Caroline McKenna business comment: Why employee volunteering is a power for good

You don’t have to look far to see the devastation of 21st-century war.

Caroline McKenna launched Social Good Connect during the first 2020 lockdown. Her non-profit digital search & match platform and team connect skilled volunteers from businesses to the communities and causes they care about.

While the worst of human suffering and atrocities may be thousands of miles away, there’s no doubt that Scotland is facing its own challenges, with a rocketing surge in demand for food banks, families forced to either heat or eat, and an escalating mental health crisis not withstanding a fractured economy due to Covid, catastrophic funding cuts and cost of living hikes.

Whichever way you look, there’s a staggering amount of pain and inequality across society.

For the thousands of charities that so many rely upon for support, it’s crisis point. When the going gets tough, they’re a lifeline but, with funding cuts decimating their operations, countless fundraising events postponed, and a national drop in volunteers, things have suddenly got a whole lot worse for the third sector.

With many charities on the brink of survival financially, the need for skilled volunteers has never been greater.

And this is where business owners and their employees can really make a difference.

Whether you’re a wealth management property company, firm of solicitors, digital marketing agency or construction firm, your workforce can give back and make a measurable difference in ways they might not realise. What’s more, charities are not the only beneficiaries.

With employee volunteering on the rise, and workforces throughout Scotland helping overstretched charities and struggling communities, we regularly hear how company employees, the ones out there doing their bit, are reaping multiple rewards from giving their time and skills.

So, what can your workforce do against a backdrop of their own day-to-day pressures and priorities?

In my experience, the businesses giving back most effectively are those moving away from the historical “charity of the year” and annual charity days approach. It’s less “them and us” and more “how we can work together in a trusted partnership where the benefits and the positive, lasting impact are equal?”

Employee volunteering is a great solution, but perhaps more businesses need to understand what that could look like.

I’m often approached by charities seeking skilled support to run and grow their operations, allowing them to support their beneficiaries in the best possible way. They’re seeking board members, trustees, PR advisors, search engine optimisation specialists, HR help - the list goes on.

While they lack the funds to pay for professional services, many of us are sitting here with these skills in abundance, not realising the impact we could make by sharing them for just 30 minutes or so.

I speak daily with leaders of small grass-roots charities, larger, established charities and everything in between. Too many are crying out for expertise, in-depth knowledge and specialist skills that sit within every type of business - tech firms, law firms, sports education businesses, schools, data-crunching firms and many more. I sense frustration, missed opportunities and gaps in understanding how charities and businesses can best work together.

Similarly, as the last two years have shown, there are no geographical barriers. Employees can offer support wherever they are. Your teams may have ditched their daily commute for hybrid working but taking a break from the working day has never been more critical. Indeed, we’re constantly hearing how easy it’s been for employees to fit short, manageable chunks of volunteering into their working week, even from the dining room table!

What’s more, when skilled professionals give their time and expertise to causes they care about; they feel good about themselves, it improves people’s mental wellbeing.

Taking an hour from the daily routine to tackle someone else’s challenges allows us to meet new people and shape a renewed sense of purpose.

In stepping off the wheel to help others, we bring back to the workplace a new energy, new perspective and new connections. Indeed, The Journal of Happiness Studies found that those who volunteer at least once a month reported better mental health than participants who volunteered infrequently or not at all.

We’re also more likely to feel more connected with our socially responsible employer. Indeed, research by Cone Communications found that nearly two-thirds of young people won’t take a job at a company with poor corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. And, from the consumer’s perspective, 76 per cent of consumers say they wouldn’t do business with a company that holds views or supports issues that are in conflict with their own.

Employee volunteering is also an excellent way of demonstrating your CSR which must, by law, be factored into any bids for public tenders.

So what are you waiting for? By rethinking how we choose to give, not just to the communities we serve but to our employees in the process, we can make a huge and lasting difference.

After all, as an SME owner said to me recently, “if you can help your people contribute to society by helping them volunteer on work time and in a supportive framework, why wouldn’t you?

“Culturally it’s extremely rewarding to create a workplace environment where giving back is seen as part of work and part of life.”

Caroline McKenna launched Social Good Connect during the first 2020 lockdown. Her non-profit digital search & match platform and team connect skilled volunteers from businesses to the communities and causes they care about: www.socialgoodconnect.org

Caroline is hosting a workshop as part of Edinburgh’s Business Festival on March, 31. To attend “Two P’s in a Pod - Harnessing the Power of your Purpose + People”, visit: www.eventbrite.co.uk

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