Twelve ideas to make volunteering work for your organisation

1. Find your 'thing'

There are so many ways your organisation and people can get involved in volunteering. It’s all about finding out what works for you.

Some examples of volunteering include:

• sharing skills and advice on an ongoing basis, for example as a charity trustee
• providing specialist skills for projects, such as giving marketing or IT help or training charities
• arranging team challenges such as conservation work or community clean-ups
• offering your skills and labour to charity beneficiaries such as mentoring, business advice or even helping in food banks and kitchens
• getting together with colleagues to take part in group fund-raising activities such as running or cycling trips.

2. Align your interests

When designing your volunteering programme, it helps to understand what charities and causes your colleagues are already involved with and enjoy supporting.

This gives you the opportunity to build on existing relationships and create early engagement around your programme.

You should also think about your organisation's core functions, mission and purpose and think about the causes that might fit naturally and strategically with these. Try to work with causes that align closely with what your organisation is trying to achieve.

Aligning your interests helps you to concentrate your volunteering and charitable donations more strategically and has a greater impact on particular causes.

3. Time off (for good behaviour)

More and more people are looking to work for organisations that allow paid time off to volunteer.

Recent research by Perkbox (2019) found that one third of new job hunters see helping the local community as a key ingredient in an organisation's corporate social responsibility programme.

Volunteering is shown to help engage and retain talented employees, build teams, boost culture and improve engagement with customers and communities.

Giving paid time off to volunteer makes it easier to participate. It will also help your company differentiate itself and attract talent, strengthen teams and promote a happier and more engaged workplace.

The research by Perkbox (2019) also found that - amongst companies that offer paid volunteering - 40% allow one day and a further 25% provide two days each year.

4. Make it easy, accessible and engaging

Make your volunteering programme easy and accessible by considering how best to make it fit with work and life commitments.

For example, having a series of micro volunteering or bite-sized volunteering activities will help engage those time poor volunteers.

You can keep it close by supporting local causes to engage with your community which makes it easier for your team to participate. Keep your colleagues engaged with a balanced approach, giving both the space and encouragement to pursue volunteering activities that are personal to them along with organisation-led opportunities more aligned to strategic business activities.

5. Create a policy

To make sure that everyone is clear about expectations, organisations should always write a volunteering policy. This might include:

• the organisation's commitment to volunteering
• whether support is limited to the official programme or if it includes personal volunteering by employees
• how much paid volunteering time the organisation is committing to, the financial details and guidance on any rules concerning taking leave
• clarity on any financial support provided and use of office materials and facilities
• guidance on how to book volunteering time off and how this is recorded by line managers
• details of insurance and what this covers in respect to the volunteering activities
• details of requirements for health and safety training and risk assessments which might be required for volunteering
• procedures for acquiring any training required by volunteers prior to activities.

6. Set a budget

There will be costs involved in running your volunteering programme. So you will need to think carefully and set a realistic budget.

Costs involved are likely to include:

• the time to coordinate, measure and report organisation wide volunteering activities
• transporting people to volunteering locations
• charity contributions – as many charities charge a per person fee for administering and arranging corporate team events
• ad-hoc expenses such as additional equipment requirements, catering costs or corporately branded clothing.

7. Keep people safe

Every organisation should check its insurance policies to make sure that its people are covered whilst volunteering outside of the workplace.

You should also check the insurance levels and cover provided by the charity or organisation hosting the volunteering.

Ideally the recipient charity should provide a full health and safety briefing before volunteers start and make sure that volunteers are properly trained on any equipment which may be used.

Depending on the nature of the project and the numbers of volunteers taking part, you may also want to ask the charity to provide a risk assessment for your workforce.

8. Boost engagement

Try to increase internal engagement in your volunteering programme to highlight the benefits and then embed it within your organisation.

You could do this by:

• seeking out colleagues who are enthusiastic about volunteering and empowering them to act as champions, advisors and advocates for your volunteering programme
• leading by example by involving senior management as volunteers and in supporting company recognition schemes
• formally or informally recognising your volunteers' contributions in a way which works for your organisation
• supporting and encouraging volunteering, by contributing monetary donations to the charities your people choose to support.

9. Inspire stakeholders

Volunteering can also bring powerful benefits including enhanced customer and supplier interaction and loyalty. So maximise opportunities to involve your other stakeholders such as suppliers and customers.

You might also want to see if your colleagues are interested in supporting your customers and suppliers' volunteering activities.

10. Join forces

If you have a smaller team or want to network with and meet other local businesses then multi-organisational volunteering days could be for you.

These normally involve multiple businesses each nominating one or more colleagues to join a bigger local volunteering day.

Even the smallest of businesses can join in and make a difference to its community.

11. Measure your impact

Organisations can really benefit from tracking their volunteering efforts and assessing their impact. Avoid measuring any individual-led activities and focus on those in your organisation-led scheme.

Benefits of monitoring and reviewing your programme include:

• showcasing the progress of your programme and inspiring greater participation
• improving the impact your organisation is having on the outside world
• contributing to internal workforce recognition schemes
• contributing to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting
• assessing changes in the external perception of the organisation.

12. Tell the world

One great by-product of your volunteering programme is that it can help to improve your reputation and profile, both locally and within your sector.

Take the time to communicate your activities with colleagues and customers.

You could share your positive community impact by creating a short case study to showcase each organisational volunteering activity. Bring it to life with photos and videos and share internally and externally. You could even share it with local and trade newspapers or magazines.

Zellar

This article was written by Zellar, a community of people who are passionate about supporting UK businesses becoming more sustainable.

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