Wondering why volunteering is important for your business?
You get an array of benefits from employer-supported volunteering (ESV), also known as corporate volunteering.
Your ESV programme can involve projects arranged by the business, supporting individual employee volunteering, or a combination of both.
At Blooming Haus, we believe in the power of volunteering, and we’ve seen its benefits firsthand, from sharing our passion for sustainability with others to enhancing the well-being of our team.
We’re excited to share our insights about why volunteering is important for your business.
How Your Business and Employees Get Value from Volunteering
1. Reasons Why Volunteering is Important for Your Business
There are many reasons why volunteering is important for your business.
Some of these reasons are specific to a business.
For example, we collaborate with sustainability focussed organisations such as Buglife, Ecologi, The National Forest, and the Woodland Trust because they’re a good fit with our eco-friendly ethos and love of flowers and nature.
However, we’ll look at some reasons for the importance of volunteering that apply to all businesses.
Stretching and developing employees
Looking for ways to develop your employees that aren’t too costly for the business?
Volunteering is an excellent solution.
When employees volunteer, they practice soft skills such as communication and leadership.
They also have the opportunity to use professional skills in a different environment.
So, if you develop your ESV programme well, your employees learn and grow.
You can include volunteering as part of employee learning and development plans, and the skills they learn and enhance improve their performance at work.
Enhancing your sustainability record
Even if you’re already dedicated to sustainability like us, there’s always room for enhancing your efforts.
Doing this has benefits that may surprise you.
A 2022 report by First Insight found that 72% of consumers consider sustainability when making purchasing decisions.
So, you can grow your customer base by enhancing your sustainability record with relevant volunteering projects.
Improving your sustainability record also helps you reach goals such as achieving B Corp status in recognition of your environmental performance and accountability.
If you aim to raise the sustainability profile of your business, you may find this article useful.
We practice sustainability in everything we do, including using green energy to power our studio, composting organic materials, and reusing delivery packaging and flower buckets.
We also collaborate with relevant organisations such as Buglife.
If you’d like the benefit of our knowledge, pop your questions in the comments, and we’ll get back to you.
Building your corporate social responsibility (CSR) is another reason why volunteering is important for your business.
Your business is held to account by CSR self-regulation for its impacts on the environment and society.
Having ESV in place makes this impact positive.
This is great news because positive CSR means your business is a responsible one.
Once people become aware of this, you get a good reputation with customers and potential investors.
Plus…
Research suggests that more than 80% of young professionals consider CSR when making employment decisions.
So, you’ll also find it easier to attract high-quality employees if your CSR is positive.
Helping the third sector achieve more
The cost of living crisis is affecting most businesses, including third-sector organisations.
Your company’s volunteers can make a big difference to these providers.
They allow them to do more work without having to increase their expenditure.
We’re strong supporters of the third sector, so we embark on collaborations such as our activities with Buglife.
This charity aims to protect insects and help the environment by doing so.
Our work with them begins in September when we start rewilding areas of London as part of their B-Lines project, making it easier for insects to survive and thrive.
This video shows you just how important working with organisations like Buglife is.
Your business can work with third-sector organisations by providing volunteers to help them.
You can make a real difference to them and the wider community.
Improving employee health
As an employer, you have a responsibility to attend to the health and well-being of your employees.
This is one of the main reasons why volunteering is important to your business.
Volunteering is a proven way to reduce stress and burnout.
It also boosts mental well-being and reduces the number of employee sick days.
These effects of volunteering don’t only benefit employees; they positively impact the performance of your business and the workforce overall.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of working hours lost to sickness or injury increased to 2.6% in 2022, up 0.4% from 2021 and 0.7% on pre-pandemic levels.
So, any impact in the right direction is good news for businesses and the individuals concerned.
Volunteering gives people a higher purpose, making it less likely they will have cardiovascular problems and more likely they’ll remain healthier overall.
So, allowing your employees to volunteer during work hours makes them healthier.
Given how vital this aspect of volunteering is, we’ll take a closer look.
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2. How Volunteering Boosts Your Employees’ Health
When considering why volunteering is important for your business, the health of your employees is a vital factor.
The social aspect of volunteering, and the meaningful connections made, relieve stress and improve overall psychological well-being.
The simple fact is that volunteering makes people feel happy.
And happy employees are more likely to feel good, which helps them to remain healthier and more productive in the workplace.
Volunteering can be especially useful if you have an older workforce in your business.
The older we get, the more likely we are to develop issues such as chronic pain and heart disease.
Spending time volunteering, especially if physical activity is involved, helps reduce health risks and alleviates symptoms.
This helps the individual and improves their performance as an employee.
It provides insights into how individuals benefit from volunteering, including that 77% of respondents reported experiencing improved mental health and well-being due to their activities.
4. Developing an Employer-Supported Volunteering Programme
When you introduce ESV into your business, you should have a planned programme in place.
Your starting point should be developing a policy so that all expectations are understood by everyone involved.
Your policy should include the following:
– A definition of volunteering – Which volunteering opportunities you’re happy to support as a business – Whether the business provides time off for volunteering and how much time is allowed – How to find volunteering opportunities and whether they will be sought by the organisation or individuals – A definition of the role of a volunteer and how it differs from the role of an employee – Expectations regarding employee behavior while volunteering – Procedures if employees have any complaints about the volunteering experience
5. Volunteering Opportunities that Benefit the Environment
If you understand why volunteering is important for your business and want inspiration regarding appropriate activities, we can help.
Why not spend some time protecting and preserving the environment for future generations?
Three perfect volunteering activities in this area are:
– Tree planting – Planting community gardens – Keeping the environment clean
Tree planting opportunities in the UK
Threats to woodland and wildlife continue to increase.
They face challenges from various sources, including:
– Pollution – Inappropriate development – Tree diseases and pests – Climate change
In the case of climate change and pollution, they damage and destroy trees, then a lack of trees leads to more issues with climate change and pollution.
So, a vicious circle is created.
To overcome this situation, volunteering to plant trees or participating in tree-planting programmes helps alleviate climate change and improves air quality.
This journal entry looks at the subject in more detail.
Wildflowers feed pollinators like bees and butterflies, which carry pollen to plants allowing them to fertilise and produce flowers, fruits, and seeds.
During the summer, one acre of wildflowers containing three million flowers produces enough nectar sugar to support around 96,000 honey bees daily.
At Blooming Haus, we know how valuable pollinators and other insects are, so we’re working with Buglife, as mentioned earlier.
You can help insects and other wildlife by choosing volunteering opportunities for your business that involve planting community gardens and wildflower meadows.
Community gardens aren’t just valuable to wildlife.
They also benefit people in the community by providing them with physical activities and healthy food.
You can choose to start your own community garden project to benefit people in the area around your business.
Every item of rubbish that’s collected and taken away doesn’t endanger birds or other wildlife.
So, anything volunteers do is vital.
Choosing to clean your local environment as a volunteering project for your business protects wildlife and makes the area a better place for people to live in.
Want to Join the Discussion About Why Volunteering is Important for Your Business?
Have we shown you why volunteering is important for your business and inspired you to get involved?
We hope we have.
And we’d love to hear how you’ll take volunteering forward in your business.
