Volunteering

If you’re looking to engage and motivate your workforce, a well-managed volunteering scheme represents a fantastic strategy. The benefits of offering the opportunity to volunteer within a corporate capacity are numerous – from better team cohesion to enhanced professional development. It’s a “win-win” situation for everyone involved.

Aided by a more digitally connected and easily mobilised society, the act of volunteering has experienced something of a revolution in recent times. The worldwide impact of Covid-19 certainly appeared to accelerate people’s desire to help their fellow humans, in a ‘wave of solidarity' that was experienced the world over – something of a surprise, perhaps, given the fact that we had never been more physically isolated from each other.

Some 20 million people volunteered in the UK in 2017/2018, according to our partner, the NCVO, with almost four in ten people doing so formally. That means that companies place more importance than ever on engaging with their employees through sourcing opportunities for them to volunteer. Employees, equally, have never been more interested in giving back to their communities.

The current project has aimed to uncover the underlying constructs of employee engagement and specify the ways in which it links with CSR. Based on the connections identified, the research seeks to provide real evidence on how employee participation in CSR affects the overall engagement, attraction and retention of talent in the organisations in the UK. [...] The research has confirmed that CSR programmes have positive effects on the overall employee engagement.