The Benefits of Volunteering
The skills and personal attributes that companies are looking for when recruiting have changed considerably as the UK market continues to evolve. Volunteering lends itself to these new skills and can lead to fulltime employment. If you are considering volunteer work, you’ll be excited to learn some of the key benefits of volunteering.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a key consideration for recruiters and managers. This might be because they know candidates are keen to work for businesses that are promoting ethical and sustainable enterprises. Having a solid diversity and inclusion structure in place is a crucial part of the fabric of most modern workforces, meaning that volunteering experience is no longer seen as an ‘extra’, but as a valuable quality on an application. Gaining this experience and highlighting it on your CV could be what sets you apart from other shortlisted candidates.
Many companies run volunteering programmes, providing their employees with the opportunity to take a day or two off with full pay to volunteer for a charity or other not-for-profit organisation of their choice. What they’ve began to understand is that volunteering gives people the chance to gain experiences and skills that a regular working environment can’t provide. Employers consider volunteering to be an asset, they understand that exposure to different environments and working practices have positive applications in their own workplaces.
So, if it’s you looking for ways to help grow your career, then volunteering can allow you the opportunity to explore different industries that may have otherwise been out of your reach. For example, you could volunteer at your local theatre, hospital or community centre to get exposure to areas that interest you, whilst helping others at the same time. A diverse workplace history allows you to target your skills to a broader range of potential employers. You can tie the pieces of your job history together to fit different job openings. Secondly, if you take a while to decide what it is you want to do with your life (there’s no shame life is quite a long time) and haven't yet decided what career path you want to take, working in different industries can give you first-hand insight of what such jobs require. More importantly, this varied workplace experience can be a goldmine of information to a new employer.
It is important to continually work on your own personal development. Volunteering could give you the chance to learn new skills in areas outside of your remit. For example, helping to organise a fundraiser could give you planning and budgeting skills. Furthermore, dealing with different kinds of people will also be beneficial for your interpersonal and relationship building skills, which can help with networking in your professional career. Equivalently, volunteering offers great networking opportunities to develop personal and professional relationships, as volunteer work attracts people from all walks of life. Meeting and connecting with people in this unique environment is a great way to build lasting relationships. You never know who you might come across and how they could help with your career growth in the future.
There are so many benefits to volunteering. You can get exposure to new fields of work, develop new skills and broaden your network. If you are interested in getting involved in volunteering, follow this link.