Businesses urged to embrace skills-based volunteering as report highlights mutual benefits
Melanie May | 3 June 2024 | News
Skills-based volunteering has the potential to revolutionise corporate social responsibility, providing significant advantages to businesses, employees, and charities, according to a new report from Lloyds Bank Foundation for Volunteers Week.
Volunteers’ Week starts today, running until Sunday 9 June, and with this year its 40th anniversary. It is organised by the UK Volunteering Forum, a partnership between NCVO, WCVA (Wales Council for Voluntary Action), Volunteer Scotland and Volunteer Now.
Skills Based Volunteering: A Win, Win, Win analyses mutually beneficial rewards offered by skilled volunteering to businesses, employees, and charities. It highlights the value added when employee volunteering goes beyond a one-off physical activity, to volunteers sharing professional expertise, such as management, finance, IT, HR and marketing, to help charities strengthen and develop their work.
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The report aims to encourage businesses and charities to work together to embrace skilled volunteering as an opportunity for mutual growth that offers potential for helping transform communities. It provides insights and evidence of the benefits of skills-based volunteering for charities, volunteers and their employers:
- Skilled volunteers empower charities to navigate strategic challenges, access in-demand skills and knowledge, and unlock new connections and networks. 91% of charities reported improvements in professional skills, a third of which were significant improvements.
- Having the chance to share skills and expertise through volunteering enriches employees with professional development opportunities, builds confidence and connection. Skilled volunteers said they were able to apply and develop transferable skills and widen their perspectives.
- Skills-based volunteering helps engage employees and enhance the pride and sense of purpose they feel for their workplace, which in turn helps improve retention and build connection.
Holly Quincey, Talent Acquisition Director, Lloyds Banking Group, said:
“Skills-based volunteering is a brilliant way for professionals to deepen expertise and develop new skills; connect with a community and learn about some of society’s most complex issues. The impact to the organisations supported is often immediate too, with genuine expertise and knowledge in areas such as finance, marketing and project management helping to support long-term solutions and creating a lasting impact. I’d encourage more businesses to build this into their employee development planning and recognise the power of skills-based volunteering for all involved.”
The report also shares learnings and recommendations for developing impactful skilled volunteering programmes, including:
- Choice and variety matter for volunteers and charities; skilled volunteering can be flexible with varying levels of commitment, in person and online options, and working as a group or individual.
- Seeking skilled volunteer partnerships with small and local charities can maximise the impact of volunteers and charity.
- Volunteers from businesses need support in translating their skills to a different sector.
- Support for volunteering should come from leadership and be embedded in an organisation’s culture.
- Relationships take time, but getting the right match and investing in the partnership generates long term payoff.
- Identifying the needs of charities and where volunteers can have the biggest impact is important.
André Clarke, Director of Charity Development at Lloyds Bank Foundation, said:
“Often, when businesses want to help a charity, they opt for a team day and some form of physical activity. Our experience shows there is another way: providing opportunities for employees to share their professional skills that can be of mutual, even greater benefit for employers, charities and volunteers themselves. We’ve seen from the 700 charities we support each year that they are overstretched and find it difficult to find or afford professional skills. Skills-based volunteering offers huge payoffs not only for charities tackling complex issues, but for businesses themselves and their employees working together to help communities thrive.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.