November 2017

The co-ops behind the British brands...
Volunteering in communities
How co-ops give their colleagues time to help
out in their communities
p The Co-op Group brought colleagues to Angel Square for Back To Being Co-op sessions
See the full
data online:
thenews.coop/impact
Almost 100,000 staff from six retail co-ops have
volunteered over 20,000 days on community
projects over the past year.
The Co-op News Volunteer Index shows 98,313
employees have given 156,340 hours to their local
community over the 2016/17 financial year. This
equates to over nine million minutes, or 99 minutes
per employee.
The financial cost of paying staff wages during
this time to co-ops has been £2.1m.
Nationally, the Co-op Group said one in five of
its employees were involved in volunteer efforts. Its
Co-op Way report for 2016 said: “We encourage our
colleagues to play an active role in the community,
whether that’s through fundraising, our formal
volunteer programme, setting up, running or
participating in community projects or taking part
in civic duties.”
It allows colleagues to volunteer in the
community for two days each year during work
time. The increase in colleagues involved in
activity in 2016, compared with 2015, was due to
colleagues fundraising for its charity partnership
with the British Red Cross, and greater engagement
in community activity following the Back to Being
Co-op sessions held throughout 2016.
Colleagues also engaged with their local
communities throughout summer 2016 to identify
thousands of local causes that address the needs
and interests of members locally, which helped to
identify over 4,000 causes that will benefit from the
new Local Community Fund.
Staff at Midcounties dedicated 36,000 to local
projects. Of that amount, over 21,000 hours were
delivered by staff across its Regional Community
areas, which provide support and make positive
impacts. The allotted hours doubled from last year
(10,500) and allowed employees to help support
members to deliver programmes across the area.
234,000 volunteering hours have been provided by
staff in the community over the past 10 years.
At Southern Co-op, it said an extra pair of hands
can make all the difference to getting a community
project off the ground and it encourages colleagues
to volunteer to support local good causes.
Throughout 2016, employees clocked up 1,000
hours voluntary service, though this was down on
previous years since the society ceased arranging
group volunteering activities opting for a demand
led approach for teams.
It says that this has led to more successful and
meaningful volunteering opportunities that drive
benefits for both the charities and the participating
colleagues. Its focus is now predominantly on the
quality of the volunteering and skills sharing/
development opportunities for both charity and
colleague, as opposed to simply measuring the
volume of hours.
34 | NOVEMBER 2017