It's volunteering but not as you know it

If you say 'volunteering' to employees they usually immediately think of practical projects like gardening, decorating, or helping in charity shops. Few would have that initial image in their heads of volunteering whilst still sitting at their desks.

But in this virtual and technological world we live in, the volunteering world really is your oyster.

Take the 'Call in Time' programme that we developed with our charity partner Age UK and which now has 18 corporate supporters fielding volunteers. The scheme works with older people who are lonely and isolated and matches them up to an employee volunteer who commits to telephone their older friend once a week, at an agreed time, for a half hour chat. Several of our volunteers have been doing this for over three years now. It makes such a difference to the older person who would otherwise have their TV as their main company and may often go days without talking to a sole. (who remembers last year's John Lewis Christmas advert - the man on the moon?) For the volunteers they make a friend, learn about new things and history, sometimes, hone a few business related skills along the way such as listening skills and assertiveness skills in terms of ending the calls positively. So if the idea of making an older persons life less isolated doesn't swing it for any business leaders reading this in terms of giving the business time commitment to it - maybe the customer service relevant skills that will be hones and the volunteers' increased pride in working for their employer might?

But, as I eluded to in my previous blog, http://skills-exchange2017.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/everyones-winner-what-possible-skills.html volunteering doesn't come for free. This whole programme is sustainable as companies pay to be members of it based on how many volunteers they contribute. This money pays the core funding of the small team at Age UK who make it work. They provide training to the volunteers; they match older people and volunteers based on interests and personality; they monitor the system where volunteers confirm the calls have been made; they will swing into action if the older person has an issue that needs addressing; they will make the call if the volunteer is on holiday or called away to an urgent meeting and they will manage the inevitable sensitive conversations when the volunteer is no longer needed to call their older friend and provide support during this sad period. What sounds on the surface a simple idea that anyone could do for nothing - is not quite so simple when you get to the detail.

If your company is interested in learning more about this scheme or if you work for Zurich and are interested in volunteering contact jane.boulton@zct.org.uk.

How many of you use webinars as communication vehicles at work? How many of you have skills that are valuable to the voluntary sector? How many voluntary sector folk would welcome free training which they can access from their desk with no transport or course fees and in bite size sessions not taking whole days out of their stretched resource? It's a match made in heaven. We've run skills based webinar training on topics charities have told us they want to learn more on such as effective presentation skills and social media. How good would you feel having trained 50 colleagues in the voluntary sector on something you take for granted every day - in an 45 min webinar + some prep time? And how useful would it be to you and your company to hone your skills delivering webinars?

I rest my case. So I'm not saying put down the spades and paint brushes as that's valuable volunteering too and lets face it, probably far more fun - but step into the modern world of volunteering and see what your every days tools like telephones and PC's can do when unleashed!

Join our live twitter Q&A on Monday 23rd June 1-2 #askzct

Everyone's a winner!


"What possible skills do I have that a charity would want?" said the experienced PA who then saved a charity hours each month by setting up a label run to save them hand writing envelopes.  "What do I know about charities" said the experienced business analyst who facilitated a successful day with the senior management team of a local charity to develop a much needed vision and plan.  Employer supported volunteering is such a valuable thing - to the charity, to the volunteer and to the business that supports them to volunteer.  We need more businesses to encourage and support it. 

Through a small but perfectly formed team within the Zurich Community Trust we broker volunteering opportunities that engage over 3,000 of Zurich's 6,000 UK workforce each year in volunteering in the community - 41,236 hours in 2015 to be precise and we are still counting for 2016.

It's this brokerage that's so important as most businesses and employees when asked, would be willing to help.  Most charities can always use skilled volunteers. But both sides are focusing on delivering to their respective customers in their day jobs, or in case of charities also chasing funding and often don't have the capacity to think about either what skills they need or what skills they have to offer.

As well as playing that direct broker role between Zurich UK office locations and the local voluntary sector - we also actively engage with and support established Employer Supported Volunteering Networks such as  http://www.involveswindon.co.uk/  and http://involvegloucestershire.org.uk/ and
http://www.communitymatterspartnership.org.uk/ and there are many more but not nearly enough.
These organisations run on a shoe string and play a vital brokering role that not only delivers much needed skills to the voluntary sector but that also helps businesses build  a committed, proud and engaged workforce.

"Why should I pay to give you my employees to volunteer" is a question I often hear from the less educated, and let's be honest, less charitable businesses.  There are many reasons:

• Because you want your employees to have a good and meaningful experience and this takes managing which means time and resource on behalf of the charity. Time and resource is the thing that is most scarce in the voluntary sector as salaries is the thing charities find the hardest thing to get funding for.
• Employee volunteers feel proud to work for a company that supports them to volunteer (59% of Zurich UK volunteers last year reported increased pride in working for Zurich because of it)
• Employee volunteers learn new skills and develop their soft skills whilst volunteering. (50% of Zurich Challenge Team leaders last year improved their leadership skills and 50% of volunteers reported improved communication skills)
• So "How much do you spend on Training & Development and Motivation" would be my answer and "what social good comes out of this as an added benefit"?

The other reason is that the learning is never one way and our volunteers learn from the charities they work with.  It may not be technical skills (sometimes it is!) but they learn to understand a social issue or improve their empathy with a condition - which if they are customer facing will make them better at customer service.  One the Claims teams in Zurich looked at how the team would deal with a particular claim for a customer living with Dementia.  Then arranged for the whole team to receive 'Dementia Friends' training and looked again at how they could handle the claim.  The results were remarkable.  64% of Zurich UK volunteers last years reported increased empathy and understanding of social issues.

We're proud members of the Skills Exchange Alliance - #Skills_Exchange .  An alliance of businesses, brokers and infrastructure organisations who want to turn the dial on the exchange of skills between the private, pubic and voluntary sector.  If you are a business interested in sharing skills, a charity looking for them or an existing broker wanting to learn more - check out the web pages here   http://bit.ly/2ca5jHV.

Or, you can join our live twitter Q&A on Monday 23rd 1-2, @ZCTrust.

Through Employer Supported Volunteering - Everybody wins.

Pam Webb
Head of the Zurich Community Trust