Even when businesses are laser-focussed on productivity, more and more are choosing to roll out corporate volunteering programmes. Here’s why it’s worth it:

It boosts employee wellbeing

Recently, Oxford University conducted a survey across 46,000 UK employees. They uncovered that, unlike traditional corporate wellness programmes, volunteering is the only intervention that genuinely boosts employee well-being. 

It creates a sense of belonging

Volunteering is proven to help employees forge stronger connections to their community and with their coworkers. In turn, that improves  mental health and job satisfaction, and helps to foster a more supportive and inclusive work environment.

It helps employees develop new skills

Volunteering gives employees the chance to develop critical skills like empathy, understanding, and the ability to interact with diverse groups (great skills for future leaders!)

It makes a difference to surrounding communities

Volunteering for local causes is a chance for businesses to make a real positive impact on causes and people where their business operates. It can also be crucial in fighting loneliness locally.

Possibly the most compelling case for corporate volunteering is the impact it has on the business.

It helps with employee turnover and attracts new talent

Research conducted by Benevity found that, among employees who’d had their job for 2.5 years or less, those that volunteered with their company were 52% less likely to leave. For those that had been at the business longer, they saw a 24% reduction in employee turnover.

When you equate those stats to the cost of onboarding, hiring, and recruiting –  it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to have corporate volunteering in place. And companies with volunteering programmes are also better able to attract new talent. 

It helps with productivity, performance, peer recognition and promotions 

In their research, Benevity saw a strong correlation between promotions and volunteering participation.

Plus, people who volunteer are often predominantly women and people of colour – meaning companies can use volunteering programmes to help generate a healthy pipeline of diverse leaders.

They found that volunteering increases oxytocin, connectedness, and trust – which is great for team-building. Volunteering also lead to better physical health, and reduces depression and anxiety

It’s uncommon to find a corporate programme that delivers on so many facets of value. 

Corporate volunteering the Olio way

Since we were first founded, we’re proud to have built a network of 130,000 passionate and committed volunteers. Our Food Waste Heroes give up their time to fight food waste by rescuing food from local businesses, and share it with members of the local community. 

We also work with over 400 corporate offices and their caterers, to collect spare food from their canteens, and redistribute it locally. Often, we get asked about how we can get staff at the businesses we work with involved in Olio volunteering. 

Getting your team volunteering with Olio couldn’t be simpler

Start giving back to the communities surrounding your offices and where your employees live today.

Here’s how your staff can get involved. They’ll need to:

• Download Olio
• Sign up as a Food Waste Hero via our Volunteer Hub
• Complete our comprehensive food safety training
• Claim a collection from a local business
• Start sharing food with local people

Each of our volunteers get a real-time report of the impact they’ve had in our app, which your employees can easily share with you for you to aggregate. And it quickly adds up if there’s multiple team members volunteering!

Get started today

Here’s a quick email template we’ve put together for you to send round to your employees. Feel free to tweak it to suit the needs of your business.

Don’t forget to let us know how it goes – we love seeing pictures of our volunteers in action on social media!

Happy Olio-ing.