Volunteer your time to boost skills

It’s Volunteers’ Week, so what better time to donate some working hours to improving your local community?

Volunteers’ Week is an annual event that takes place on 1-7 June. It celebrates the contribution made by millions of volunteers across the UK. It’s run by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) in partnership with Volunteer Development Scotland, Volunteer Now (Northern Ireland) and Wales Council for Voluntary Action.

Events take place throughout the country, including:

• showcases of the different volunteering roles on offer
• taster sessions and team challenges with new partners
• volunteer recruitment events
• awards ceremonies
• the launch of new volunteering campaigns.

Business involvement

Customers appreciate a business that takes the trouble to ‘give something back’, so why not allow your staff some time to help out a worthy cause and let your clients know what you have got planned for Volunteers’ Week? Tell people about your plans through social media, a customer newsletter or on the Volunteers’ Week blog.

Taking on a new challenge and encouraging staff to put themselves out of their normal comfort zone can help them to learn new skills and view their day-to-day duties from a refreshed point of view, improving staff morale and staff productivity.

The task of coming up with ideas for how to volunteer can also act as a great team building exercise and can allow staff of all levels to work as equals. You could even spot potential in your team members to take on new work duties.

Find the right event

There are events going on throughout the UK for Volunteers’ Week and you can search online for one near you. Alternatively, you could always approach a local charity or cause of your own choice.

Here are some ideas of how your business could even volunteer time within your own Bizspace business centre community:

Share your skills
Do you have specialist knowledge that would be helpful to other businesses? You could share this by holding a free session at your business centre. For example, is there some forthcoming legislation that businesses should be aware of? Could you pass on some tips on making the best use of social media?

Make new businesses welcome
Are there new companies moving into your business centre?  Volunteer some time to show them around the local area and introduce them to other companies in the centre who they may be able to do business with.

Speak to your centre manager
There may be some events taking place or jobs in progress that you and your team could help with.  You may have some ideas that your company could help to implement.

Let us know what you’re doing for Volunteers’ Week.  We will feature the best stories in The Biz newsletter.