VIOs and ESV: Managing an ESV programme

1. Volunteering opportunities for employers

2. Volunteering in key themes

3. Gaining support from employers and employees

4. Recognising employees

5. Increasing participation

6. Measuring Impact

7. Creating successful partnerships

Volunteering opportunities for employers

Successful ESV meets the needs of both the employer and community organisation. It follows that the volunteering opportunities provided to individual community volunteers may need to be adapted for employer supported volunteers. For example to accommodate volunteer leave, some activities could be provided in a day. Some volunteering opportunities may be created especially for employer supported volunteers, using the opportunity of skilled volunteers to extend and enhance the service. For example, employability workshops or business mentoring.

A well developed ESV programme provides a range of volunteering opportunities to appeal to employees with different interests and for different levels of employees to develop skills and experiences. Evidence shows that many employers start with team events but that as they develop, increasingly seek skills development opportunities.

Team challenge

A team challenge is a one off group activity.  Usually a practical task e.g. painting, clearing a river, or creating a school garden. Team challenges are excellent for employee teambuilding and can be a good introduction for those new to volunteering. However, the work required by the community organisation to host an event of this type can outweigh the benefits.

Partnerships

A series of volunteering activities developed in partnership with an employer such as an employer taskforce carrying out ongoing maintenance of a hospice garden. The partnership is a platform to extend the relationship into other areas such as in kind giving new areas of volunteering and including the community group in the supply chain.

There are upfront costs and time involved in identifying the correct partners but it’s accepted that this delivers greater results (for the employer and the community organisations) and is more cost effective.

Charity of the Year

Employees commit to supporting a single charity, involving a range of volunteering and fundraising opportunities. This enables a long term partnership to be integrated throughout the organisations.

Individual volunteering

Individual employees choose their own volunteering activity and carry it out either in their own time or using their volunteering leave provided by their employer.  Employers may provide some guidelines within their policy and support the employer with volunteer leave etc, but the choice of activity is employee led.

Virtual volunteering

Virtual volunteering describes activities carried out by a volunteer at their desk and includes sending campaign letters to their MP, online mentoring, web research etc. This type of activity is attractive to volunteers with limited time and can be used to support activities anywhere in the world.

Pro bono

Using professional skills such as legal, accounting and marketing expertise to support community organisations is a great way to provide valuable services and impact that could not otherwise be afforded. Many employees and retirees enjoy using their skills in a different and stimulating environment.

Skills based volunteering

Skills development can take place in a wide range of scenarios including practical challenges, individual volunteering etc. The characteristics of this type of volunteering are that they meet an identified skills development need of the employee. HR and training professionals report that leadership skills are often expensive and difficult training to provide in the workplace and that volunteering can provide these in a different environment.

Below is a sample of how one employer summarises the skills development provided to employees through a range of volunteering opportunities.

Project	Description	Eligibility	Competency	Skill Development Opportunities
Secondary school student mentoring	Volunteers from business provide mentoring support to students in inner city schools	All employees	Communication, Develops others, strategic thinking, team work, professional behaviour	Facilitation, coaching, innovation, team development , role model behaviour
Head teacher partnerships	Volunteers from business provide mentoring support to head teachers of inner city schools	Partners and principals	Client relationship, developing others, strategic thinking, Leadership.	Courageous conversations, empowering skills, vision generation and articulation, motivation, emotional intelligence, role model behaviour
Arts and Business	Non executive membership of the board of an arts organisation	Middle Management and above	Client relationship, business development, communication, decision making, strategic thinking, teamwork, professional behaviour	Interpersonal skills, integrity, adaptability, credibility, problem definition, decision making, business planning, risk management, conflict management, flexibility, team work, ethical behaviour
Employability	Delivering employability skills workshops	All employees	Communication, Industry knowledge, teamwork, professional behaviour	Presentation skills, facilitation skills,market knowledge, business acumen, flexibility, teamwork, role model behaviour

 

Volunteering in key themes

There is a growing trend for employers to support a small number of priority themes such as employability, education and tackling deprivation. These will be specific to the organisation and reflect their CSR policy and sector.

Most employers, especially larger employers, include their CSR policy on their website making it easy to quickly find what themes they support and identify employers that share your aims.

Gaining support from the employer and employees

Gaining the support of the employer to undertake a team challenge or some form of volunteering partnership is an important first step in developing a relationship with them.

However, volunteering is a personal choice for each employee so you will also need to plan how you will engage employees. Develop a plan with the employer to make use of appropriate channels to reach their employees. Consider:

• Holding an open day for employees to visit your projects to understand what impact they have and roles they could consider.
• Attending an event at the employers location to exhibit information and meet and greet.
• Provide articles for the in house newsletter/intranet including case studies of their colleagues activities.
• Make a range of volunteering opportunities easily available on the volunteering system used by the employer.
• Be proactive. Develop some “taster” activities for groups for key dates such as Volunteers’ Week, Give and Gain Day or the employers’ community day.
• Ensure that representatives from HR, CSR and Marketing are kept up to date with regular communications.
• Encourage engagement at a senior level to help promote the partnership.

Recognising employees

Recognising the efforts of employees is important to let them know their efforts are appreciated and to inspire others to take part. Some tried and tested methods include:

 

• A personal letter of thanks
• Spend a tea break at the end of an activity in a group chat. Let them know how their work has made a difference and what your future plans and aims are.

 

• Support with press articles such as providing photos and quotes
• presentation of certificates
• Involve them in your plans for Volunteers’ Week which is the nation campaign to celebrate and recognise volunteers.

Developing the relationship

The number of employees taking part in ESV programmes varies by sector, from just 1% up to 40%. As an average, approximately 15% participate, based on the 2011 London Benchmarking Group annual report.

A number of factors affect how many employees take part in any ESV programme. To increase employee engagement, consider how your programme addresses the following.

Choice of activities

Employees have different interests and motivations for volunteering.

• Do employees have access to a range of activities?
• Are there opportunities for skills development and for activities that offer new experiences?
• Can they volunteer close to home if they commute?
• Are there some planned activities and partnerships they can join?
• Options to volunteer as an individual?
• Are there options for virtual volunteering or activities in short periods of time, e.g. less than 2 hours?

Communication

Often employees are simply not aware that their employer provides an ESV programme.

• Does your programme utilise the full range of tools to communicate with employees?
• Is volunteering part of the appraisal process and training development planning?
• Is volunteering featured in your internal marketing such as intranet, e-news, staff briefings, at the AGM or awards programme?
• Does the ESV programme gain external coverage in press or feature in the annual report?

Culture

Successful ESV programmes often have a great story and culture where ESV is recognised as successful and worthwhile. For example, employers report that those who take part in the ESV programme are often also promoted. Conversely, employees can be anxious that asking for volunteering leave will be received negatively.

• Is the programme encouraged and positively promoted?
• Do your senior staff volunteer?
• Are those that take part recognised?
• Does the organisation celebrate the success stories?
• Is ESV reported in the annual report?
• Does it contribute to gains in development, morale, reputation of the organisation?

Measuring impact

Employers are using increasingly sophisticated ways to measure the impact of their community engagement. Much of this will be carried out by the employer with the employees themselves and their line managers. Understanding the community impact of volunteering will help to develop a valued relationship.

Prepare a short summary of the impact they have made for the organisation, beneficiaries and the wider community. Use hard and soft measures and models or benchmarks developed in your fundraising work to show how they have been part of something bigger.

For example, volunteers contributed 8 hours to deliver a workshop for 10 young people to help them get back into employment. The workshop series was successful in helping 70% into employment. This compares to a national average for this group (source:JobCentre) of 40%. The outcomes could include the value of saved benefits payments for the wider community as well as quotes from the young people and their families, new employers etc. 

Creating successful partnerships

72% of companies expect to increase their investment in corporate-community partnerships over the next 3 years. There are a number of factors driving this increase including evidence of success, pressure from internal and external stakeholders and recognition of how sectors are able to leverage their assets by working in partnership. However, the biggest factor viewed by the private sector is the pressure to demonstrate their corporate responsibility.

ESV partnerships should benefit both the community organisation and the employer. There will be two sets of requirements, cultures and expectations to manage to ensure the collaboration is successful. Expect to dedicate time and planning at the outset and throughout the relationship.

The four key principles to creating a successful partnership.

• Shared values and commitment
• Appropriate resources and capacity
• Effective planning and management
• Good Communication

Many organisations find it useful to use a broker to help identify and manage corporate – community partnerships. Brokers have the contacts and experience to make successful matches.