Employer Supported Volunteering

Volunteering is the commitment of time and energy, for the benefit of society and the community, the environment, and others. It is unpaid and undertaken freely and by choice.

Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) is when organisations actively support and encourage their employees to volunteer. This can take many forms from an employer freeing up time for employees to do their own volunteering, as well as formal ESV programmes.

Whatever form it takes, ESV is becoming more popular as it allows organisations to make a big difference through volunteering.

We are very keen to encourage local companies to support employees to be actively involved in the community by contributing their time and skills and are therefore currently actively promoting and supporting a range of ESV projects across the county.

Lisa’s Story

Lisa explains how being given time by her employer to volunteer – through Employer Supported Volunteering (ESV) – has helped her.

We also hear from Sarah at Eden Animal Rescue, who explains why volunteers like Lisa are so important to helping them do their work.

And Judith explains how giving employees time to volunteer not only helps the individual, but also benefits the employer with staff skills development, retention, motivation and more.

VolkerRail and Yewedale Community Centre

Watch the video below to see how VolkerRail, their suppliers, and the Yewdale Community Centre in Carlisle all benefited from the ESV project we helped them to arrange.

You can also read our VolkerRail and Yewdale Community Centre Case Study here

Employer Supported Volunteering Sub Group Meeting

We host an ESV Sub Group Meeting to bring together Volunteer Managers in Cumbria and businesses to further develop ESV in the county.

If you are a business or charity and would like to present and share what your organisation does at a future ESV Meeting please email: judiths@cumbriacvs.org.uk

Staff can benefit from ESV:

Participating in ESV projects builds self-confidence and supports personal development.

Share skills and experience:

  • Give staff a sense of achievement
  • A chance to make a difference
  • Explore new situations and challenges
  • Build relationships with colleagues

Companies can benefit from ESV in a number of ways including:

  • Providing personal development opportunities for employees
  • Helping to motivate staff
  • Recruiting and retaining staff
  • Bringing new skills/experience/ideas into the organisation
  • Marketing the company positively
  • Providing effective training
  • Team building

Developing Volunteering Opportunities

Cumbria CVS can work with local volunteer-involving organisations to provide a range of ESV opportunities for local companies and organisations including:

Practical ones such as:

  • Gardening
  • Beach cleans
  • Decorating
  • Community Clean Ups
  • Conservation

Professional ones including:

  • Accountancy
  • IT
  • Social Media
  • Governance
  • HR
  • Marketing
  • Business planning
  • Trustees

Personal Volunteering

Through working with employers, we aim to encourage individual employees to get involved with volunteering with projects that they have a personal interest or passion in.

Cumbria CVS Volunteer Brokerage Service – Employer Supported Volunteering

Cumbria CVS can support organisations to develop, deliver, manage and evaluate a successful ESV scheme as part of our Volunteer Brokerage Service. Please get in touch for costings and to discuss further.

 

To discuss ESV further please contact:
Judith Smale, County Volunteer Support Officer
01768 800350 or email:  judiths@cumbriacvs.org.uk

 

Cumbria CVS Employer Supported Volunteering Policy

Cumbria CVS recognises that it has a social responsibility to support our own staff to undertake volunteering activities with other voluntary and community organisations. Please see the Cumbria CVS Employer Supported Volunteering Policy for full details download here