New research published by Education and Employers, in collaboration with CIPD, has found that there are considerable benefits of employees volunteering in schools and colleges to staff, employers, and students.
Employee volunteering in schools is reported as having multiple benefits for both the individual and the organisation they work for. Top of the list for individual employee benefits are gaining communication, influencing and relationship skills and having more of a sense of mission at work. Almost all employee volunteers feel that they make a difference to the young people they interact with and gain a better understanding of issues in society that they may have been unaware of. These employee benefits result in benefits to the employer where many organisations report greater employee motivation and productivity.
Our Education Volunteers at Leicestershire Cares
The education team at Leicestershire Cares brokers relationships between schools and businesses to make it simple for business volunteers to support young people to succeed.
We know from our own work with employee volunteers that giving time to support students to develop valuable new skills can be highly rewarding. Last academic year, volunteers from our businesses were involved in both weekly and one-off volunteering opportunities. Our end of year evaluation found that volunteers experienced a wide range of benefits as a result.
Volunteers emphasised how impressed they were with the young people that they interacted with and how they enjoyed listening to their aspirations and supporting them to gain valuable skills for the future.
Volunteers also reported improved skills of their own, including coaching and mentoring, communication, motivating others and providing constructive feedback. Read our full education report 2019-2020 here.
Carla Loughrey, Assistant Marketing and PR Manager at Hinckley and Rugby Building Society, explains how volunteering in schools benefits her personally and how it equally benefits the Society as a whole:
“Volunteering in local schools gives me the benefit of experiences I would never have in day-to-day work, which enables me to build on skills that prove useful in both my personal and working life. It also gives me a great deal of satisfaction knowing I am helping to support young people from our local area, that I also grew up in.
“As a mutual building society, one of Hinckley & Rugby’s main purposes is to benefit the community. So, we are delighted that our partnership with Leicestershire Cares provides so many opportunities for our staff across the county to volunteer with some fantastic organisations.
“But by no means is this a one-way relationship! Volunteering supports our own staff with their personal development, especially in the areas of self-confidence, communication skills and presentation delivery. And our business benefits from these opportunities as they help us to build positive – often long lasting – relationships with local schools which are educating children who could be future colleagues and customers.”
As lockdown continues, remote employee volunteering with schools is a great way for businesses to boost motivation and engagement amongst staff, whether they are still working from home or are furloughed. For more details of how you can get involved please contact helen@leicestershirecares.co.uk