Confidence, professional development, & skills based employee volunteering
According to Research by ‘My Confidence Matters’, around 79% of women and 62% of men experience a lack of confidence in their workplace, but skilled employee volunteering can help.
Having self-confidence both personally and professionally can seem really achievable for some, but completely unattainable for others. According to research by My Confidence Matters, around 79% of women, and 62% of men experience a lack of confidence in their workplace.
Some of the symptoms of low confidence or self-esteem can include: being overly critical about oneself, focusing on negatives and ignoring positive achievements, avoiding challenges for fear of failure, and being overly disappointed by criticism. Essentially - low confidence can be hugely detrimental to an individual, particularly if it transpires into one's professional life and holds them back from achieving great things at work.
The NHS gives us some great advice on what individuals might be able to do to improve self-confidence, and some of the best-proven methods include recognising your strengths and building upon them, building positive relationships with others, and giving yourself a challenge. So, let’s look into how skilled based volunteerism may be able to help…
Recognising your strengths
Undertaking a corporate volunteering project with an organisation who are looking for the support of someone with your specific skills can be a real confidence booster. It allows you to remind yourself of the skillsets they you own and the value that these hold. It’s easy to overlook these things when you’re working within a large team of similarly skilled professionals, but when you’re volunteering with a startup charity, and you’re the only industry professional involved, you realise just how valuable your knowledge and experience really is!
Building positive relationships
The flexibility of Matchable employee volunteering projects allow individuals to create longer term relationships with their chosen Impact Organisations. Instead of visiting for 1 day, you can have more impact through extended relationships with an Impact Organisation by volunteering with them for a few hours a week/biweekly on an ongoing and flexible basis. Fostering these positive relationships helps to develop individuals, in confidence, skill and experience, in settings outside of work - which often hold less pressure or stress.
Giving yourself a challenge
Using your skills in a brand new setting, or even learning something new altogether through skilled-based volunteering allows for a healthy way of challenging yourself while doing something to support a cause that you feel personally passionate about. This is also impactful from a personal perspective, as you can do something to challenge yourself without also giving yourself additional pressures from your workplace. Do good and feel good too!
“It’s really fulfilling experience as I know I’m contributing to a cause that I’m passionate about while leveraging my skills and experience.”
There is now more call-to-action than ever for employers to be supporting employees when it comes to their wellbeing, mainly by being able to offer them more meaningful support services either directly through work or by partnering with external organisations that can offer this support to their employees.
A study conducted by the Yorkshire Building Society found that confidence within the workplace increased by a huge 74% due to volunteering! Other research has found that offering skilled-based volunteering opportunities for employees to develop tangible skills can actually transfer over to their paid employment role. Some HR leaders have also suggested that corporate volunteering opportunities could in some cases replace the need for more formal training and development programmes!
So, this looks to be a win-win situation whether you’re an employee, or an employer. The benefits of volunteering are endless, and when it comes to wellbeing in the workplace, it’s crucial to be keeping this front of mind.
If you’re new here and want to learn more about us, please contact hello@wearematchable.com.
ABOUT MATCHABLE
At Matchable we work with companies and their employees to match them with high impact and innovative skilled volunteering projects at non-profits and impact startups.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how your employees can upskill through our social impact projects, get in touch here.