A new wave of workplace volunteering is quietly reshaping how businesses operating in the South East are approaching productivity and employee wellbeing, new research suggests.
The research, commissioned by national charity Royal Voluntary Service, found 56% of firms in the region now offer paid volunteering time to staff, with 23% introducing programmes in the last 12 months alone.
The data suggests this uplift in volunteering within the South East’s business community is being driven by a desire to tackle employee burnout (31%), engage staff (27%) and boost performance (28%), as well as to deliver social impact, with 85% of businesses in the region agreeing that volunteering is important to their company purpose and ESG goals.
1,000 UK companies were questioned for the study, with the findings published in a new report entitled Untapped impact: unlocking the 140 million hour opportunity.
The report also features new analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), which reveals that increasing participation in employee volunteering could generate substantial financial gains.
Cebr’s analysis suggests the UK economy could stand to benefit from productivity gains worth £32.5 billion each year or £5,239 per employee working in professional and managerial occupations if workplace volunteering days were fully utilised.
The study stresses these productivity gains could be higher still if the voluntary efforts of those in other job roles were also considered and if paid volunteering time was offered to more employees.
However, despite the momentum, across all regions, companies are not realising the full potential of their volunteering programmes. Employers offer an average of 2.3 days annually, but the study showed more than 140 million hours of gifted time went unused last year.
Additionally, not all employees are being given equal access to volunteering opportunities. Less than one in five (19%) firms with programmes offer it to all their employees. On average, just half of employees receive the benefit.
Reasons businesses cited for not realising the potential of 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%).
Unlocking the millions of unused hours could breathe new life into civil society at a time when volunteering is in decline and demand on charities hits new highs. In response, Royal Voluntary Service has unveiled a new Volunteering Marketplace, a suite of services designed to help businesses build, embed and optimise their volunteering and social impact activities.
The offer will include bespoke programme design, measurement and reporting, expert consultancy and digital badges to recognise success.
At the heart of the charity’s Volunteering Marketplace is a new digital volunteering platform, currently in development thanks to a £5 million investment from players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Set to launch later this year, the platform is designed to remove barriers to volunteering for all, offering thousands of flexible, inclusive roles to suit modern working patterns.
For businesses, it will offer an end-to-end solution: matching staff to relevant opportunities, making volunteering easier to manage and enabling organisations to track participation and impact.
Subscription-based, the platform aims to become the UK’s largest digital volunteering community – one that works for businesses, causes and volunteers alike. It will be free for charities and the public to use.
Catherine Johnstone CBE, chief executive of 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 are seeing great 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.”
Chris Breen, head of economic insight at Cebr, added: “Business leaders and employees alike may wonder what’s in it for them when it comes to volunteering. Our research shows the answer is quite a lot.
“If every employee in a professional or managerial role offered volunteer days actually used them, it would have resulted in a £32.5 billion boost to UK productivity in 2024 alone.”
