Employer Supported Volunteering for Businesses

According to Volunteering England (www.volunteering.org.uk) 75% of FTSE 100 companies offer some kind of employee volunteering programme and the benefits of employee volunteering are widely acknowledged. To find out more about the benefits click on the buttons to the left.

The Business Volunteers project at Volunteer Centre Southwark work with business volunteers in two ways:

Team Challenges
Individual employee opportunities or skill sharing

Team Challenges

A Team Challenge involves a team of employees working together to achieve a specific project for a community group, usually within one working day. These challenges ensure that community organisations can have practical projects fulfilled that they are unable to fund or achieve without a company’s support. We offer a complete brokerage service of employee volunteer team challenges. The brokerage service involves: identifying the employee volunteers aims and volunteer desires; sourcing a suitable community project; facilitating and managing the pre-challenge preparation; offering support, information and guidance – including risk assessment and health & safety advice; providing team leader training; challenge day support – including first aid presence and tool training; and post challenge evaluation.

All of the challenges we organise are sourced and managed on a bespoke basis to ensure the employees have a challenge tailored to their needs and the community of Southwark receives maximum benefit. See our case studies for an idea of the sort of challenge we can organise for you.

Companies can either work with the Business Volunteers project on a one-off basis, or become long-term business partners of the centre. For more information about working with the centre, please contact Samantha Stotland, Business Development Manager on 020 7403 2936.

To see the charges for working with the Business Volunteers project, please click here (opens Word document).

Individual employee opportunities or skill sharing

Many organisations need assistance for specific projects – perhaps drafting a business plan, negotiating a lease, accountancy advice or web design. To service this need we provide advice and guidance to employers wanting to offer individual employees volunteering opportunities and to employees seeking to share or develop their professional skills. For community groups this enables them to receive expert help and will assist them in becoming stronger and more sustainable and it enables the individual to develop through the challenge of applying their skills in a new context.

We are keen to work with accountants who can help with business plans and financial policies and procedures; architects, engineers and surveyors who can help with building surveying, detailed plans and drawings and valuations; solicitors who can help with company/charity registration, contracts, employment policies and contracts and property issues e.g. leases; and IT people who can help with web design and IT strategies.

A full database of these opportunities is available with roles including website design, IT advice, PR advice, mentoring or becoming a trustee.

For examples of the sort of roles that are available for employees to use their professional skills to support community groups in Southwark, please click here to download our Opportunities for Individual Professional Volunteers document (Word document).

Another way you can support the local community is to become a school governor, magistrate or trustee. If you are interested in learning more about this sort of volunteering, please click here.