities or a chance to use their team’s skills to provide a pro-bono piece of work that the charity wouldn’t otherwise be able to undertake [for example developing a marketing campaign, taking on a research project or even helping a charity to shape its HR policies if the charity has a skills gap.]

However you decide to structure your Employee Supported Volunteering, make sure you fully understand the rewards that can be reaped from giving your employees the opportunity to support your local community. Be clear about why you are granting staff time off during working hours and whether you have any expectations around feedback or sharing experiences with colleagues or your wider networks.

At the Youth Adventure Trust, our volunteers are essential to the success of our Programme.  They regularly tell us about the difference their experience has made to their professional lives as they benefit from things like improved leadership skills, better communication, the ability to think more creatively, more able to cope in challenging situations and increased empathy with others, to name but a few.

Donna, a volunteer for the Youth Adventure Trust, shares the 7 ways her volunteering has benefitted her work life:

1. You gain a huge amount of behavioural psychology insight around why people behave as they do and how you can best help them overcome their challenge.
2. Your times away at camp are so full of fun and activity that your brain has a complete switch off and you go back to the office revitalised.
3. You see first-hand how acceptance and praise are the key to getting the best out of people – hard to remember sometimes when you are under pressure to deliver performance.
4. You refresh the importance of aim setting and reflection in your mind.
5. You feel good about achieving something amazing and go back to the office on a high, positively impacting your work performance and the morale of those around you.
6. You get to inspire the next generation – who knows, they may end up in your team.
7. You push yourself out of your comfort zone and feel the reward. We all avoid doing this in our working lives and it’s a reminder of what you, and your team, can achieve if you do.

It is up to employers to create a culture that promotes and celebrates volunteering.  They can do this by providing more opportunities and dedicated volunteer days . But don’t just offer this for the sake of it – promote the opportunities available to your employees and really highlight the impact your staff team will be having in the community where they live and work.  Not only will your company stand out against the competition but your employees will be happier, more motivated and have an increased sense of good mental wellbeing.

At the Youth Adventure Trust we have several different volunteering roles available including working directly with young people, helping on our fundraising challenge events and providing specialist skills. To find out more about how you can volunteer at the Youth Adventure Trust, visit www.youthadventuretrust.org.uk/volunteer or contact Philippa Cox on philippa@youthadventuretrust.org.uk.