Volunteer work gives employees a morale boost

By Josephine Murray
THE GUARDIAN, LONDON
Friday, Sep 09, 2005, Page 9

In the past, volunteering at work meant offering to make tea or organize the Secret Santa round of mystery gifts at Christmas. Now, however, employers are waking up to the idea that corporate social responsibility entails more than just sponsoring a fun run.

Business ethics are being scrutinized by pressure groups, shareholders, customers, potential investors and business partners. So it's in the interests of employers to give something back to the communities they make a profit from.

Employee volunteering can take many forms, from a year-long placement in a developing country, to regularly helping the local community, to one-off team challenges. The benefits are three-fold -- the charity or organization receives skilled help, the employee spends time away from the office doing rewarding tasks, and the company boosts its PR and benefits from more fulfilled, and, therefore, more motivated staff.

Volunteering is particularly high on the agenda in the UK at the moment because this year is the year of the volunteer, a Home Office-led initiative to encourage more people to get involved.

Home Office employees get five days' annual paid leave for volunteering, a response to the prime minister Tony Blair's challenge to employers to give all staff one day's leave for voluntary work.

Assistant private secretary Nana Acquah has volunteered with Night Watch, a charity that helps homeless people in Croydon, south London, for three years, and is now its secretary. She organizes training for volunteers, such as how to deal with homeless people with drug or alcohol problems.

"The five days' leave means I can do committee work, because things like booking training courses have to be done during office hours," says Acquah. "I recently took a day off to look into funding for a training scheme. In the Home Office, there are quite a few people who volunteer, because the extra leave means you can really get involved and make a difference."

The big multinational companies are ahead of the game with employee volunteering. Many have partnered charities, so staff can regularly volunteer. Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), a charity that sends professionals to use their skills in the developing world, set up its business partnerships scheme six years ago.

So far 80 people have volunteered, for up to two years, from firms including Shell and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Jobs are kept open for volunteers, although firms generally suspend employees' salaries. "Instead of losing employees who want to take career breaks and grown-up gap years, they use their professional skills and return to work," explains Catherine Raynor from VSO.

Gib Bulloch, from Accenture, a global management and technology consultancy, transformed his career after spending a year on a placement in Macedonia. A consultant at the time, he acted as a small business adviser to help kick-start economic development in an area damaged by the Balkans conflict.

"I'd always assumed VSO was for doctors and social workers, but I had an epiphany when I read about its business partnerships," he says. "I was enjoying my job, but there was a missing link. I wanted to do something that was a bit more worthwhile. Accenture contributed towards my mortgage and my job was held open, so I wasn't going to be in debt."

"My satisfaction at seeing the skills and confidence of the individuals I was working with grow was immense. It helped develop my soft skills: management, coaching, communication, definitely leadership. My career wasn't put on hold, and like many volunteers I came back more motivated," says Bulloch.

The VSO experience inspired Bulloch and several of his colleagues to set up Accenture Development Partnerships, a not-for-profit arm that provides the company's services to the developing world at a fraction of the usual cost. He is now its director. He says that providing opportunities to volunteer helps businesses recruit and retain the best people.

"We've done surveys which have shown that the best performers are the ones most interested in voluntary work," he says.

Companies who don't want to commit their staff to long-term volunteering can take part in one or two-day challenges. Many firms use these for team-building and training -- it's a lot more worthwhile than fire-walking. It's also cheaper. Firms including Cisco Systems, Barclays and Goldman Sachs have helped the UK's National Trust build footpaths, put in ramps for disabled visitors to its historical buildings and clear overgrown vegetation.

Lindsey Allen, the trust's placement and employee volunteering projects officer, says employee volunteering brings in a group that would not normally consider giving up their time. "About 80 percent of our employee volunteers are first-time volunteers. They're usually 25 to 45-year-old professionals with very busy lives."

"We're thinking of offering opportunities other than outdoor challenges, such as conservation work. We'd like to build up long-term relationships with companies, so that as well as one-off team challenges we offer professional schemes and graduate schemes," she added.

As employee involvement manager at E.ON UK, Suzanne Doxey has organized many team challenges with the National Trust. She took part in one herself last year at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, along with the then newly created social and corporate affairs team, creating pathways, tree guards and fencing.

"We wanted to give something back to the local community, and as we were a new team we also wanted to bond," she says. "It would have taken National Trust employees years to do what we did in a day.

When we got back to the office we were more relaxed and had better relationships with each other. We had a fantastic day away from work, gained a sense of achievement and created tangible results."