In a report ‘Volunteering to learn: Employee development through community action’ by the CIPD (as in ‘Volunteering can have business benefits, CIPD says,’ People Management, 2 September 2014), it was stated that volunteering schemes can have business benefits when they are linked to staff development.
The document revealed an overwhelming link between the two issues. Respondents to the survey observed their employees developing team building, workload management and communication skills.
Kate van der Plank, the Head of UK Community Action at the National Grid, has stated that her company has a high value skills based volunteering programme, including a tailored volunteering programme for their new starters. Ms van der Plank explained: ‘In our annual company survey, we compared the engagement scores of volunteers to those for the overall company. Volunteers were way ahead on all questions relating to engagement.’
Stephen Hogan, the Senior Manager, Corporate Sustainability at PwC, also survey volunteers, both before and after they were involved in volunteering activities, on four key areas: skills, engagement and awareness. He commented: ‘The results were really interesting. In those four areas, they scored higher. Within areas like skills, it’s often softer skills where people say they have developed.
Mr Hogan noted that 75 per cent of volunteers stated their experience had an impact on the way they worked.
Ruth Stuart, the learning and development research adviser at the CIPD, enthused: ‘It’s fantastic to see such a big increase in the number of employers advocating volunteering opportunities to their employees. We welcome the trend for corporate social responsibility (CSR), HR and L & D teams to work together. But it’s also clear that more needs to be done, not just to maximise the developmental opportunities that volunteering offers employees, but also to maximise the developmental opportunities that volunteering offers employees, but also to ensure that what an organisation does within its CSR activity is connected to a more strategic HR and L & D agenda around growing your own workforce and building talent pipelines.’
Ms van der Plank continued: ‘Sharing our business and professional skills enables charity and community organisations to access expertise they may otherwise have to pay for, and helps them become more commercial in the way they operate, making them more sustainable. At the same time, we benefit from rich and engaging learning experiences in skills areas relevant to our business.’
Christians have a social responsibility to give of our time and abilities to others. Above the need to benefit the community and (certainly) to increase our skill set, we should be aiming higher to show that God is working in our lives – ‘In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.’ (Matthew 5: 16) Indeed, we are told that ‘The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.’ (Galatians 5: 14, quoting Leviticus 19: 18)
Paul then exhorts us: ‘Let us not become weary in doing good…Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.’ (Galatians 6: 9 – 10, see also 1 Timothy 6: 18)
Volunteering is an activity that should be encouraged, as it has benefits both for the recipient and the volunteer.
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