What Is VTO Policy? (Voluntary Time Off)

What is VTO? Paid voluntary time is a growing trend among companies that allows employees to take paid time off from their day-today activities in order to volunteer for a cause of their choice.

This kind of volunteer scheme is gaining popularity as companies aim to attract and retain talent by offering unique and meaningful perks.

The acronym VTO refers to two different kinds of policies : 'Voluntary time off', and 'volunteer time off'.

Voluntary time off typically refers to employers allowing their staff to voluntarily take time off unpaid in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and to cope with frequently changing workloads.

Volunteer time off on the other hand, usually refers to a policy offering a set amount of paid time off in order to volunteer with charitable partners. In this article we will be focusing on the logistics and benefits of the latter.

Corporate Volunteering As An Employee Benefit

So, what does paid voluntary time look like in practice for you?

There are various ways in which you can give back as a business, and various ways that you can introduce a volunteering policy for your teams.

A lot of business choose to focus on the team-building, and social benefits of hosting volunteer time. Historically, this has taken the form of 1 or 2 dedicated volunteer days for your entire team, that allows you all to get out of the office, and lending a hand at a local charity.

But corporate volunteering, and VTO policies have evolved a lot in the last decade. Now, more and more companies are opting to partner with specialist volunteering partners that provide far more flexibility and choice for your team when it comes to where and when they want to use their paid voluntary time.

Paid voluntary time is now a pretty standard and popular employee benefit alongside health insurance, team socials, mental health support, and training opportunities.

You can decide how many volunteering days or hours you want to give to full time employees, and you can facilitate this through dedicated volunteering platforms like Matchable, which match your team with their perfect volunteering project based on their skills, availability, and which causes they care about.

Not only does this more modern, online, skilled approach to VTO ensure that everyone in your team, regardless of location of physical ability, can get involved with volunteering, but unlike traditional company wide volunteer days in person it provides a plethora of learning and development opportunities too.

An average of 73% of companies now offer some form of skilled employee volunteering according to a recent study by CECP.

VTO To Attract Employees

According to a study, 76% of millennials consider a company's social responsibility and environmental commitments when deciding where to work. By offering VTO, companies can attract and retain employees who are passionate about giving back to society.

Not only does including paid voluntary time in your employee benefits package attract the best talent and reduce staff turnover, but it can go a long way towards building a company culture of giving back. Connecting your teams with shared values can have a significant impact on employee engagement, and maintaining a happy and fulfilled team.

Increase Employee Engagement

Despite concerns that technology has made us a self-centered society, the truth is that people still have a desire to help others. In fact, in the recent Community Research Index, they found that over half of the British public intend to volunteer during 2023!

Another way this is being demonstrated is through the growing popularity of Volunteer Time Off (VTO program) benefits in the workplace. With studies showing that 87% of employees who volunteered through their companies noted an improved perception of their employers.

This shows that a VTO benefit helps to create an engaged and motivated team. One way in which it does this is by promoting personal and professional growth through up-skilling opportunities. Skill-based volunteering activities can provide individuals with the change to use their expertise in a completely new field, or even try tasks they've never had the opportunity to within their own role.

Charitable work can also help to make employees feel that their work is valued and improve overall job satisfaction!

Volunteering and Corporate Social Responsibility

VTO is also an important aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR). By encouraging and facilitating employee volunteering, companies can make a positive impact on the communities they operate in and contribute to the well-being of society as a whole.

Through platforms like Matchable, there are also opportunities to contribute to global causes that your business aligns with, as well as specific Sustainable Development Goals from the UN.

From the employers perspective, companies that are offering VTO are attracting and retaining employees who prioritise giving back to society, which in turn can help you achieve your CSR or ESG goals and ensure your entire team is on the same page.

Why Not Just Offer Unpaid Time To Volunteer?

Voluntary time off (vto), or unpaid leave is of course a cheaper option for giving your employees a break from working hours, but it doesn't offer any of the financial, team-building, or productivity benefits that paid volunteer time can.

If you want to show that you value your employees' time, trust them, and are invested in their career and L&D, then you need to be prepared to include volunteering efforts within paid time.

From a hiring perspective, if you want to stay competitive and attract the top talent, then unpaid leave/voluntary time off isn't going to cut it.

It's also worth noting that employee volunteering opportunities can actually have a positive return on investment for you as a business. Remote, skills-based volunteering can create an average of £1,290 impact value per project an employee completes. Not to mention the reduced labor costs that can come as a result of a significant reduction in employee turnover, and improved employee engagement.

Try It Out First

Whether you are looking to attract more employees, contribute to more community service projects as a business, or simply reduce labor costs - introducing paid leave to volunteer could be the solution.

Remote volunteer work can have a huge impact on under resourced charities that are looking for exactly the skill sets that your employees have! For example, we recently helped matched a marketing team with a marine conservation charity needing a new graphic design for their plastic pollution campaign. They never would have been able to afford design help outside of corporate voluntary time...

If you are interested in introducing your own VTO policy, and you would like to get a free demo of the Matchable platform, you can book in a chat with us here.