Dave Thomas, NCVS Volunteering Development Officer, has been musing about a recent report that looked into employee volunteering.
The question mark at the end of the title is very deliberate.
Pro Bono Economics is a national organisation that uses economic analysis and insight gained from its connections within the social sector to help charities, funders, businesses, and policymakers address the causes and effects of low personal wellbeing in the UK. They have recently released a report about Employer Supported Volunteering. You can download the 30-page report here.
If life is too busy to read it all, here’s my very brief summary:
Employers are increasingly focusing on employee wellbeing to boost productivity and counteract the high costs of sickness absence, which amounted to £24 billion in the UK in 2022. Workplace volunteering, where companies support employees to volunteer during work hours, presents a promising solution with a 'triple dividend': enhancing employee wellbeing, increasing productivity for businesses, and aiding charitable organisations in addressing societal challenges.
- Employee Wellbeing:
Volunteering significantly improves wellbeing, akin to moving to a better quality-of-life environment. This improvement has an economic value of £800 to £1,300 per volunteer, potentially generating £1.2 billion to £3.6 billion annually in wellbeing benefits if the UK expands workplace volunteering.
- Productivity Boost:
Employers also stand to gain economically. Providing volunteering opportunities could reduce sickness absence by 1.4 to 2.5 million days, leading to productivity gains worth £1.6 billion to £2.8 billion. For every £1 invested in volunteering programmes, employers could see returns of £1.50 to £3.60, thanks to improved health and skills among employees.
- Charity Benefits:
Charities benefit from an influx of volunteers, which is crucial as they face rising demand and staff shortages. Enhanced volunteer support helps these organisations continue their essential work in communities, addressing social injustices and environmental issues.
Expanding workplace volunteering can thus create substantial benefits for employees, employers, and society, making it a compelling strategy for businesses and policymakers alike.
Dave's thoughts
The missing bits - Where's the money?
Do you spot an important missing part of this summary? Don’t worry, it’s not selective editing; it’s not in the full 30-page version either.
If I were feeling charitable, I could say that this report is aimed at employers. It goes into a lot of depth, providing graphs and figures to illustrate how companies can benefit from their employees being released to do volunteer work.
However, I’m not going to let the report’s authors off too easily. In their entire report, only one paragraph is devoted to how we, in the voluntary sector, might benefit. In reminding us that '59% of small charities report that recruiting volunteers is a major concern', they suggest that we could get 'an influx' of up to 2.8 million additional volunteers from employee volunteering. I hope they don’t all contact us at NCVS at the same time!
Before we get too enthusiastic about agreeing with the report about the potential of all these volunteers, consider for a moment the amount of work that you will have to do and the cost of setting up employee volunteering projects. Some voluntary organisations are well-geared up for employee projects, but most of us aren’t. I wrote about the cost of employee volunteering in a previous blog back in February 2023. 18 months on, those costs won’t have reduced.
The report singularly fails to address a key concern of the sector about how employee volunteering is resourced. Should we charge businesses to provide volunteering for their employees?
I am generally very positive about employer-supported volunteering and the ways in which we can forge ongoing relationships with companies, involve employee volunteers with skills that we may be lacking, and share the benefits of volunteering with an ever wider community.
It will come as no surprise that I am disappointed in this report, particularly because Pro Bono Economics produces a lot of really useful research for our sector.
As ever, I welcome your comments. I can be contacted by email at davet@nottinghamcvs.co.uk or by phone at 07564 040767.
