The benefits of employer supported volunteering
Volunteering can be defined as spending unpaid time to do something that benefits communities, the environment and charitable causes. Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) can be attributed to companies that actively support and encourage their employees to take part in voluntary activities within their local communities, often during working hours. This allows organisations to have an impact across the communities in which they operate, with many employers introducing volunteering programmes as part of HR policies for employees, to support community organisations and charities with their time and skills. Volunteering activities may be physical activities, in-person skills-based opportunities, or can even be undertaken virtually for many charities.
Thomas Miller Spotlight
TT Club is managed by Thomas Miller, whose dedicated ESG and CSR programmes focus on an ethos and strategy of ‘Be The Difference, Be The Impact’. Their strategy maps to five core pillars: Our People, Our Company, Our Community, Our Planet and Our Marketplace. Acting as a core facet of this, for many years, Thomas Miller has been an advocate for ESV, and have a unique Volunteering Programme that allows all employees globally 3 full days paid leave per year to undertake civic or community activities.
This provides employees within TT Club a multitude of ways to volunteer their time, ranging from individual efforts to wider team corporate volunteering days. One recent example for TT Club was a volunteering day undertaken with a local East London parish, helping them to support local people within the community that are in need, and worked to maintain a community garden, and prepare for a food and clothing bank, alongside a community lunch for those visiting the church.
You can read more about how TT assisted with The Lighthouse Project by clicking the button below.
Across Thomas Miller and TT Club, in the last year alone, some examples include employees volunteering with charities focused on:
- Social mobility and career progression;
- Providing chances for young people to experience opportunities within the maritime space;
- Supporting current and retired seafarers;
- Advancing environmentally friendly and circular fashion
- Supporting women through refugee centre services and;
- Positive environmental impacts through oyster restoration.
You can find articles on all Thomas Miller volunteering activities by clicking the button below.
Why Employer Supported Volunteering?
Benefits for employers
ESV provides opportunities for employers to engage with employees, whilst improving two-way communication and creating an enhanced awareness of the needs of local communities.
Group based volunteering often boosts staff morale and helps build stronger teams, and can even support future recruitment by attracting talent with ESV as an employee benefit.
In turn, actively highlighting your firms commitment to volunteering can improve overall brand reputation and demonstrates a commitment to make a difference to society.
Benefits for employees
Research suggests that ESV can boost employee’s happiness levels, and sense of purpose within an organisation. It provides opportunities to enhance teamwork, a variety of skills, creative thinking and problem solving.
By being provided the opportunity to build connections with local communities and give back to society, it supports employees to work on issues they feel passionate about, gaining an overall sense of fulfilment and resilience.
Benefits for local communities
Volunteers are paramount to the success of the majority of community and voluntary sector organisations. They value enthusiastic volunteers that can offer unique skills, expertise and knowledge.
By working with corporate entities, the not for profit sector benefits as it creates partnerships that encourage a shared ownership for community wellbeing.
How does this link to the ‘S’ of ESG?
Social sustainability is key to any organisations ESG progress. Volunteering gives a company an opportunity to highlight general corporate citizenship, with the above benefits enhancing social value principles across the company itself, its employees, and society. As more organisations embrace volunteering and actively support their colleagues to engage, the potential for social impact and transformative change continues to expand.
Charities or community efforts can often be linked to specific Sustainable Development Goals you are focusing on, or specific ESG targets you want to achieve.
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