Develop employees in real-life scenarios
Many employers are thinking strategically about the ways they can best work with schools and colleges. Many see opportunities to develop employees through employee volunteering activities which respond to individual employee interests at low financial cost to the employer. Employees see opportunities to add to their CVs and prepare themselves for positions of greater responsibility.
"Working with schools and colleges is a great way to develop young staff who show potential or who are new to leadership positions. Young people can be a tough crowd and if you learn to communicate well with them, you can communicate with anyone." Lisa Hickey, Hellidan Lakes Hotel, Northamptonshire
Personal development through volunteering with schools
There is strong evidence to show that individuals can gain considerably in terms of their personal development from volunteering as a school or college governor, as a mentor to a young person or in communicating directly with young people.
Surveys show that employee development opportunites are important motivating factors for employers and that volunteering delivers for employees.
A 2006 survey of 1000 managers from multi-sized, cross-sector, national and UK-based international organisations by Roffey Park Institute showed clear business benefits to employee volunteering. Of the managers responding:
- 76% believed that volunteering represented a employee development opportunity
- 72% believed that volunteering helped to motivate employees
- 69% believed that volunteering brought new skills and experience and enhances corporate reputation.
Through volunteering, individual members of staff can develop skills and experience across a range of competencies including:
- leadership
- coaching and mentoring
- effective communication and influencing
- information management and analysis
- project management
- finance and budgeting.
Managers seeing the difference in employees
Surveys of managers in a Barclays Bank report show widespread agreement that employees who had volunteered had developed desirable skills and competencies:
- 61% reported improved communication skills;
- 56% felt that employee leadership skills had improved
- 58% agreed that employees worked better together after volunteering
- 49% saw volunteering as "very effective as a team building exercise".
And skills acquisition tends to increase with the frequency of volunteering - over half (56%) of the Barclays employees who volunteered four times or more reported that their decision-making skills had increased, compared to 37% of those who had volunteered just once or twice.
Volunteers can develop skills as school governors, as mentors to young people, by going into the classroom and communicating with pupils or hosting a workplace visit.
Personal development as a governor of a school or college
"Being a school governor also provides the opportunity for our people to develop core skills and competencies that KPMG needs in the business. Graduates applying to KPMG who have developed these skills through being a school governor are likely to be attractive candidates." Ruth Stokes, Head of Recruitment, KPMG Europe.
Becoming a governor of a school or college brings a wide range of opportunities for development. Recent research by academics at the University of Hertfordshire shows newly appointed governors see personal benefits from volunteering in:
- enhancement of their knowledge and understanding of education (particularly the problems schools face, school management, school funding and local authority involvement)
- chairing meetings
- developing interpersonal and listening skills
- making employee appointments
- financial management
- growth of self-confidence and seeing different perspectives.
For more information about becoming a governor of a school or college visit the School Governors' One-Stop Shop.