Employer-supported volunteering

Employer-supported volunteering (ESV) is an initiative which is led by employers to support their staff to volunteer during working hours. The volunteering activities can be practical or skills-based.

This form of volunteering is also called team volunteering, corporate volunteering, group volunteering, or employer volunteering.

Types of Employer-supported volunteering (ESV)

ESV takes many forms and can vary by:

  • Type of volunteering activity – for example, it can be practical such as a renovation project, or skills-based such as providing expertise through workshops or mentoring.
  • Number of employees involved – ESV can be carried out as a group or by individuals.
  • The length and nature of the volunteering – ESV can range from a one-off event such as marshalling a public event, to a long term commitment. An example of a long term, recurrent activity is where employees volunteer to  read with primary school children.
  • How it is arranged – ESV can be organised by employers or alternatively responsibility can be passed to employees to arrange their own ESV activity.

Employer-supported volunteering (ESV) in Buckinghamshire

Not-for-profit organisations which have a Bucks-based project that requires volunteers, and organisations which are looking for an Employer-supported volunteering opportunity should send their details to info@communityimpactbucks.org.uk. This information will then be published on this page for interested parties to get in touch directly with each other.

  • If you are a charity or community group in Bucks wanting to promote your opportunities for ESV, email info@communityimpactbucks.org.uk with the following information: type of volunteering opportunity, time/dates, location, any other specifics including whether you would like a financial contribution, contact name and email/phone number.
  • If you are a business in Bucks looking for ESV opportunities, email info@communityimpactbucks.org.uk with the following information: the size of your volunteer team, availability, preferred volunteering area in Bucks (if applicable), contact name and email/phone number.

Are you a team wanting to volunteer?

Below are some local businesses and organisations which are looking for volunteer opportunities:

Randstad

At Randstad, our employees are given 8 hours of volunteering time a year. In the UK, we are organised into regional groups to find opportunities for us to use those hours for organisations in our local areas throughout the year. In the Bucks and Berks group, we have up to 30 employees looking for volunteering opportunities in our regions, whether that’s skills or non-skills based activities or professional volunteering. Please contact us for help by email to nicola.knott@randstadsourceright.co.uk

Action4Youth

As part of our Grow Your Ambition Programme, Action 4 Youth are seeking volunteering opportunities for groups of young people. We will regularly have groups of up to 30 16-17 year-olds across Buckinghamshire. Each group will be supervised and covered by our public liability insurance and risk assessments. If you have any opportunities we can get involved in, please contact the Programme Leader Katie Dean at katie.dean@action4youth.org.

Urenco

At Urenco, we encourage all our employees to give back to our local community. We have a group of five volunteers eager to support Stoke Poges for one day in May 2024. Preferably in gardening or painting, but all suggestions are welcome. This would be a one-off, but we always look for opportunities to offer staff. If you have any opportunities we can get involved in, please contact: Yahya Nassar at yahya.nassar@urenco.com

Are you looking for an ESV opportunity?

Below are some local non-profit organisations which are looking for volunteers:

Grow Together CIC

Grow Together Bucks is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company. Our ‘Corporate Volunteering Days’ programme enables you to outsource the design, creation, management and delivery of your community volunteering days. This offers you opportunity to promote your CSR values, public relations, contribute to the community and benefit staff wellbeing without you needing the resources or expertise to organise it. We do charge a fee to cover our costs for providing this service. For further information please contact: info@growtogetherbucks.co.uk. 

The benefits of ESV

Both organisations (the business providing the volunteer team and the not-for-profit group) benefit from Employer-supported volunteering.

Many organisations which supply volunteers experience improved employee engagement and use it to undertake team building as well as meet environmental, social and governance responsibility goals.

For charity and community groups, it can boost a project or initiative by providing much needed workforce team as well as exposing the charity to a new group of supporters, donors or even service-users.

Does ESV involve a financial contribution?

It is not at all unusual for businesses to financially contribute towards employee volunteering. The costs would not be paying for the volunteering, but for the work that enables the volunteering to take place.

This statement from the ESV Network explains why there can be a charge for employee volunteering.

More information can be found on NCVO’s Employer-supported volunteering webpage.

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Image courtesy of Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway