5 Powerful Business Reasons to Introduce Employee Volunteering

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Anne Thomas, CEO, Vtues

Modern consciousness and the need to sustain the World brings demands on corporations to take responsibility. It’s no longer good enough to focus only on maximising profit.

Huge impacts can be made through individual action, however most people do not have enough time to volunteer because of work commitments, as reflected in the 2017 Governments DCMS Community Life Survey, which showed this being true for 61% of people aged 16 - 65.

As an employer you have the power to release your employees into volunteering. AND when you see the benefits Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) brings to your business (no matter how many you employ) you’ll likely be compelled to introduce a program right away. Here are 5 immediate benefits:


1. Maintain great customers and a strong business reputation

91% of consumers expect businesses to operate responsibility (Cone Communications/ Ebiquity Global). Companies that apply good CSR practices, such as Employee Volunteering, see increased business performance from improved reputation and client loyalty. They gain 19 times higher return on assets compared to those that don’t (Kenexa High Performance Institute in London).


2. Attract the best employees & keep them

Millennials value purpose over money. 64% won’t take a job if a potential employer doesn’t have strong corporate responsibility practices and 75% would actually take a pay cut to work for one that does (Cone Communications). ESV attracts decent people with strong ethics, who will feel more engaged and loyal to you. In fact, employees who are most engaged with their employer perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave (Corporate Leadership Council).


3. Develop teams, skills and improve wellbeing

Through volunteering, employees develop new skills from exposure to varying environments and teams, (CIPD ‘Volunteering to Learn. report cites many examples). Additionally, 76% of people who volunteer feel healthier and 94% experience a positive impact on their (UnitedHealth Group survey).


4. Return on investment

The financial benefits can far outweigh the cost of providing extra paid time off. For example, a company that employs 20 people with an average salary of £27,000 would see a maximum cost of £6,220 p/a for ESV. Should that company retain just 1 employee as a result (data suggests more) then it would save over £8,500 on recruitment and training costs alone. Add to this the improved business performance, increased employee productivity and skills development then that’s a wonderful ROI.


5. It’s easy to implement

Implementation is simply deciding how much time to give, putting in place a policy and delivering the great news to employees. Choose to run brokered team projects or install a low maintenance service like Vtues where individuals connect with causes they care about and request time off to complete activities. These are recorded and validated through the platform and time credited to your business.



If each of the 26.7million people employed in UK private sector were given just 24 hours of EV leave this would provide 641 million hours p/a to charity and other purpose-led organisations who’d benefit from new skills, increased awareness, additional funds, reduced costs and innovation.


The benefits are clear and starting an ESV program is easy. Once you’re set, shout about it through social, web and client comms and be sure to highlight it in recruitment drives. I’m a big believer in celebrating and rewarding business and individual engagement, which was the driver behind creating the Vtues platform.