Team OneBot
September 5, 2024
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Our work is a global affair, with many of our clients, vendors and partners based many hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. But when we launched back in 2013, we made it one of our aims to look ‘closer to home’ and give back to the community that has allowed our business to grow over the past 10+ years. This has taken shape in the form of charity golf days, partnerships with local colleges, volunteering days at a local hospice and more. But it’s no secret that beyond benefitting the local community, volunteering and giving back to your community is good for business - Here’s our top 5 reasons why.
Charity work can be a great way to make your brand identity stand out by demonstrating your values in practice. Whether it’s a small local charity or a multinational one, providing your support shows reliability, trust and strong ethics.
Branding is all about how your business interacts with, and is perceived by, the outside world - so think of your brand as a person; working with charities can be a great way of showing the more personal side of your business, and portraying a generous and less corporate image.
Volunteering can be a great way of creating stronger teams and more engaged employees. Not only does it allow employees to feel part of something bigger and feel like they’re giving back, it can also double up as a great team building opportunity. Charities large and small across the UK and beyond even offer volunteering opportunities tailored to businesses, providing opportunities to develop team building and communication skills whilst helping your chosen cause.
A recent study from Business in The Community showed just how effective volunteering can be in creating better places to work. In the study, 87% of employees sampled had an improved perception of their employer after volunteering. What’s more, 82% said they felt more committed to their employer as a result. And this is just the start - multiple studies have shown that engaged workplaces are more productive, deliver better customer service, and suffer less absenteeism than average.
At OneBot, we’ve made it one of our business goals to achieve 100% employee engagement in volunteering each year. We do this by providing two paid days of volunteering leave each year, and by organising group volunteering and fundraising opportunities that our teams can sign up to. We also provide support in setting up fundraising pages and promotion should an employee choose to take on a fundraising challenge solo.
Prospective employees and job hunters are becoming more and more selective when it comes to what they look for in an employer. People want to know that where they work shares their values and makes a positive impact, not just on employees and customers, but on the wider community, too.
Your commitment as an employer to creating a more accessible, inclusive and socially responsible workplace matters to people; and charity work can play a huge role in helping you achieve those goals. Providing paid volunteering days could be the difference between securing or losing great talent.
As we mentioned in the last point, we’ve followed in the footsteps of a number of employers in providing free volunteering days for our employees; and we mention this in our job adverts as one of our range of benefits available to our employees.
For some businesses, promotion sounds easier than it is. For B2B organisations in relatively niche or emerging industries such as enterprise chatbots, our natural audience is relatively small; with a heavy reliance on direct communication and little in the way of a larger organic following.
That’s where charity work can come in - working with charities large and small can provide opportunities to reach new people and organisations. Voluntary work shows off your brand beyond the products or services it provides, and provides audiences with a new reason to get involved and follow your activity.
What’s more: volunteering opportunities can be great places to gather new content. Capturing you employees working in the community can make for great images on your website, and can tell an incredible story on social media.
In some cases, this benefit may be as simple as a few extra followers on your social media channels and a happier marketing team; in others, it could even result in new business. Growing numbers of companies give weighting to environmental and social value when awarding new contracts or buying new products, and charities often have large, engaged networks of supporters, service users and partners; and providing your support can be an effective way of tapping into these new opportunities.
Of course, the best and overarching reason - it helps incredible causes in your community and beyond. From hospices to river conservation charities, sports clubs to youth art groups and more; charities of all shapes, sizes and causes rely on the support of volunteers and fundraisers to provide for the communities they serve.
Whether you’re simply providing a few hours of practical help or lending your expert professional skills on a pro bono basis, your support allows charities to do more - reach more people, provide better help, and create happier, healthier and more cohesive communities.
Want to learn more about International Day of Charity? See the UN International day of charity page here. Want to learn more about our work in the community and beyond? Check out our About Us page
