Employers and ESV: Finding volunteering opportunities

Finding volunteering opportunities can be time consuming and without good knowledge of local groups and issues, it can be difficult to identify suitable groups and activities for your employee volunteers. There may be thousands of charities and community groups operating in your local area. Almost all of them will involve volunteers, so there should be plenty of options. However, employers report that one of the biggest barriers for their ESV programmes is finding volunteering opportunities.

There are a number of routes to consider including established programmes, outsourcing and brokerage.

Enabling employees to find their own volunteering opportunities

Employee led volunteering ensures choice and commitment. One retailer found that by asking their store employees to choose their local charity, employee fundraising and volunteering increased tenfold compared to a centrally chosen charity.

This is also an efficient use of organisation resource and can provide opportunities for skills development and aligning to business priorities if defined as part of the policy.

However, employees not already engaged in volunteering will need some information, inspiration and support to find volunteering opportunities. This could be as simple as signposting to helpful websites and a local Volunteer Centres. Large, multi site employers may prefer to develop a comprehensive intranet site and syndicate content from YouthNet.

Team challenge activities

It would be naïve to imagine that many charities are able to arrange an event or activity for large numbers of people, particularly at short notice. However, some do need groups at particular times and have developed special programmes for employee volunteers.

Team challenges can be excellent for team building and for introducing those new to volunteering.

To find details of these organisations, visit the employee volunteering section of Do-it or approach a broker.

Developing partnerships with community organisations

Establishing an ongoing relationship with a community partner can deliver a stream of volunteering opportunities designed to meet needs of different levels of staff, aligned to business priorities and employee development needs. Successful partnerships benefit both parties and can last for many years.

The initial time and costs spent identifying the correct partners can be considerable but are certainly worthwhile. Partnerships are accepted to provide the greatest benefit to the employer and the community organisation.

For large, multi site employers, a partnership with a national community group can be attractive. Employers keen to reach smaller community organisations doing innovative work locally should consider searching accredited groups on the Investing in Volunteers website or contacting a broker.

Outsourcing and brokerage

80% of large companies and 50% of small companies find it useful to get outside help with finding volunteering opportunities for their employees[1].

There is a wide range of brokers offering national, regional or sector specific support. Brokers have knowledge and experience of local community organisations and are able to help make a successful match as well as organising the activity and doing risk assessments and training.]

There is usually a charge for the service but this is usually less than other activities such as training and motivation events.