Employer supported volunteering for voluntary
organisations –
A Complete Beginners Guide
Introduction
Introduction
This guide has been written to help voluntary sector organisations looking to
set up an employer supported volunteering scheme for their own staff.
Successful employer supported volunteering (ESV) always closely matches
the culture, size and nature of an organisation. Therefore please note that
this guide should be read with a view to adapting its contents to suit your
organisation’s needs and requirements.
It is important that time is allocated to plan your volunteering strategy as with
any other new project. The following 10 steps are recommended to ensure
success:
1. Do your research
2. Secure support across the business
3. Decide on the structure of your programme
4. Write a policy
5. Set objectives
6. Allocate resources
7. Find suitable partners
8. Recruit volunteers
9. Monitor and evaluate
10. Secure positive publicity
NB. This guide has been written for the web, and has many embedded links
to further useful documents to keep this guide at a reasonable length. Please
note if you print this document, you will need to print the links separately.
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1. Do your research
Although most voluntary organisations have limited time and resources, there
are a number of very successful ESV schemes up and running. Voluntary
organisations find that such programmes can be a very effective way to
understand community issues better and support wider outreach. They can
also offer alternative training and development opportunities and demonstrate
that your organisation is a great place to work.
Having an employer supported volunteering scheme for your staff can:
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help capacity build the local voluntary and community sector
enable office staff to get closer to your core service users and clients
develop your employees’ skills and motivation
improve team working and communication across departments
enhance the local public perception of your organisation.
Deciding on the most important factors for your organisation will help define
your strategy. For more information on the business case, visit The business
case for employer supported volunteering
For further information read Employer Supported Volunteering – the guide.
This
publication by Volunteering England will tell you everything you need to know
about employer supported volunteering.
Assess the current situation
It is useful to assess what volunteering is already taking place. Some
departments may already be quietly supporting employer supported
volunteering. This information will help you decide whether to build on
existing activity or to develop completely new programmes. It will also allow
you to monitor the success of your programme at a later date.
Questions to ask include:
 What community activity is already taking place?
 What issues and causes are our staff interested in supporting?
 What skills would our staff like to offer to the community?
 What internal structures can be used (e.g. house magazines, retiree
networks, social clubs, unions)?
 What help is available to establish links with community organisations?
(e.g. brokers).
Surveys that ask for information about employees’ private voluntary activities
rarely go down well. Try alternative ways of gathering information, such as:
 talking to key people such as team managers
 adding a few questions to a more general survey
 asking staff to nominate causes they would like to support.
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2. Secure support across the organisation
The employer supported volunteering programme will need the support of the
whole organisation if it is to succeed.
Senior Management
Senior level support will be needed to agree:
 which organisations to support
 limits for financial contributions and management costs
 how activity will be initiated or managed
 the availability of other resources to help the community such as
facilities, services, furniture and equipment
 how to evaluate the programme against objectives
 the policy for volunteering in work time.
If senior managers can get involved in employee volunteering activities, this
sets an excellent example. Make the business case live with some real
examples of successful employer supported volunteering projects by other
charities.
NB A statement of commitment to employer supported volunteering from your
Chief Executive or Chair will be a powerful endorsement.
Human Resources
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Enlist the help of HR to set up proper policies and procedures.
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Set up a cross-departmental support group within your organisation.
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Develop volunteer projects that utilise the distinctive competencies and
skills of organisation and your staff.
Middle Management
Middle management support is crucial to the success of an employer
supported volunteering programme. Some managers may query the
employer supported volunteering policy.
To overcome this, explain:
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what the programme is and how it will function
how they can support the programme
that there are clear guidelines on such areas as use of facilities and paid
time off.
All other employees
For an employer supported volunteering programme to succeed you will have
to create ways to involve all your staff and enable them to feel ownership of
the programme. They will want to be involved in generating ideas and
organising activities.
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Base all your communications on messages that convey ideas of sharing,
support and partnership. Listen to what your staff say. Which causes do they
want to help? What kind of support do they want? What kind of recognition
would they like? You could think about setting up a steering group where
these ideas and activities can be discussed. If so, you will need to arrange for
training and support, provide a meeting-place, and ensure the group is
encouraged by colleagues. You could also organise a community visit so
staff can see first hand how they can help.
When consulting staff, questions you might want to ask include:
 What sorts of social issues and needs will they be interested in
supporting?
 Are there any issues that staff would prefer not to be associated with?
 What sort of skills could staff contribute?
 Is it possible for staff to take time away from work on a regular basis?
 Would staff be more interested in continuing involvement or a one- off
event?
 Would staff prefer to volunteer at a place near to home or to work and
do they have access to transport if there is a distance factor?
 Would staff prefer to be involved in team or individual activities?
Unions
Unions are generally in favour of volunteering. However, it is wise to consult
your union representatives when shaping your policy, to get their full backing
and support.
The aim is to show that the programme is employee-led and employersupported.
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3. Decide on the structure of your programme
From your enquiries on what volunteering is already taking place you will be
best able to decide how to proceed.
Ways to support existing activities are:
Recruit and support volunteer co-ordinators. Volunteer co-ordinators
often are part of a larger committee and can link up volunteering
activity across the company to provide maximum benefit to the
employer and the community organisation which is receiving the
volunteers. This role also provides development opportunities in
managing resources, organisation, and leadership and communication.
Set up a Time Bank to allow employees to take work time for employer
supported volunteering that can only take place during working hours.
The fact that the employer is prepared to donate work time for this is a
strong indicator of its commitment to volunteering.
For additional information go to Key issues/paid time off
Alternatively, your organisation may wish to not organise any employer
supported volunteering activities, but allow staff to choose what they
would like to volunteer for under the scheme.
4. Write a policy
However you choose to organise and support your staff via employer
supported volunteering, you will need to write a policy.
A written employer supported volunteering policy has several benefits,
including:
 demonstrating that the employee volunteering programme has the support
of the Board/management committee and senior management and that the
programme is taken seriously
 ensuring everyone knows the procedures involved
 promoting the programme.
A good employer supported volunteering policy will aim to meet the needs of
both your organisation and organisations you are working with.
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It may include:
a brief statement of commitment on employer supported volunteering and
the reasons for that commitment guidelines on paid time off for community involvement For more information visit:
Key issues/Paid time off
a statement on how projects are to be chosen and the level of employee
involvement in this For more information visit:
Key issuesHow projects are chosen
guidelines on insurance and health & safety For more information visit:
Health & safety
a short statement recognising the value of the voluntary activity
undertaken by employees as private individuals, which may be in addition
to or instead of participation in the structured programme.
For more information visit:
Support for employees who already volunteer
5. Set objectives
Consider how the programme will help to meet your organisation’s
strategic/business goals/objectives. You may also need to consider the
objectives of any community partner you will be working with.
It is useful to set objectives that relate to the impact you want the employer
supported volunteering programme to have, such as:
 helping staff development
improving employee morale
increasing staff retention
For more information visit:
The human resource benefits of employer supported volunteering
You may also want to talk to other similar organisations that have already set
up an employer supported volunteering programme.
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6. Allocate resources
Employer supported volunteering programmes bring a lot of benefits, but
they’re not free. For your programme to succeed, there will need to be a
member of staff responsible for making it happen. Or you might want to set
up a committee to run the programme.
Using financial resources for volunteering may at first seem problematic. By
using budgets creatively - training budgets, for example - funds should be
able to be found to cover costs.
7. Find suitable partners
Existing relationships in the community
Think about your existing relationship with the local voluntary sector. Other
voluntary organisations may be willing to build a closer relationship with you
and share ideas for employer supported volunteering activities.
Questions to think about when looking for suitable partners are:
 Are we aware of what's going on in our local communities?
 Are we looking for a unique relationship with a community
organisation?
 Does the organisation have the potential and capacity to involve us?
 Can the organisation identify areas where our staff can bring benefits
such as skills, practical help, financial advice, project management,
strategic management, research and development, personnel
consultancy?
 Are there organisations that can help us find a match, such as a local
broker?
 Does the organisation already involve volunteers successfully and is it
experienced in risk assessment? For more information visit:
Health & safety
Using brokers
You may know of a local broker, such as a Volunteer Centre or Council for
Voluntary Service. Volunteer Centres are increasing their knowledge and
capacity to broker employer supported volunteering as the demand from
companies is increasing rapidly.
For more information go to our Brokers section
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8. Recruit volunteers
By far the best way of recruiting volunteers is by word of mouth. Recruit
‘employee volunteering champions’ to spread the message to their peers.
Include profiles of employee volunteers in the staff magazine.
Recruitment tips
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Ensure that potential volunteers know what support is offered and whom
they can contact to find out more, or to suggest ideas
Ensure that the person responsible for the programme is receptive to what
people are saying and that they easy to reach
Try and ensure the volunteering opportunities are attractive and varied
Explain exactly how the volunteers will make a difference
Spell out what your organisation is contributing
Make it sound fun!
For more information visit:
External and internal communication/Internal communication
Remember: if you have involved staff all the way through the conception of
the scheme, recruitment will be much easier.
Recognise your volunteers
Recognising and publicising the contribution that employee volunteers make
will demonstrate to your staff that their efforts are appreciated - and will also
help to recruit more volunteers.
Ways of recognising employee volunteers include:
 internal award schemes For more information visit: Recognition/Internal awards schemes
 parties
 articles in newsletters and magazines
 a personal thank you letter from the chair or chief executive
 presentation of certificates by your community partner.
Volunteers Week, run by Volunteering England provides an excellent vehicle
for recognising your volunteers through certificates, parties and other events.
For more information go to www.volunteersweek.org.uk/
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9. Monitor and evaluate
Evaluation of the programme is vital and should be used both to inform your
current programme and to stimulate feedback about its future direction. And,
perhaps most importantly, you may have the go-ahead for now, but in future
there may be changes at the top of your organisation that may reduce backing
for the programme. So you must continually monitor and evaluate its impact to
ensure long-term success.
Questions to ask
Most of the benefits of employer supported volunteering programmes are
qualitative, so you will need to ask a variety of questions to help you evaluate
its success. Consider the results for everyone involved: your organisation, the
employee volunteers, your partner organisation and the wider community.
The effect on your organisation:
 Was the volunteering enjoyable, and did it raise morale?
 Did it improve internal communications and teamwork?
 Did it enhance your employees’ skills?
The effect on the employee volunteers
 Have they volunteered before?
 Did they think this volunteering was well-organised?
 Will they continue to volunteer? If not, why not?
 Did they feel their volunteering activity provided them with new challenges
or developed new skills?
 Did they find it worthwhile?
 Did they enjoy it?
The effect on your partner organisation
You will of course need to liaise over this with your partner organisation, but
your questions could include:
 Did the end result match the original aim of the project?
 How well-received was it?
 How well did your partnership work on a practical level?
 Were there any problems, and how were they dealt with?
 How can you build on what has been achieved so far?
 What were the measurable impacts on society, either to the end-users of
the service, or to the wider community?
Methods to use
Some of your aims may have been quantitative - e.g., you might have wanted
to involve a minimum of 10 per cent of all staff - and these are easy to
evaluate if you have kept good records. Qualitative benefits are more difficult
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to assess. You could try using one or more of the following methods:
 questionnaires or surveys
 asking for reports
 telephone conversations with participants
 interviews
 focus groups
 written records.
The key factors in evaluation
 State clearly in advance what all the groups involved expect to gain from
the project or programme.
 Stay in touch with, and seek information from, all the stakeholders in the
programme.
 Set up record-keeping procedures to gather and store the information you
need as you go along.
 Plan the evaluation, and the data you will need to collect, before the
programme begins or as soon as possible after it starts.
For more information visit: Resources/Evaluation
10. Securing positive publicity
You will need to decide whether you wish to publicise your employer
supported volunteering activities. This can take several forms:
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Part of your annual report For more information go to: PR
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Press releases Radio and television coverage
Publicising employer supported volunteering externally needs to be handled
carefully as if there is a suspicion by staff and community groups that the
main focus of your programme is to generate positive publicity, this could
backfire. Furthermore, you will need to take into account any wider issues
within your organisation when seeking to publicise your employer supported
volunteering, which could damage your programme, such as redundancies,
poor financial performance, poor environmental performance and so on.
Finally, volunteering should be rewarding for all those who take part. Ensure
that fun, worthwhile activity, appreciation and recognition are at the core of
your programme.
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Appendix
Eight approaches to employer supported volunteering
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‘Charity of the Year’ programmes.
Your company commits to supporting a range of volunteering activities, focusing on a specific
organisation. This enables you to build long-term relationships with a charity. Care needs to
be taken to ensure that this is not seen as top-down choice, contrary to the employee-led
principle. Some flexibility and resource should be kept to one side to allow for requests from
smaller charities with immediate and one-off requests for assistance.
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Fundraising
Employees can be supported in their fundraising activities by offering practical resources such as
meeting rooms, telephones, photocopying and by offering to match the amount they raise (often with a
stated maximum).
The Charities Aid Foundation can help with the financial side of this - www.cafonline.org
You can also try www.fundraising.co.uk
 One-off ‘challenge’ events.
A 'challenge' is a task, usually practical, set by local community organisations e.g. painting a
hall, clearing a river, building a dry stone wall, creating a children's playground, giving a
Christmas party. Challenges can provide a good ‘taster’ for those new to volunteering and
brings practical resources to community organisations. Challenges are excellent for
teambuilding and motivation.
Challenges do require careful planning and managing to avoid problems such as:
 too many people with not enough to do
 people not turning up
 accidents.
For more information on health and safety go to Health and Safety
Challenges can be difficult to translate into a sustainable programme after the first rush of
enthusiasm. It is important that information is provided on the day on how employees can
continue volunteering.
For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/community challenges
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Mentoring schemes
Mentoring provides the opportunity to develop the interpersonal skills of coaching, listening
and motivation through one-on-one relationships.
For example, employees can be partnered with:
 secondary school pupils to help provide positive role models, advise on career
aspirations, provide an insight into the world of work
 young homeless or unemployed people to assist them to acquire skills and join the
job market
 primary school pupils to improve reading, maths and IT skills
 staff at various levels in the voluntary sector to transfer skills and experience
 business start-ups e.g. through the Princes Trust
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Mentoring is highly motivational because its positive effects on the mentee are very visible.
Mentors do need training before they start, including on any cultural differences between
themselves and the mentor, and issues such as confidentiality.
For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/mentoring
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Virtual Volunteering
This approach enables volunteers to work at their desk on behalf of groups in the UK,
overseas and on the web. Examples: web research; email mentoring or ‘listening’ chat room
or newsgroup supervision. Virtual volunteering is helpful if volunteers have limited time as
they can keep in touch via email or phone. However, the lack of face to face contact may not
motivate the volunteer.
For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/virtual volunteering
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Board membership
Volunteers can serve on school boards or on the management committees of voluntary or
public sector organisations. This enables them to experience the strategic management of a
whole organisation. Board membership offers high community visibility and gives good
experience in management, decision-making and developing strategies and policy. Board
membership usually requires a minimum one year time commitment and effects can take a
long time to show due to long intervals between meetings.
For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/School governors and board members
 Using professional skills
Using your professional skills to assist voluntary and other organisations such as small
businesses can be particularly rewarding.
One example is the Business in the Community project ProHelp, which is a national network
of professional firms who give their time for free to voluntary and community groups.
For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/offering your professional skills
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Development assignments
These are short placements in community organisations for either individuals or teams.
Projects are clearly defined and meet the development needs of the employee or team usually focusing on the skills of project management, confidence, negotiation and
communication. Development assignments are a proven vehicle for improving skills and
teambuilding. They should be tightly structured to enables clear targets to be set and
measured. However, care needs to be taken that participation in the scheme remains
voluntary.
For more information on secondments and development assignments go to
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/secondments and development assignments
The ‘Eight approaches’ has been adapted from a publication by Business in
the Community, www.bitc.org.uk.
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