Research published this week has found that 140 million volunteering hours went unused by UK employees last year, despite 62% of businesses offering workplace volunteering schemes to their employees.
The research, conducted by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and commissioned by the Royal Voluntary Service, claims that employee volunteering could unlock £32.5bn in productivity gains for the UK economy annually if workplace volunteering schemes were fully utilised.
The news comes as Volunteers Week begins across the UK, and shortly after the Royal Voluntary Service announced that it would be launching a digital platform and “volunteering marketplace” to help businesses to maximise their employee volunteering activities amid plummeting volunteer numbers nationwide.
Most businesses think employee volunteering is important
The research also found that 87% of businesses surveyed believe that offering paid volunteering time to their employees is important to their firm’s purpose and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
Among the other primary reasons cited for introducing workplace volunteering schemes were tackling employee burnout (34%); re-engaging staff (30%), and boosting performance (25%), as well as delivering social impact.
However, the research found that most businesses were not realising the full potential of their volunteering programmes.
Employers offered their staff an average of 2.3 days annually, but the research showed that more than 140 million hours of gifted time went unused last year.
Additionally, it reported that not all employees are being given equal access to volunteering opportunities, with less than one in five (19%) firms with programmes offering it to all their employees. On average, just half of employees receive the benefit.
Reasons cited by businesses for not realising the potential of their programmes included a lack of flexible one-off volunteering opportunities (28%) and team activities (17%); difficulty finding the right roles (21%); and not knowing where to start (12%).
Catherine Johnstone, chief executive at Royal Voluntary Service, said: “Employee volunteering programmes are fast becoming one of the smartest investments a business can make.
“As our research shows, those who do it well are seeing the greatest results – from improved staff wellbeing and motivation to increased productivity.
“If just some of those 140 million lost volunteering hours were used it could be transformational in its effect.
“With our new volunteering marketplace we will help unlock that potential – making volunteering work for more businesses and their employees and enabling them to click and connect to the causes they care about.”
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