Volunteering has changed in the UK since its medieval origins. Hassan Butt explores the opportunities now open to employees and the strategies through which volunteers are engaged

In 2005, former prime minister Gordon Brown evoked ‘the invisible hand’ of his fellow countryman, the economist and moral philosopher, Adam Smith, pledging before a chamber full of peers that it would be, “The year of the volunteer.” Yet volunteering has existed in the UK far earlier than that and now exists in more ways than ever.

Last year’s Community Life Survey pointed to approximately 70% of respondents partaking in some form of volunteering throughout the year, with a further 47% volunteering once a month. Yet across the entire breadth of the voluntary establishment, from corporate to virtual volunteering, the question of communicating an internal message through valuable implementation and incorporation of volunteer schemes is often without consideration.

Historically, volunteering has its roots in the medieval ministration of the 12th and 13th centuries, when voluntary hospitals formed the earliest blueprint of today’s social welfare system. These institutions’ longstanding association with the military sphere has resulted in homegrown organisations like the British Red Cross solidifying their global statuses as humanitarian forces. Subsequent years have seen iterations of volunteering remoulded and reshaped with each new era of governance, and as the 1970s brought nationwide professionalisation to the voluntary sector, today’s civil society voluntary organisations exceed 160,000, with over £196bn in combined annual income and £110bn in expenditure.

Of the £196bn in income, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations’ UK Civil Society Almanac 2016 calculates the top three figures as approximately £43.8bn for general charities, £30.7bn for universities and £30bn for employee-owned businesses. Likewise, both general charities and universities appear in equal positioning with regards to expenditure (£41bn and £29.4bn). Employee-owned businesses however, expend minimal amounts of their annual income from volunteering, making them one of the most effective means of volunteering within modern society.

With that in mind, the arena of corporate volunteering has mushroomed in the last decade. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) now reinforces company expansion, entering domains far beyond the pale of philanthropy and extending to every branch of company operations. The 2016 example of the John Lewis Partnership’s £12m investment into local communities resulted in employees giving back through three schemes: empowerment and livelihood, health and wellness, and environment. Yet John Lewis’ efforts to communicate its pledge to employee volunteering schemes has long been manifested by concise, in-depth and localised strategies.

The partnership’s Golden Jubilee Trust volunteering programme, launched in 2000, honours full- or part- time involvement with a UK registered charity for up to six months. Its measurement process, manifested in volunteer awards schemes, showcases exemplary procedures in CSR best practice. As volunteering schemes differ in impact, a thread of community involvement narrates the CSR commitments of several FTSE 250 companies, most of whom offer hours of paid leave in exchange for volunteering.

For Japanese electronics company, Ricoh, valuing staff impact in voluntary terms takes on varied civic responsibility. With total staff numbers exceeding 2,000 people, over 700 have volunteered in one form or another, with over 4,300 hours taken from the business and placed into volunteering opportunities. Ricoh raised £67,490 in 2016 for charity, underpinned by the company’s ongoing relationship with the Prince’s Trust. Yet the organisation’s work within HM Prison Service breaks the mould of corporate volunteering.

James Knox, community investment manager at Ricoh, says, “The reducing reoffending arena is typically one that is hard to support and one which, understandably, most businesses are hesitant to work within. This itself emphasises the need for businesses and individuals to get involved. I have seen first-hand how supporting these individuals can have a significant impact on not only those with convictions, but internal employees also.”

Confronting a subterranean aspect of civic society, Ricoh’s communications strategy sees top-down communication aiming to align the business with the harsh realities of the UK’s judiciary system. Ricoh’s visits to HMP Brixton as part of a scheme called ‘Seeing is Believing,’ allowed Ricoh staff to engage with those serving prison sentences, inspiring chief executive, Phil Keoghan, to establish means to improve employment outcomes for prisoners upon their release. Ricoh’s efforts include the launch of a fully functioning print room and training academy within HMP Onley.

“The key to communication for mentors and mentees on Women Ahead programmes is consistency, simplicity and a professional approach. We make sure that all individuals have clarity from the start in terms of expectations in their role, and provide them with detailed support documents at every stage.”

Ricoh’s company initiatives such as ‘Ban the Box,’ in conjunction with the HM Prison Service’s release on temporary licence (ROTL) process, has resulted in case studies such as Lucy’s. She is an ex- offender whose employment at Ricoh through ROTL illustrates the company’s forward-thinking attitude to communicating its CSR commitment. Through Ban the Box, Ricoh’s volunteering engagement not only manifests itself as an external benefit to wider society, but also allows for its CSR efforts to come full circle, using the company’s inner domain as the endpoint to the volunteering project. Adding to its repertoire, Ricoh’s continued CSR campaigns allow it to avoid functioning unilaterally, or exist beholden to a singular form of voluntary work. Contributing to the increasing existence of mentoring schemes within businesses, the example of specialist consultancy Women Ahead’s fast growing mentoring scheme, Moving Ahead, places the experience of working business professionals with athletes who wish to discover new territory. Ricoh’s inclusion in this process remains another spoke in the wheel of their overall CSR commitment.

Rebekah Wallis, board director of people and corporate responsibility at Ricoh, says, “To support its internal culture of mentoring and coaching, Ricoh is now engaging with mentoring externally, creating a powerful link between our development and corporate responsibility activities. Male and female Ricoh leaders have mentored athletes, female leaders in other organisations and at the LTA (and previously British Cycling). This is resulting in engagement, motivation and exceptional learning for the mentors all of which impacts positively on them and their own teams.”

Yet for Women Ahead, the voluntary sector must continue to challenge itself with each new venture. Liz Dimmock, CEO of Moving Ahead, says, “We’re seeing a huge shift in the way corporates think about volunteering. Now, it is not about painting schools or going on away days – all volunteering has to have a learning benefit beyond the organisation. HR leaders want their employees to use their time spent volunteering to develop their skills, create broader networks, and to see an increase in engagement and motivation.” With continued challenges cropping up within the sector, communication remains a crucial element to organisational volunteering. Dimmock says, “The key to communication for mentors and mentees on Women

Ahead programmes is consistency, simplicity and a professional approach. We make sure that all individuals have clarity from the start in terms of expectations in their role, and provide them with detailed support documents at every stage.”

Yet the luxury of having employees as reliable, efficient and guaranteed contributors to a CSR objective is part of their commitment to that organisation, something that isn’t uniform across the voluntary sector. Battling funding cuts to the sector, a training coordinator for a major national charity says, “With the cuts in the industry, we’re losing a lot of training coordinators. I know of three locations in London that don’t have them. With no one to recruit or train volunteers, existing volunteers lose enthusiasm, and when that happens, the quality of our service drops. In addition, our head office is often found simplifying and dumbing-down training materials, making us unable to teach volunteers at a high level. There used to be three people doing my job, and over time, the focus on volunteering has dwindled.”

Despite augmented figures over the years, volunteering continues to have its struggles, some of which have been remedied by spreading the issues to other departments or evading the means to effective solutions. Additionally, duty of care remains a pressing issue within volunteer-led organisations, as legal protection manifests itself simply in the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, external volunteers are often systematically exiled from the inner workings of charities, NGOs and NFPs.

Similarly, sectors such as electronics or retailers often find exposure to CSR compatible with wider company objectives, however the question of client- based industries balancing CSR objectives against their acquisition-focused business plans, can leave volunteering opportunities low on the scale of focus. Yet for global PR firm, Ketchum, CSR is a focal point in understanding the value of employees. Ketchum’s CSR programme, quirkily titled KSR (Ketchum Social Responsibility) communicates this throughout the organisation. KSR includes an initiative entitled ’90-for-90,’ which challenges Ketchum colleagues to brainstorm short and long-term solutions for a collection of nonprofit organisations, applying the Ketchum workforce in a dynamic way.

Julie Hines, global director of KSR, says, “We have a particular practice group within Ketchum called Ketchum Purpose. They work with clients on their CSR programmes and marketing efforts and are a team spread across the network globally. I work closely with this particular group to ensure the type of council that we’re giving our clients, we are also following ourselves when it comes to our own CSR programmes. We have a strong roster of clients that fall into that space, and it’s a group that continues to grow year on year.”

As volunteering develops in each field, its progress has developed in leaps and bounds since Brown’s parliamentary speech. Although volunteering need not be categorised today, in effect, as moonlighting for a greater cause, its potential continues to expand as charities and company objectives align. Brown’s use of the proverbial ‘invisible hand’ may have provoked a passionate governmental push to secure the position of the volunteer in the UK. But organisations will continue to dictate the efforts of volunteering on a national scale. Yet achieving a succinct, transparent and effective communications strategy allows for each volunteer programme to flourish beyond the limitations of any particular sector.