Companies are changing. It’s no longer enough to offer a competitive salary, a pension and five weeks’ holiday a year.

Today, employers are expected to not only look after their employees in terms of welfare and personal development, they are also increasingly asked to make a positive contribution to the community in which they function — something which is called corporate social responsibility or CSR.

But achieving this can be far from clear-cut, which is where the expertise of Hook-based community interest company Employee Volunteering can be of assistance.

Set up in 2006 by Dewi Thomas, Cheryl Edwards and Caroline Copley, the not-for-profit organisation is finding the service it offers is much in demand, bringing together businesses, communities and local charities for their mutual benefit.

The principle behind Employee Volunteering is to allow companies to become involved in local community and charitable projects by sending employees along to work on a community project for a given period of time, usually a day, to achieve a specific goal.

Caroline explained that the idea is to promote communication between the parties involved and create a meaningful level of engagement.

The programmes clearly have benefits for the charities and communities. First, they receive constructive, practical assistance, and secondly, working with Employee Volunteering can help them focus on and define their needs and values.

But perhaps what is not so obvious is that companies can also gain in a positive way from the experience.

CSR is becoming an ever more important consideration for companies which want to improve their image beyond the boundaries of the business world.

Since the early days of modern corporate social awareness by companies such as The Body Shop and Benetton, the expectation of some kind of altruistic activity within the local, national or even global community has grown to become almost mandatory, at least for the larger firms.

Working with Employee Volunteering can help companies fulfil this requirement in areas beneficial to all parties involved. The company’s brand reputation is enhanced in the outside world and employees develop a greater sense of the ‘feelgood’ factor about their employer.

Caroline said: “CSR is an additional layer of sophistication in corporate culture and it’s rapidly becoming a major part of it. It’s about perceptions of the business within and without it.

"CSR makes for good PR and it helps companies attract the best employees and then retain them. People want to feel good about the company they work for and its wider reputation reflects on them too.”

Furthermore, within the companies themselves, where team-building exercises tended to be limited to non-productive, leisure activities such as assault courses and paintball days, now employees can be given a specific task to complete as a team while also benefiting others outside the company.

“The benefits for a company go far beyond simply fulfilling CSR,” continued Caroline. “On occasions, these activities can help them meet targets, such as those for market research where the work they do through Employee Volunteering is directly related to their business
in some way.
“Or it can provide their employees with new skills. An example of this would be our community coaching project whereby employees from different companies learn how to coach young people known as NEETs by the government — that is not in education, employment or training — to help them get into work.

“The employees undertaking this course obtain a recognised qualification in coaching and influencing skills so it becomes part of their own training and personal development too. They can then use what they’ve learned in the wider community.

“This project was started in March with 23 young people, who incidentally are being filmed by the BBC for a documentary next year, and already two of them have found work. The challenge now is sustaining this.”

Some companies have adopted  mentoring schemes, but Caroline believes that where coaching scores over these is in the fact that it’s a more powerful, adaptable and valuable technique.

She continued: “In mentoring, the mentor takes ownership of the problem or situation, but with coaching, the coach simply explains the options available to the person being coached, allowing them to retain ownership and make their own decisions. 

“In other words, being coached gives that person the tools to resolve the current situation, and also any future ones, themselves. And the coach has the ability to apply their knowledge in a variety of areas.”

The courses also have one or two hidden benefits in that the costs of them are very competitive compared with others in the private sector, thereby saving the money of the participating companies, and, furthermore, any profits obtained from their running is ploughed back into the local community.

But it’s not all about training. As far as community projects are concerned, Employee Volunteering organises a wide range, matching the needs of both company and community or charity.

This is no mean feat and Caroline points out that first the right kind of project needs to be found. It must then be developed and delivered in an appropriate way, such as the recent one in which SC Johnson took part where 175 employees undertook seven different community projects on one day.

“We try to find beneficial and constructive projects which can be completed in a day,” she said.

“Then on top of this, they need to meet the specific requirements of the company, such as developing problem solving abilities or improving communication skills.”

The types of projects can vary enormously. It might be something physical such as clearing a blocked pond in a wildlife sanctuary or it could be more social, such as providing a treat to people with a disability or learning difficulties.

One project which proved enormously successful and popular last summer is being repeated this year.

The Get With programme was originally devised by Sentinel Housing Association in 2005 and it aims to provide activities to young people between the ages of 11 and 16 during the long summer school holiday.

The idea behind it was to reduce antisocial behaviour by diverting activities of teenagers and offering an alternative to hanging around on street corners.

Although it had been working well, Sentinel wanted to add another dimension and it brought in Employee Volunteering to create what was, in effect, a unique product.

The result is a programme which would be hard to provide in any other way because of the costs involved. It offers exciting activities for youngsters which would otherwise be outside the scope of their possibilities — and it’s all free.

To ensure Get With was a success, it was vital to discover exactly what the young people wanted. To do this, Employee Volunteering went into the local schools and asked the pupils.
What they came up with was an extremely varied programme with something to suit everyone, such as the IBM fun day with robot wars and karaoke, assault courses with the Army, football skills with Aldershot Town FC, advertisement design with Thomson Local and street dance with the Urban Dance Company.

Caroline explained: “The young people can turn up whenever they want and stay as long as they want. They can come once during the summer or every day — it’s entirely up to them. All we need from them is a signed parental consent form.”

By bringing in some of these companies, Caroline explained that activities can be provided which could never be supplied by the public sector agencies, producing a truly memorable day for those taking part.

“A day learning technical computer skills with IBM to produce an activity that’s great fun, such as robot wars, is a wonderful opportunity for many youngsters, which I’m sure they will love,” she said.

“And as well as the companies actively taking part — Nokia, Qualcomm, IBM, TAG Aviation, Thomson Local, and Huawei Technologies — others have given support in other ways.

“For example, Dairy Crest is providing free milk and water, and Stagecoach is giving free bus passes to those youngsters who have to travel to the centres.

“We have brought together a number of other agencies as well as the businesses and these have given us enormous support, including the police, the fire service, local councils and Hampshire County Council, to ensure we can make as big an impact as possible.”

Where a programme like Get With scores all round is that everyone involved gets to benefit.
Caroline explained: “It’s fantastic for the youngsters, and it can really lift their aspirations and motivation when they see that the workplace is full of ‘normal’ people doing interesting jobs.

"But in addition, it’s beneficial to the companies and agencies taking part because not only does it deal with CSR, it also allows them to reach one of their target audiences and perhaps get some feedback.

“There is a general lack of provision for youngsters in this age group, in contrast to children of primary school age, and last year was the first time we held the new model Get With. The feedback from the young people was very positive. Some even said they couldn’t wait for this year so they could do it all over again.”

So successful is Employee Volunteering, it is hard to believe it has only been operating for around 18 months.

Already companies further afield than north-east Hampshire, and those with multiple sites around the country, have shown an interest in utilising the skills of Employee Volunteering.

Caroline sees no reason why it shouldn’t be possible to introduce the projects elsewhere, once the obstacle of establishing links with the relevant communities has been overcome, and this is an area where she sees the larger charities playing an active part.

“We have some great ideas and there’s a lot to do,” she said. “But we won’t promise anything we can’t deliver.

“It is about appreciating what is achievable. What we do want for the future is to be a vital force using business skills to help communities and, in return, communities to empower businesses.

“And of course, if businesses are successful, it boosts the local and national economy and allows it to thrive, so ultimately, we’re all winners.”

Rushmoor Get With will be held at the Capricorn Youth Centre, Connaught Campus, on weekdays from July 28 to August 22, from noon until 6pm.

Activities include: Army inflatable assault course (July 28, August 4, 11, 18), taekwondo (July 29, August 5, 12, 19), Farnborough Airport visit (August 13), Nokia fun day (August 20), IBM fun day with robot wars and karaoke (August 1), Runways End outward bound trip (August 14), Qualcomm ‘build a radio’ day (July 30).

Also on offer are football, basketball, dance, art, tag rugby, nail art, drama, DJ workshop, drumming, fishing and first aid plus others.

For full details of activities and a consent form call Get With on 0845 226 9694.

Hart Get With will be held at the Darby Green Centre, Yateley, from July 28 to August 1, and then at the Base Youth Club, Hook, from August 4 to 22.

Activities include: Wild West party including bucking bronco (July 28), DJ workshop and movie making (July 29, August 4), IBM fun day with robot wars, karaoke (August 5),company fun day with art and sports (August 1), Nokia fun day (August 8), Thomson Local design an ad (August 15), beach party (August 22). 

Also on offer are football, basketball, fishing, a coastal trip, dance, pool, taekwondo, cooking, Snap disco, outward bound trip, hand and feet massage.

For details and consent form call 0845 226 9694.