Business Benefits of Volunteering

Business Benefits of Volunteering An introduction to skills based volunteering Mari Frengstad

TABLE OF CONTENT: Executive Summary... 3 Introduction... 5 What skills are key to Hammerson s success?... 5 Why do corporate volunteering?... 6 Skills and competencies development:... 7 Skills based volunteering activities... 11 Volunteering at Hammerson... 13 Pros and Cons... 13 Key Actions and Recommendations... 17 Time line:... 17 Appendix 1... 18 Literature... 21 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Trends in corporate volunteering Traditionally, volunteering has been seen as philanthropy, and something that solely benefits the community. Companies usually perceive volunteering as a nice-to-do for the community. Until recently, most research has gone into how volunteering benefits the community, not how volunteering can benefit business. The recent change in focus has highlighted multiple benefits to businesses, including: Reputation and credibility Recruitment and staff retention Staff morale and enhanced work performance Change Management Innovation Skills and competencies development Advantages of skills based volunteering The focus of this paper is that employee skills and competencies can be built through a wide range of community investment activities that can be matched against training and development needs. This has been supported by research both from the City of London and Hammerson. Nearly all of the skills developed under volunteering activities feature in the mainstream competency frameworks, used by companies to monitor and guide staff development (including Hammerson s skills framework). The same skills and competencies are also invested in heavily through traditional training. The skills are: Teamwork Communication skills Adaptability and ability to be effective in different surroundings Influencing and negotiating skill Skills based volunteering can complement existing training and development programmes, with the added dimension of real-life situations which traditional courses cannot provide. As seen in both the City of London and Hammerson research, a significant improvement in team working skills took place under the volunteering activities, with respectively 52% of line managers from the city of London research and 55% of Hammerson staff expressing that improved teamwork skills had occurred. In addition, personal benefits are recorded in both research projects (percentages below are from the Hammerson research), including: 48% saying it improved their self-confidence 66% stated it increased their wellbeing 71% increased their understanding of and empathy with others 48% increased their job satisfaction 48% increased their commitment to the company 52% increased their motivation Disadvantages of skills based volunteering A skills-based volunteering programme cannot be delivered overnight and there will be cost and concerns associated with its implementation such as: 3

Running costs Lost working hours Management consensus Buy in and uptake to the programme Conclusion To sum up, an employee volunteering programme could be delivered at relatively modest cost. If we could deliver skills based volunteering activities instead of or in addition to traditional training courses we can actually reduce our training cost per person. By introducing volunteering as part of the training and development metrics, we incorporate volunteering time into training time already allocated. Hammerson have no familiarity with such programmes and will have difficulties seeing the wider benefits volunteering can have on our business drivers. However, Community Day has been seen by staff as a positive event and has certainly highlighted the business case for introducing skills based volunteering. Not only can we save costs in relation to our training programme, increase job satisfaction, motivation and commitment to the company, we can also play a vital role in the community we operate in. In conclusion, if implemented seriously, the benefits outstrip the disadvantages. There are significant benefits to introducing a skills based volunteering programme in addition to Community Day, and it can be delivered cost effectively as an integrated part of Hammerson s training activities. In order to do this, we recommend undertaking the following: Key Actions and Recommendations 1. To be effective and visible, the volunteering programme needs to be backed by resources, leadership and management. To do so we suggest we need to communicate the business benefits of volunteering to senior managers and line managers through the HR skills and learning programme. 2. To be able to measure the programme we need to set clear objectives and consider how the skills based volunteering programme will be measured. We also need to define how our objectives will be achieved. 3. To be able to have a consistent approach, a volunteering policy should be written and adopted by the board/gec. 4. Before we roll out the programme we should trial a few different activities with a selected number of people (champions) to highlight any teething problems as well as develop an efficient evaluation form. More importantly, we will use the champions to communicate back to the business. 5. Based on our objectives we should identify and select volunteering partners and activities that meet our requirements. 6. As part of the HR skills and learning programme, volunteering activities that enhance skills, should be included in the skills metrics on the intranet to complement traditional training courses. 7. Before a potential company launch, we need to deliver a before and after evaluation form in line with HR requirements. The form also needs to be in-line with the community investment tool developed by the CR team. 4

INTRODUCTION Community investment has been a key part of the Hammerson strategy over the last few years. We are starting to see not only the community benefits of the investment, but also a clear business benefit to Hammerson. Following the feedback from the community day and the analysis of the outcomes from our community investment programme data tool, we could see that volunteering can benefit Hammerson in more than a reputational way. Based on this and through the CR Corporate group, we decided to broaden our community investment and we therefore decided that Develop an education and training program for employees to enable them to engage in mentoring and volunteering programmes would be a corporate target for 2010. In order to deliver this target we saw the need to research what is best practice and to clarify whether Hammerson should develop such a programme. The aim of this project is therefore to highlight what the pros and cons of a skills based volunteering programme will be for both Hammerson employees and for Hammerson as an organisation. To understand this in more detail we will therefore firstly present the Hammerson s skills and value framework, which is the base for the delivery of Hammerson key drivers. Secondly, we will go through recent research and highlight key potential costs to, and the benefits of volunteering to the business. As Hammerson is a knowledge based organisation, we will draw special attention to the skills development side and show how we can develop key skills through volunteering. We will then link the two parts of the equation and look at where the research can benefit and what Hammerson as an organisation has defined as key drivers. Finally, we will provide a set of key recommendations based on the concluding remarks. WHAT SKILLS ARE KEY TO HAMMERSON S SUCCESS? Knowing the skills we possess are key to our success, Hammerson have put forward a learning and skills framework, which describe behaviours and practical skills that underpin the delivery of Hammerson s values, culture and business success. The framework guides each employee as to what skills are necessary to complete his or her job to a high standard, and it highlights where further training on these skills would be necessary. Hammerson has three core values: Relationship, Vision and Performance. To deliver these values, they have been broken down to key skills. For Relationship the skills are Team working & Partnerships and Communication & Influencing; for Vision they are translated into Leading & Managing People and Customer & Commercial Focus: and for Performance they are Applying Professional Skills and Planning & Innovating skills to deliver our results. Hence, it is within this value set that we aim to deliver our results as an organisation. 5

Hammerson is committed to enhancing these skills and we as a business are constantly aiming to improve them. We currently deliver a set of standard training courses that meet our requirements. WHY DO CORPORATE VOLUNTEERING? Traditionally, volunteering has been seen as philanthropy, and something that solely benefits the community. Companies usually perceive volunteering as a nice-to-do for the community, but something that is draining the company of valuable man hours. Until now most research has gone into how volunteering benefits the community not how volunteering can benefit the business. To commence research for this paper, we undertook a review of existing literature on business benefits. The existing literature and research cite reputation, staff retention, motivation and recruitment as key benefits. Volunteering helps staff to maintain a healthy work-life balance and feel they are giving something back to their local community. The volunteers gain confidence, status, experience, self-esteem and a broader understanding of social issues. Research shows that 70% of employees surveyed reported feeling better about working at their company as a result of their pro bono volunteering experience i, which clearly indicated that it increases employees commitment and motivation (LBG Associates, 2009). From a Hammerson perspective 48% of the participants stated that the Community Day increased job satisfaction and commitment to the company (Community Day 2010 Evaluation). Reputation and credibility: By making strong links with the local community, the company is demonstrating that it takes its corporate social responsibility very seriously. This strengthens its reputation in the local and wider community, including the business world (Volunteering England). Recruitment and staff retention: There is clear evidence that people do make the link between companies that are actively involved in the community and those that are good to work for. More and more potential recruits are choosing employers who behave responsibly particularly graduates. A wide range of studies in the UK and the US have found that graduates are more attracted to and persistent in applying to firms with good records on corporate community involvement. It also gives employees the power to make a difference to issues that they care about, sending a clear message that the organisation cares about its employees (Volunteering England). Staff morale and enhanced work performance: The Corporate Citizenship Company s 2003 study Good Companies, Better Employees, found that employee community involvement generated morale, motivation, commitment and performance, driving benefit straight to their employers bottom line (Corporate Citizenship, 2003). Employees take great pride and satisfaction in what they achieve through their volunteer work (Volunteering England). 6

Change Management: Involvement in the community can give businesses access to networks and alliances that help them to keep in touch with a complex and rapidly changing world. It can enhance networking with other companies and help forge new relationships, as well as generating powerful alliances capable of tackling community issues (Volunteering England). Innovation: Employee volunteering can give access to local network and alliances, perceptions and problems, which can inform management decisions and help innovation. SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES DEVELOPMENT: JOB RELATED SKILLS The other main component of the research review was to look at future trends and best practice. Employee skills and competencies can be built through a wide range of community investment activities that can be matched against training and development needs. As the City of London Corporation finalised their extensive research on skills development in relation to volunteering, this review centres around this piece of work. The research piece highlighted that there is strong evidence that volunteering enhances the volunteers competencies and skills in a very cost effective way (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010:4). The research study drew on the experience of employees in 16 businesses operating in the City of London, and it was able to track the learning and development experienced by 546 volunteers. It is worth mentioning that the study focused on educational programmes, however we believe that the findings could be used with other types of volunteering programmes. The majority of respondents reported that volunteering has developed their skills and competencies across a broad range of business relevant areas. It is important to note that different volunteering activities are effective in developing different skills and competencies. These competencies are strongly related to an individual s personal effectiveness in their work role and include: Communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly and concisely with a wide range of people and listen actively. Ability to help others, set individual performance goals, coach and counsel, provides training and development and evaluate performance. Adaptability and ability to be effective in different surroundings and with different tasks, responsibilities and people. Influencing and negotiating skills, including persuading others, resolving conflicts and negotiating agreed solutions. 7

The table below shows the level of skills development across the City of London study sample group. A majority of the volunteers reported competency development: Table 1: Indicates what skills that are developed in a volunteering situation. The table is taken from Volunteering The Business Case, City of London Corporation, 2010, p 23. The responses from the volunteers were then corroborated by the overwhelming majority of line managers who said that volunteers acquired useful skills from their volunteering experience. Hence, line managers see measurable gains in the same business-relevant skills as those reported by the volunteers themselves. The research shows clear evidence that the line managers recognised that their direct reports are developing skills in five areas: Adaptability (57% of line managers asserted that their direct reports had undergone some or significant skills development in this area) Team working (52%) Willingness to continually improve (47%) Ability to build relationships and networks (37%) Communication skills (31%) This is a strong overlap with what the volunteers reported themselves. Importantly, the skills development observed by volunteers in this research is not a self-reported gain. Volunteering requires employees to step outside their normal working role and build relations with people who may have a very different world view 8

from their own. Respondents report that moving outside their comfort zone in this way is extremely useful in both developing their skills and transferring these skills back into the workplace. Feedback from Hammerson Community Day Impact on job-related skills Not relevant Negative Neutral % Positive a. Your personal effectiveness The volunteering activity improved my adaptability 0% 9% 38% 52% team working skills 0% 11% 34% 55% communication skills 0% 11% 29% 60% influencing / negotiation skills 5% 11% 31% 54% problem solving skills 5% 15% 37% 43% b. Your business effectiveness The volunteering activity improved my relationship building 5% 11% 28% 57% willingness to continually improve 6% 9% 34% 51% business awareness 14% 18% 31% 37% Table 2: The feedback from community day shows clearly that job related skills have been improved for a majority of Hammerson staff. Comparing these findings with the feedback from the Hammerson Community Day, we see similar outcomes. Note that the Hammerson feedback was broken down differently due to reporting requirements, so they cannot be directly compared. However, we can clearly see that a majority of respondents reported that 9

volunteering has developed their adaptability, teamwork, communications, negotiating, relationship building skills and their willingness to continually improve. The skills and competencies developed through Volunteering assignments, mentioned above, are of direct relevance to the companies involved. Nearly all of these skills feature in the mainstream competency frameworks used by companies to monitor and guide staff development (including Hammerson s skills framework) and all of the companies are investing significantly in training and development programmes to build these competencies in their staff. The research found that the experiential nature of the learning achieved by the volunteers makes it hugely valuable in the skills development process and is an option to traditional approaches to training. JOB SATISFACTION The research also investigated the personal impact of the volunteering. In addition to the development of skills and competencies, volunteering also has the potential to improve the personal development of the individual and job satisfaction. For the vast majority of respondents to the City of London survey, it is clear that the overall experience was positive, as reflected in table 3 below. Table 3: Impacts on personal subjects such as self confidence and job satisfaction are also enhanced through volunteering. The table is taken from Volunteering the business case, City of London Corporation, 2010, p 35. 10

Looking at what Hammerson staff reported (see appendix 1) in the light of table three (above) we can see a clear trend: - 48% saying it improved their self-confidence, - 66% stated it increased their wellbeing, - 71% increased their understanding of and empathy with others - 61% increased their awareness of wider social issues - 48% increased their job satisfaction, - 48% increased their commitment to the company - 52% increased their motivation. These positive responses present a powerful argument for businesses to support their employees in volunteering activities. SKILLS BASED VOLUNTEERING ACTIVITIES Reading, language or number partners: This type of scheme essentially involves volunteers working with individual pupils in schools to help them develop their confidence and abilities in reading, languages or mathematics. Reading, language or number partner programmes involve anything from 30 minutes to one hour classroom contact time per week. In addition, volunteers spend anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours in travel time to and from the school. Typically these programmes last for 10 to 12 weeks (per term) (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010). Student mentoring: Student mentoring is similar to a partners programme in that it requires the volunteer to work with an individual student to help in their academic development. What distinguishes a mentoring programme is that it goes beyond providing help in one narrow area to encompass broader aspects of attendance, application and attainment of the pupil. As with any other mentoring relationship, the exact nature of the help and advice provided is determined jointly by the student and the mentor. A student mentoring programme can involve anything from two hours a month to two hours per week (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010) Enterprise workshops: This type of volunteering activity supports programmes such as Young Enterprise which are delivered to schools and colleges across the country. The schemes aim to offer students experience and insight into business and the world of work. One of the principle activities is supporting students to work together to manage their own company. Running enterprise workshops involves the volunteers working with teachers to design and deliver session which help students in all aspects of the scheme including areas such as business planning, presentation skills and developing ideas to produce and sell products and services. The amount of time volunteers spend organising enterprise workshops varies greatly. Among respondents, the 11

average time spent was three hours per session, with volunteers typically helping to organise four or five sessions per term (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010). Supporting an education related charity: This heading encompasses a range of different ways in which companies can assist organisations in the charity sector with the skills, experience and knowledge of their volunteers (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010). School Governor: Taking on the role of a school governor is in some respects the most challenging volunteering activity considered in this research study. Those in this role are expected to make important collective decisions about the running of the school. As members of the school s governing body, governors are expected to provide strategic management advice, offer challenge and support to the school s management team and ensure accountability of decisions. Acting as a school governor can be the most time intensive activity depending upon the precise role of the volunteer. The average amount of time among the 50 respondents was six days per year (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010). Decorating and refurbishment activities: A team of volunteers work on a variety of tasks ranging from gardening, painting and/or decorating a community scheme. The project usually is a one off activity. 12 Table 4: The table has correlated the type of volunteering activity that enhances specific skills. The table is from Volunteering- The Business Case, p.31

As we can see from table 4, certain activities are more effective in developing skills. The table does not contain any skills from decorating and refurbishment activities, but from Hammerson s experience we can see that this type of activity enhances adaptability, teamwork, problem solving, and planning & organisation skills. VOLUNTEERING AT HAMMERSON As seen in the Hammerson skills framework, we can see clear links between what is classified as key skills for delivering Hammerson s values, culture and business success and what the volunteering research highlights as key benefits of volunteering activities. In table 5 and 6 below, we have summed up the key skills we use to deliver the Hammerson values, and linked them to the skills that are particularly enhanced through volunteering. Finally, they have been crossed referenced with the type of volunteering activity which developed these skills. Team working & Partnerships: Leading & Managing People Skills enhanced significantly through volunteering Adaptability: to be effective in different surroundings and with different tasks, responsibilities and people Building relationships Teamwork Helping others to improve Ability to help others, set individual performance goals, coach and counsel, provide training and development and evaluates performance. General Volunteering Activity Student mentoring, enterprise workshops Enterprise workshop and supporting a charity Enterprise workshops, supporting a charity, school governor Student mentoring, enterprise workshop Enterprise workshop, Hammerson Volunteering activity 75% of the participants of the Weavers adventure playground project agreed or strongly agreed that their adaptability skills were enhanced. 75% of the participants of the Weavers adventure playground project agreed or strongly agreed that their ability to build relationships were enhanced. 77% of the participants of the Kids Company Fun Day (fun, art and cookery workshops) agreed or strongly agreed that their team work skills were enhanced. Not measured Not measured Decision making Student mentoring Not measured Communication & Influencing Communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly and concisely with a wide range of people and listen actively. Influencing and negotiating skills, including persuading others, resolving conflicts and negotiating agreed solutions. Reading, language or number partners, enterprise workshops Reading, language or number partners, student mentoring, enterprise workshops 85% of the participants of the Kids Company Fun Day (fun day, art and cookery workshops) agreed or strongly agreed that their communication skills were enhanced. 77% of the participants of the Kids Company Fun Day (fun, art and cookery workshops) Agreed or strongly agreed that their influencing and negotiation skills were enhanced. Table 5: The table indicates the type of activity that enhances certain types of skills development. 13

Skills enhanced significantly through volunteering General Volunteering Activity Hammerson Volunteering activity Planning & Innovation Customers & commercial Focus Planning and organisation School Governor Not measured Problem solving Enterprise workshop 75% of the participants of the Weavers adventure playground project agreed or strongly agreed that their ability to solve problems were enhanced. Building relationships Enterprise workshop 75% of the participants of the Weavers adventure playground project agreed or strongly agreed that their ability to build relationships were enhanced. Building awareness Enterprise workshop, school governor 75% of the participants of the Weavers adventure playground project agreed or strongly agreed that their business awareness had enhanced. Applying Profession al Skills Financial skills Supporting a charity, school governor Not measured Table 6: The table indicates the type of activity that enhances certain types of skills development. PROS AND CONS It is evident that Hammerson employees skills and competencies can be built through a wide range of community investment activities that can be complemented or matched against the Hammerson training and development needs. Skills based volunteering can complement existing training and development programmes, with the added dimension of real-life situations which traditional courses cannot provide. For some of us, this can even be more efficient than traditional training, as it provides a different method of learning. In an unfamiliar situation, employees can be stimulated into creative thinking and problem solving, and encouraged into real learning. They are required to use their initiative and take on new responsibilities, building their confidence and self-esteem (Volunteering England). On the other hand, these skills and competencies can grow the capacity of community organisations, as they need extra support, we can equip them with skills and a fresh perspective on their own organisation. Simultaneously, we can enhance our reputation in the communities in which we operate, give us access to new ideas and build a stronger organisation by developing key skills. Additional benefits are the improvement areas that were highlighted in the Great Places to Work Survey, that was conducted last year. For example, only 51% of Hammerson staff agreed that they look forward to coming to work here ; in other terms 49% of staff did not look forward to going to work. Arguably, by introducing volunteering we could mediate and improve our scores in Great Place to Work as seen in the result from the Hammerson Community Day. We are not stating that this would be the only 14

measure to improve this score, however when 66% of Hammerson staff (who evaluated the day) stated that the volunteering activity they undertook increased their well being or that 48% expressed that it increased their job satisfaction, it is evident that there is a strong correlation. Further, one of the employee comments from the Great Place to Work survey expressed that a current Hammerson need is to instil a real sense of teamwork, camaraderie and being valued in order to remove the sense of empire building and mistrust of people s motives. Again, this is something that can be improved through volunteering as seen in both the City of London research and Hammerson research - a significant improvement in team working skills took place under the volunteering activities, with respectively 52% of line managers from the city of London research and 55% of Hammerson staff expressing that improved teamwork skills had occurred. COST AND TIME On the contrary, is it worth the cost and the lost working hours? Is it worth the extra work burden for people that already often feel that they have enough work on their plate? The study from the City of London showed that employee volunteering programmes could be delivered for relatively modest costs. The research found that among respondent businesses the average annual cost to support each volunteer involved in an education-based activity in London was 381 per person per annum. This figure comprises the full cost including direct management costs and all additional costs (for example, transport expenses, time out of the office, volunteering budgets, training etc) involved in running an effective volunteering programme. The average training cost for companies attending the research was 1400. This figure, however, is only the cost of a training opportunity and has not factored in the additional support costs such as running a learning and development department and the time lost by an employee being out of the office (City of London & Corporate Citizenship, 2010). This is also true with Hammerson, where we are currently spending on average 3000 on training for senior managers per year and 932 for other staff. If we could deliver skill based volunteering activities instead of or in addition to traditional training course we can actually reduce our training cost per person. By introducing volunteering as a part of the training and development metrics, we incorporate volunteering time into training time already allocated. We might expand the hours spent on training, but this will only enhance our skills and competencies and give us more of a competitive edge (Hammerson Plc, 2009). 15

IMPLEMENTATION Is it worth working through implementation and management problems? Implementing new concepts almost always meets resistance. In relation to introducing skills based volunteering to Hammerson, where volunteering has not been part of the organisations culture, it naturally falls into that category. The first challenge will be to communicate the benefits of skills based volunteering effectively, both for senior management and the board. Hammerson do not have experience with carrying out skills based volunteering, and do not have a formal volunteering policy, and hence have no familiarity with such programmes and will have difficulties seeing the wider benefits volunteering can have on our business drivers. However, with Community Day we have seen clear benefits for the business such as teamwork, awareness and staff motivation. Community Day has been seen by staff as a positive day and certainly highlighted the business case for introducing skills based volunteering. Secondly, it will be tricky to change line mangers and employees perception of volunteering and that volunteering can be part of skills and training programme. Traditionally, line managers send their employees to a traditional course based on what our human resource (HR) department have to offer. What is vital for success in the introduction of such programmes is that enough information is distributed and that senior staff embrace the opportunity. To do so, it will be important that HR push the agenda forward and that a handful of champions test the opportunities before it is launched to the company. MANAGEMENT As we do not have a formal volunteering programme it will be difficult to implement, manage and evaluate the programme. To overcome implementation difficulties it is key that we get necessary support from management in that this is a project Hammerson as a whole supports and believes in. As HR already deals with training opportunities, this programme will fall under their remit and will not take up additional resources. The CR team have already come across brokering services that find and do the daily management of specific opportunities to a minimal cost. On top of that it would be beneficial for Hammerson to be a long term partner with an organisation (such as a school) close to some of our London developments, so that we can leverage on the reputational benefits as well. We are already in a position to identify these through some membership organisations. CONCLUSION We can see barriers in our way to implement a Hammerson skill based volunteering programme. However, it seems that we, as an organisation, also are equipped to tackle those challenges through the defined processes outlined above. It is evident that there are significant benefits to introducing a skills based volunteering 16

programme, in addition to Community Day, and that it can be delivered cost effectively as an integrated part of Hammerson. The benefits outweigh the costs once the programme is established in a coherent way. To be able to establish the programme, the following recommendations and timeline should be incorporated. KEY ACTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1. To be effective and visible, the volunteering programme needs to be backed by resources, leadership and management. To do so we suggest we need to communicate the business benefits of volunteering to senior managers and line managers through the HR skills and learning programme. 2. To be able to measure the programme we need to set clear objectives and consider how the skills based volunteering programme will be measured. We also need to define how our objectives will be achieved. 3. To be able to have a consistent approach, a volunteering policy should be written, adopted by the board/gec. 4. Before we roll out the programme we should trial a few different activities with a selected number of people (champions) to highlight any teething problems as well as develop an efficient evaluation form. More importantly, we will use the champions to communicate back to the business. 5. Based on our objectives we should identify and select volunteering partners and activities that meet our requirements. 6. As part of the HR skills and learning programme, volunteering activities that enhance skills, should be included in the skills metrics on the intranet to complement traditional training courses. 7. Before a potential company launch, we need to deliver a before and after evaluation form in line with HR requirements. The form also needs to be in line with the community investment tool developed by the CR team. TIME LINE: Develop the programme autumn 2010, Test and Deliver the programme from 2011. 17

APPENDIX 1 Feedback from Hammerson Community Day Impact on job-related skills Not relevant Negative Neutral Positive a. Your personal effectiveness The volunteering activity improved my adaptability 0% 9% 38% 52% team working skills 0% 11% 34% 55% communication skills 0% 11% 29% 60% influencing / negotiation skills 5% 11% 31% 54% problem solving skills 5% 15% 37% 43% b. Your business effectiveness The volunteering activity improved my relationship building 5% 11% 28% 57% willingness to continually improve 6% 9% 34% 51% business awareness 14% 18% 31% 37% 2. Personal impact a. Personal Not relevant Negative Neutral Positive The volunteering activity improved my 18

self-confidence 2% 14% 37% 48% sense of well-being / happiness 2% 8% 25% 66% understanding of & empathy with other people 5% 6% 18% 71% awareness of wider social issues 2% 9% 22% 68% b. Outlook on company/job The volunteering activity increased my... job satisfaction 0% 11% 42% 48% commitment to the company 0% 14% 38% 48%... motivation 0% 15% 32% 52% 3. Impact on behaviour Since the activity I am more likely to Not relevant Negative Neutral Positive undertake more volunteering 0% 12% 34% 54% recommend volunteering to a colleague 0% 11% 32% 57% talk positively about the company 0% 8% 26% 66% 19

Feedback from Hammerson Community Day The volunteering activity improved my Not relevant Negative Neutral Positive adaptability 0% 9% 38% 52% team working skills 0% 11% 34% 55% communication skills 0% 11% 29% 60% influencing / negotiation skills 5% 11% 31% 54% problem solving skills 5% 15% 37% 43% relationship building 5% 11% 28% 57% willingness to continually improve 6% 9% 34% 51% business awareness 14% 18% 31% 37% talk positively about the company 0% 8% 26% 66% 20

WORKS CITED City of London & Corporate Citizenship. (2010). Volunteering The Business case. Benefits of corporate volunteering programmes in education. London: City of London. Corporate Citizenship. (2003). Good Companies, Better Employees. London. Hammerson Plc. (2009). CR Report. London. LBG Associates. (2009). Pro Bono Volunteering Report. London. Volunteering England. (n.d.). Employee Volunteering and HR. Retrieved 2010, from http://www.volunteering.org.uk/whatwedo/projects+and+initiatives/employer+supported+volunteering/em ployers/key+issues/hr.htm Volunteering England. (n.d.). The business case for employer supported volunteering. Retrieved 2010, from http://www.volunteering.org.uk/ 21