Employee Group Volunteering
Task and Finish Group Notes
4 Dec 2008
Attendees:
Emma Hilton (Personnel & Staff Development)
Rory Cunningham (Academic Services)
Heidi Hallam (Communication & Partnership)
Tash Khan-Davis (Personnel & Staff Development)
Nick Birkbeck (UCU Representative)
Sue Frankling (Amicus Representative)
Apologies:
Andrew Johnson (Personnel)
Gareth Oughton (Student Guild)
Catriona Bell (UECC)
Introduction


The current Strategic Plan links Group Volunteering with the University’s
Corporate Social Responsibility.
A series of Employee Benefit Focus Groups took place in April 08 with staff
across all campuses. Volunteering was a benefit that staff thought would be
beneficial to both individuals and the University.
Terms of Reference

The Group is to look at Group Volunteering and not ‘individual’ volunteering.
Group volunteering can have maximum impact for the University’s corporate
social responsibility and can also be linked to PDR’s. (It was noted that not
everyone on the group felt it should be limited to just Group Volunteering
events but there should be a policy in place for individual volunteering as
well). At the present time the Terms of Reference will remain unchanged and
only Group Volunteering will be considered as these are the parameters that
have been agreed by VCEG.
Employee Volunteering and Corporate Social Responsibility






Definition of Corporate Responsibility or Corporate Social Responsibility from
Wikopedia. Main points – University’s responsibilities to the surrounding
community and the impact of these responsibilities.
Student Volunteer scheme ‘Community Action’, one of the most successful in
the country.
The University is completing a HEFCE benchmark survey and also is
benchmarking itself with businesses in the local community.
Volunteering is directly linked to Corporate Responsibility. Having a
Volunteering Policy in place can assist with promoting the University as an
Employer of Choice.
It was recommended that Group Volunteering should not just be restricted to
working / department teams but encourage cross –university networking.
Information on policy, guidelines, process etc have to be in the public domain
– any stakeholder’s need to have access to the information and so the
University needs to ensure that information is not confidentially sensitive.
Employee volunteering and Learning and Development

Away days concentrate on team building as well as priorities for the future. If
Group Volunteering was promoted as a team building event, then there would
still be a need for Away Days.



Team building concentrates on relationships, communication, morale and
team dynamics. People learn about other team members and team building
gives staff the opportunity to play different roles, find out about others skills,
project manage, and improve relationships. Current spend is £300 - £700 on
team building days.
It was suggested that Team Challenges should not be restricted to existing
teams but could be used to promote cross university volunteering and/or
cross campus volunteering.
Activities need to be tailored to the group carrying them out.
Other issues / comments








Staff Learning and Development would be able to assist with the planning
required prior to the event.
Some challenges may require staff to be CRB checked – it was suggested
that the Group discuss this with Community Action for their advice.
There could be a ‘Theme of the Year’ to maximise impact and if so, those
external stakeholders / businesses that had similar interests could be buddied
up with.
It was suggested that a survey be sent out to all staff asking if they currently
carry out any volunteering (including voluntary committees at the University)
so that this can provide data to assist with how to take the Group
Volunteering scheme forward and where interests lie. A discussion was had
on the benefits of surveying staff as not all the Group thought that this would
be appropriate at the present time.
It was agreed that the Group needs to be sensitive to volunteering that is
currently happening, outside of work time, and recognise this involvement in a
positive way.
It was strongly agreed that there needs to be buy in from Schools / Services
in order to offer resource and be prepared to release staff for team
challenges. The policy in place needs to ensure that the scheme does not
become exclusive – only available to certain staff. What right does an
employee have if the Head of School / Service does not support the Team
Challenge? Is the scheme going to be manager or employee driven?
Group Volunteering would impact on a positive level to Investors in People.
It was decided to carry over a further discussion on budget to the next
meeting.
Actions
Invite EDF Energy to the next meeting to discuss their Group
Volunteering Scheme
After discussions with key people regarding a survey and
after taking advice from EDF it has been decided that a
survey will not take place as this may promote the wrong
expectations to staff and also there are questions over how
we would use the data that is collected.
Report back to the group on best practice within other Higher
Education Institutions.
Date of next meeting: end Feb 09
Exact date, location & agenda to be confirmed asap.
Tash Khan-Davis
No Action
Emma Hilton