EMPLOYER SUPPORTED VOLUNTEERING
WHAT IS EMPLOYER SUPPORTED VOLUNTEERING?
Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV), where employers provide their employees paid time off to volunteer, is growing in popularity across the country.
BENEFITS FOR EMPLOYERS
We recently surveyed dozens of Gloucestershire-based employers, 50% of whom have a formal or informal scheme. They told us the benefits for them included:
Helping to improve employees’ wellbeing/job satisfaction
Supporting their employees Continuing Professional Development
Being able to strengthen connections and give back to the local community
Supporting the goals of their corporate social responsibility strategy
BENEFITS FOR EMPLOYEES
As we have described on our volunteers’ page, there are multiple benefits to people (and therefore your employees!) when they get involved in volunteering. Employees who have volunteered through an ESV scheme also told us…
ESV IN PRACTICE
Through ESV, employees can get involved with lots of exciting projects that will utilise their wide variety and depth of incredible skills and experience, with examples from social media to accountancy and marketing, and practical skills like decorating. There are so many organisations, charities and community groups in our county who would really value this array of skills and experience.
Here’s a case study from NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group telling us more about their Employer Supported Volunteering Scheme, where they allow their employees up to two days paid leave to volunteer each year:
So, you can see, it’s great for employers to support their employees to volunteer, and it’s great for their employees to get involved too
HOW CAN GO VOLUNTEER GLOS HELP EMPLOYERS?
We are aiming to develop this page over the coming months with many more resources to support employers, so please do keep checking back in to see how things shape up. In the meantime:
If you would like to support us to further develop this Go Volunteer Glos employer’s page and/or are interested in starting or progressing your own ESV scheme, then please tell us by completing this simple form
Please see our best practice guide to ESV schemes describing what makes a good experience for those with an ESV scheme or wishing to improve an existing formal or informal scheme
You may also be interested in the report from our survey of Gloucestershire-based employers