New research from The Access Group, a business software provider, shows which industries are most likely to offer employees volunteer days as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies.

The research analysed 1,000 UK companies across 20 sectors by reviewing their careers pages, charities pages and CSR pages

The results showed that well over three-quarters of legal firms (78%) offer volunteering opportunities and professionals can expect to take an average of 1.5 days each.

Telecoms and building and construction took joint second place, with nearly two-thirds (62%) of firms giving employees around a day each to take off per year for charity purposes.

Warehousing and logistics, transport, manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality all ranked low in the table, which is thought to be because they’ve all been hit by acute labour shortages in recent years.

Caroline Fanning, chief employee success officer at The Access Group, said:

‘Good relationships with the local community are critical for businesses particularly in the legal, telecoms, building and construction sectors, which could explain why they are prioritising volunteering more than others. Our research found that on average, larger companies offer more paid-for volunteer days, which could be due in part to being able to invest more heavily in extra-curricular activities that bring value to the company.’

The Access Group have outlined 5 ways to get the most from volunteer days on their website.  This includes harnessing employees’ passions to identify the causes that people are most likely to believe in and where they can make a meaningful difference to a charity’s mission.   Offering flexibility and applauding their efforts are also good motivators. Since employee volunteering is a big commitment for companies, tracking success to ensure the opportunities were worthwhile to both the charity and the employee is important too.

Photo by Roman Synkevych on Unsplash