ESV Case Studies

RRA Architects is an award-winning firm based in Cheltenham comprising a highly dedicated, multi-disciplined team with a wide range of experience and knowledge of the built environment. They have a diverse range of national projects including private houses, offices, sustainable housing communities, heritage repair and conservation, retail spaces, mixed use development, education buildings and schemes for both private and public clients. Rachel Palmer, Director, explains why the company actively promotes employer supported volunteering: ‘We wholeheartedly believe in supporting our employees' passion for giving back to the community. That's why we gift our staff time off to volunteer for charity or community projects of their choice. This approach allows each individual to select a cause that resonates personally, ensuring their involvement is entirely voluntary and not driven by external pressures. Although we have used the example of organising workshops for students, our team's volunteering efforts take many forms with each person choosing how to use their unique skills and expertise to make a difference. For instance, RRA Project Designer, Sarah-Jane Bonner, used her volunteering time to provide professional services for the Open-Door charity, assisting with the refurbishment of their new premises. Group Business Manager, Jane Cooke, on the other hand, is currently liaising with a local school to set up mock job interviews, providing valuable interview practice for the students. Why we do it Of course, the obvious answer is to give back to the community. It is well documented that volunteering offers numerous mental, physical and social benefits to those involved. However, it has a much wider impact; when our team members return from their volunteering experiences, they bring back a renewed sense of energy and ‘joie de vivre’ to the office. So, from a company perspective, supporting our employees' charitable endeavours fosters a sense of fulfilment and purpose among the individuals which ripples through the whole company. Beyond the positive impact on individuals and collective well-being, our commitment to community involvement is beneficial for the company image as well. It enhances our internal and external marketing efforts, showcasing RRA as caring and socially responsible. This, in turn, contributes to improved recruitment, staff retention and serves as a tangible demonstration of our values to potential clients. How this works at RRA We have a long history of supporting our team members with their ideas and truly believe that a culture of giving enriches us all, not just the recipients. This company attitude means that people feel confident that the company will welcome their idea and celebrate their effort, so they are not concerned about requesting time to volunteer. Consequently, we have informally supported volunteering for many years on an ad hoc basis, with individuals organising their own volunteering opportunities. However, it is an activity which we are hoping to encourage more of, so we are looking at other companies to see if we can, and should, adopt a more formal model. We need to assess whether this would positively encourage more of the team to take part or whether they would feel less control and more pressure - which may have a negative impact. Perhaps we can find a halfway solution which would benefit everyone. RRA Associate Oliver Smith shares his experience of running a voluntary workshop at Hereford and Ludlow College. Ludlow Sixth Form College Oliver says: " I vividly remember the excitement and uncertainty I felt during my own college days, and now, being in a position to share my knowledge and experience with the next generation feels incredibly rewarding. Helping these aspiring architecture students discover their passion and guiding them towards a fulfilling career path is an opportunity I couldn't pass up. Seeing their eyes light up with enthusiasm and knowing that I can make a positive impact on their journey is truly rewarding. It's a way of giving back and inspiring others to pursue their dreams in architecture, just as I did. As they say: 'When you teach, you learn twice,' and being part of this process feels like coming full circle, enriching both their lives and mine." Hannah Day, Head of Visual Arts, Media and Film, Ludlow Sixth Form College explains how Oliver has helped them through his volunteering role: ‘‘Oliver has visited the Visual Arts, Media and Film departments Careers Day twice. On both occasions he talked about his route from college, through university and into work as an architect. This was particularly helpful in showing students how they too can move from where they are now into any number of exciting areas of work. It was particularly helpful as he attended Ludlow Sixth Form College himself and so was in their position only a few years before. As well as his talk, he offered a practical task, asking students to come up with design solutions for a real brief he had been given. Some students considered the brief in practical ways while others went down a flight of fancy. Both approaches allowed students to explore building design problems and solutions but in diverse ways. He has also been generous in offering feedback and support for students applying for university. As we see more students interested in architecture in our current year one this offer of help will be instrumental in placing students into their first-choice universities.” www.rraarchitects.com www.hlnsc.ac.uk

GRCC (Gloucestershire Rural Community Council) is an independent charity that works within Gloucestershire’s communities to inspire, enable, and deliver community action. They work countywide to strengthen and develop communities to create thriving, sustainable places for local people to live and work in, and also support other charities to deliver their own aims. GRCC encourages both their teams and Board Trustees to volunteer. Barbara Pond, Director of Operations at GRCC, says 'We are a leading organisation supporting charities who work with volunteers across the county and we feel it is important for us to model best practice around volunteering and employer supported volunteering. We also really believe that it is valuable for our staff’s health and wellbeing’. All employees are encouraged to take up to 2 days per year to volunteer with an individual or organisation of their choice and at a time of their choosing. Feedback on time spent volunteering is shared regularly at team meetings. Guy Dobson, VCSE Advice Officer at GRCC , spent one of his volunteering days repairing the sandpit at White City Adventure Playground. Guy used to run adventure playgrounds in Bristol so it felt great for him to be back on ‘home soil’, connect with the staff and meet some of the community who use the resource. Being ‘back on the tools’ also made a welcome change from desk-based work and Guy derived a lot of satisfaction from seeing a physical improvement to a space which really benefitted from his support. Guy says: ‘My local adventure playground in White City, Gloucester, known locally as the Venture. I’ve been supporting them for 6 months now with fundraising advice and also doing a few bits on the tools as a volunteer! Thanks to my current employer GRCC for paying for my time to volunteer here, it’s been a triple win. Big up to Dawn, Carolyn, Tyreese, Billy and Katie and the rest of the team at the playground for their amazing work in the community at White City.’ The team there have been thrilled to have Guy volunteering with them: ‘Huge thank you to Guy from Gloucestershire Rural Community Council for spending one of his Employer Supported Volunteering Days giving our sandpit a much needed make over - it looks brilliant and we are very grateful ‘

Located in the heart of Cheltenham and covering Gloucestershire, Hooray Works is an independent award-winning, ethical recruitment agency. They are passionate about making a positive impact on people and believe strongly that businesses can be a force for good for the community. Richard Arthur, Managing Director, explains why they support local charities through employer supported volunteering: “We enjoy seeing the positive impact of matching the right people with the right organisations; benefiting individuals and communities, as well as businesses and the local economy. This extends further as we offer our team opportunities to support local charitable organisations which positively contributes to our local community and economy. We encourage all staff to get involved with the local community and charitable causes. Any staff who wants to get involved in these types of activities can book up to 4 volunteering days in each calendar year. That’s a total of 80 days of volunteering for the team! So far, we have supported many different charities from helping transform the sensory garden for James Hopkins Trust to raising £3,500 for the Pied Piper Appeal. We are aware that the running of our business will, in many ways, affect our place of work, the community and the wider environment in which we operate. We believe that the way we run our business can and should make a positive difference in these areas and we aim to ensure that continued efforts are made to achieve that. Giving back has always been important to me and I always set out to run a purpose led business. To me, considered volunteering not only helps the charity, but also with employee engagement so it’s a no brainer! As Hooray grows, we will naturally provide more volunteering hours, and as our presence and brand develop, we hope this gives the charities we support a higher platform and therefore enable them to raise more funds.” One of the Hooray Works team, Alice Duffy, Recruitment Consultant used some of her volunteering days to support the Spear Programme in Cheltenham. This is a free national programme set up by a the Resurgo Trust and run in Cheltenham by Trinity which helps unemployed young people facing barriers to employment into work or education. Alice explains how she became involved and what is meant to her: ‘ I participated in the Spear program conducting mock interviews with people aged 16-24 that were looking to get into their first full time role following a difficult situation. The group was a real mixture of individuals, including people that had severe anxiety, autism or other neurodivergent conditions, individuals that had gone through the loss of a parent or both parents, young carers and more. The Spear program is fantastic and you could really tell that the individuals in the team had helped to build the individuals’ confidence over the short period they’d spent together, so it was great to hear from the group leaders about how much they had grown into themselves. We conducted mock job interviews, asking them questions like “why do you want to work in this industry”, “what questions do you have for an employer”, “what would you describe as your strengths and weaknesses”. It was really heart-warming to see how passionate the individuals became once we started to ask them about their background and what made them want to get into a full-time job and how they are keen to transform their lives. We gave guidance on how to improve their answers, but a lot of the time the individuals were well prepared and went well beyond our expectations! The Spear program was very rewarding in the sense that I felt like I’d made a real difference to these individuals’ lives. It gave me a better insight into how people can be impacted by life events or conditions that they’ve had no control over, and made me realise that it’s important to be compassionate towards candidates that I deal with daily. It was a fantastic experience, and I would recommend everyone at Hooray gives it a go at least once”. Chris Wagstaff from Trinity helps to lead the Spear programme in Cheltenham. 'The help from members of the Hooray team during our Mock Interviews has been invaluable. Being a pre-employment programme, having professionals within the recruitment industry means our young people receive a real insight into employment, top tips and general encouragement meaning they always walk away feeling inspired and equipped for the working world .' www.hoorayworks.co.uk www.resurgo.org.uk

The Forest of Dean District Council is part of Publica, a unique not-for-profit partnership of four councils delivering more locally by working together. The councils work together through Publica to share skills and resources which enables them to deliver more for local communities, residents and businesses. As part of their employee benefits offer, all Publica staff are given two days a year where they can use work time for volunteering, either as an individual or as part of a team, to help some of the great local charities and community groups running across their districts. Lena Maller, Community Delivery Lead for the FoDDC says: ‘Employer supported volunteering (ESV) is really important and really powerful. It's part of our way of giving a bit more back to our communities.’ Lena and her colleagues at the Forest of Dean District Council work closely with a local charity, Forest Voluntary Action Forum (FVAF) and their volunteer coordinator Deb Cook, plus their local community builders to identify and deliver ESV in a way that best supports their local community. In June, colleagues from the Community Wellbeing Team based in Coleford got together to redecorate the Youth Club in Blakeney. Thanks to the relationship that Lena and her colleagues have with FVAf they knew that the club was in need of some volunteering help. Using their paid time off for volunteering, they redecorated the whole youth club building which hadn’t been done for many years. Charis Simpson , Community Builder said, “The building was looking very dirty. Like many projects, the youth club stopped in Covid and is just getting back up and running now, the number of attendees is slowly increasing. Now the club has a fresh lick of paint, it will hopefully bring more people in and help the young people to feel valued, as well as the amazing volunteers who keep it going. We all had a great day transforming the youth club, and it brought us a real feeling of accomplishment. It was really good to have a break from our usual roles to get together as a team and make a difference.” Emma Nice , Community Support Officer, said, “I really enjoyed it! It was great to be away from my laptop, spend time with the team and feel like I’ve made a real positive impact!” Chris Fordham, Trustee of Blakeney Youth Club, said , “I want to say a massive thank you on behalf of the youth club and the whole community for the work that the team carried out this week. We are so grateful for all the hard work you put in and the results have been really warmly received on social media. We're really looking forward to seeing what the kids make of it this week. We still can't believe how great it looks!” www.publicagroup.uk www.blakeneyyouthgroup.org.uk www.fvaf.org.uk

SLG Brands is a design-led international beauty brand company based in Cheltenham, designing and distributing some of the high street’s most fashionable beauty and male grooming brands. With a clear commitment to continually developing and evolving their approach to ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) to achieve their long term ambitions in this area, they have established a corporate volunteering initiative with 80% of their employees taking up the opportunity to devote a day to one of their charitable partners in 2022. In addition they have supported with design and creative time in their in-house studio, management skills exchange and mentoring, use of their offices for hosting events and donations to 85 local causes across the last 5 years totalling in excess of £100,000. Susan Hutchings, Director at SLG Brands explains why this is so important: At SLG Brands we are passionate about supporting our local community. By giving our employees the opportunity to volunteer with one of our carefully chosen local charities - Cheltenham Open Door, CCP (Caring for Communities & People) and Cheltenham Animal Shelter – we recognise that investing in our community not only nurtures the places we live and work in, but creates an amazing spirit of unity within our business. The enthusiasm from everyone is testament to the values we uphold and provides a connection between our employees and the very fabric of our local community, and is something we certainly want to continue to develop in the future” SLG Brands team members share their thoughts on their time spent volunteering: “It was a privilege to help with the CCP Hamper Scamper appeal last Christmas. Not only was it a fun team day out (dressed in our best Christmas kitsch jumpers!) but it was an eye opening and humbling experience to see all the support CCP give to our local community.” - Sarah Dorey “The R&D team were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to improve an outdoor space for the CCP Charity. It was an incredibly rewarding experience and we're all very pleased that the residents now have a floral garden to enjoy.” Carrie Wong “Volunteering at Cheltenham Animal Shelter was such a valuable experience. Not only did we get the chance to make a positive impact on the lives of vulnerable animals, it was a great opportunity for our team to work together outside of our regular working day. I’m proud to be part of a company that supports and encourages charitable efforts; and was a heart-warming reminder of the joy animals can bring.” – Tim Zygmunt www.slgbrands.com