Encouraging employees to take part in Pro Bono O.R.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the BAE Systems offices in Farnborough and talking to the O.R. analysts at CORDA about Pro Bono O.R.

The CORDA senior management have been very supportive of the Pro Bono O.R. scheme and have actively encouraged their staff to get involved. 

The benefits of taking part are threefold:

• The third sector organisation benefits from free support;
• The volunteer(s) who carry out the project gain many benefits (see below)
• The organisation who the volunteer works for benefits from their staff talking part.  There are a range of benefits including:

1.  higher staff retention
2. increased staff morale and reduced sick leave
3. increased work performance
4. building strong teams  
5. training and developing
6. reputation and credibility

(Data taken from Business in the Community and NCVO)



That is why CORDA are supportive of employees carrying out the projects in company time as they see how valuable taking part in the scheme can be.

Having spoken to many of the volunteers here are just a few of the benefits they list:

• Taking part in the whole project cycle
• Unique opportunities
• Use soft skills
• Develop current skills
• Learn new skills
• Make a real difference
• Build your CV
• Get to know new people
• Team building opportunities
• Project management
• Work in a different sector
• Positive learning expereince

So what's holding you back...?  To hear about projects that require volunteers please sign up here  (no commitment required).

Pro Bono O.R. collaborates with Career Volunteer

I am delighted to announce that Pro Bono O.R. will be working with Career Volunteer.

Career Volunteer works with charities and social enterprises around the world to assist with trustee recruitment, skilled volunteers and Board members through corporate volunteering, employee engagement, skilled volunteering programmes and executive search.

Career Volunteer works with skilled volunteers - people with strong skill sets looking to add to their careers through volunteering. Their aim is to make skilled volunteering or being a trustee a normal part of working life for the majority of people; to unleash their skills in a way that builds capacity and resources for charities worldwide. 

They are keen to see more large companies provide structured time and support for their emerging leaders to engage in supporting charities as trustees and skilled volunteers through their CSR, corporate social responsibility programmes and their leadership development programmes, seeing this as good for everyone concerned. 

Career Volunteer's vision to unleash the talents and skills in the corporate and public sector for the benefit of charities and social enterprises has great synergy with Pro Bono O.R., whose aim is to use skilled volunteering to help third sector organisations, give volunteers opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills and to increase the awareness of Operational Research.

Working together will enable Pro Bono O.R. to carry out more projects by being able to advertise projects through the Career Volunteer website and therefore having a wider pool of volunteers who are able to apply for projects.

I am really excited by this collaboration and look forward to seeing how we can provide mutual support for one another; ultimately providing benefit to the third sector and providing more opportunities for skilled volunteering.

To see more about Career Volunteer and the types of volunteer roles they are currently recruiting for please visit their website

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If you are not already a member of The OR Society and are interested in joining please visit https://www.theorsociety.com/or send an email to carol.smith@theorsociety.com

Additionally you may be interested in becoming a member of our Third Sector Special Interest Group (ORiTS). For more details visit:  https://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/SpecialInterest/ORThirdSector.aspx

Other pages that may be of interest:

http://www.theorsociety.com/Pages/Probono/Probono.aspx 

http://www.LearnAboutOR.co.uk

http://www.ScienceofBetter.co.uk

The business case for employee volunteer & skills giving programs

I came across this great article by Sarah Ford which talks about how having an employee volunteer program could actually help an organisation save money.

A PwC study revealed, “Employees most committed to their organisations put in 57 percent more effort on the job—and are 87 percent less likely to resign—than employees who consider themselves disengaged.” 

So where do employee volunteer and skills giving programs factor in? It’s an excellent, relatively low-cost way to engage and retain employees.

For the full article click here

In order to sign up to the Pro Bono O.R. (skilled volunteering) initiative please get in touch or visit Pro Bono O.R.