Nearly two-thirds (62%) of employers offer employee volunteering days, yet 140 million hours went unused in the last 12 months, according to research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
Its analysis of 1,000 UK organisations, which was commissioned by national charity Royal Voluntary Service, also found that the UK economy could benefit from productivity gains worth at least £32.5 billion each year, or £5,239 per professional and managerial employee, if workplace volunteering days were fully utilised.
In addition, more than a quarter of respondents have introduced volunteering in the last 12 months, in order to tackle employee burnout (34%), re-engage staff (30%) and boost performance (25%). A majority (87%) said volunteering is important to their purpose and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.
Employers offer an average of 2.3 days annually, however, fewer than a fifth(19%) that offer voluteering programmes do so to all employees. On average, just half of employees receive the benefit.
The reasons 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%).
Catherine Johnstone, chief executive at Royal Voluntary Service, said: “Employee volunteering programmes are fast becoming one of the smartest investments a business can make. As our research shows, those that do it well are seeing the greatest 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.”
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.”
