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