Employee volunteering: the untapped £32.5bn opportunity for the UK economy
A new wave of workplace volunteering is quietly reshaping how UK businesses approach productivity and employee wellbeing - and the financial opportunity is substantial.
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Cebr study estimates annual productivity gains of £5,239 per employee 1 if they maximised their volunteering days
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Nearly two thirds (62%) of businesses say they offer volunteering days 2, yet 140 million hours went unused in the last 12 months, as many struggle to find the right opportunities
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Royal Voluntary Service to revolutionise volunteering with new digital platform backed by a £5 million investment from players of People’s Postcode Lottery
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Charity also launches Volunteering Marketplace to help businesses maximise their employee volunteering and social impact activities
According to analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), commissioned by national charity Royal Voluntary Service, the UK economy could stand to benefit from productivity gains worth £32.5 billion each year, or £5,239 per employee working in professional and managerial occupations - if workplace volunteering days were fully utilised.
The study stresses that these productivity gains could be higher still if the voluntary efforts of those in other job roles were also considered and if paid volunteering time was offered to more employees.
And businesses are taking note. A survey of 1,000 UK companies found that for many volunteering has become more than an ESG initiative – it’s a strategic lever for performance.
“Employee volunteering programmes are fast becoming one of the smartest investments a business can make. As our research shows, those who do it well are seeing the greatest results – from improved staff wellbeing and motivation to increased productivity.
“If just some of those 140 million lost volunteering hours were used it could be transformational in its effect. With our new Volunteering Marketplace we will help unlock that potential – making volunteering work for more businesses and their employees and enabling them to click and connect to the causes they care about.”
Catherine Johnstone CBE, Chief Executive, Royal Voluntary Service
“Business leaders and employees alike may wonder what’s in it for them when it comes to volunteering. Our research shows the answer is quite a lot. If every employee in a professional or managerial role offered volunteer days actually used them, it would have resulted in a £32.5 billion boost to UK productivity in 2024 alone.”
Chris Breen, Head of Economic Insight at Cebr
“Volunteers are the lifeblood of Britain and are fundamental to so many of the nation’s charities and good causes. Royal Voluntary Service's new digital platform will simplify the matching of volunteers with opportunities. Royal Voluntary Service's Volunteering Marketplace will make it easier for companies to find the right opportunities for their teams. I’d like to thank everyone who plays People’s Postcode Lottery for their support in making this possible.”
Clara Govier, Managing Director at People’s Postcode Lottery
The research* found 62% of firms surveyed now offer paid volunteering time to staff, with over a quarter of businesses introducing it in the last 12 months alone. This surge is being driven by a desire to tackle employee burnout (34%), re-engage staff (30%) and boost performance (25%), as well as to deliver social impact – 87% of businesses agree volunteering is important 3 to their company purpose and ESG goals.
Yet despite the momentum, most companies are not realising the full potential of their volunteering programmes. Employers offer an average of 2.3 days annually, but the study showed more than 140 million hours of gifted time went unused 4 last year. Additionally, not all employees are being given equal access to volunteering opportunities - less than one in five (19%) firms with programmes offer it to all their employees. On average, just half of employees receive the benefit.
Reasons businesses cited for not realising the potential of programmes included a lack of flexible one-off volunteering opportunities (28%) and team activities (17%), difficulty finding the right roles (21%), and not knowing where to start (12%).
Further data shows that businesses with a higher uptake of volunteer days – coined Volunteer Leaders 5 – also report stronger cultural outcomes than their peers – a compelling incentive at a time when performance and purpose are more intertwined than ever.
Fig 1. Volunteer Leaders report stronger outcomes
|
Impact of workplace volunteering |
Volunteer Leaders |
Companies with under-used programmes |
| Improved employee motivation | 53% | 42% |
| Stronger wellbeing and engagement | 52% | 37% |
| Enhanced reputation in the community and with clients | 49% | 37% |
| Increased employee skills and confidence | 37% | 33% |
| Help attracting new talent | 33% | 30% |
| Commercial gain (e.g. increased productivity) | 29% | 28% |
Unlocking the millions of unused hours could breathe new life into civil society at a time when volunteering is in decline and demand on charities hits new highs. In response, Royal Voluntary Service has today unveiled a new Volunteering Marketplace – a suite of services designed to help businesses build, embed and optimise their volunteering and social impact activities. The offer will include bespoke programme design, measurement and reporting, expert consultancy and digital badges to recognise success.
At the heart of the charity’s Volunteering Marketplace, is a new digital volunteering platform, currently in development thanks to a £5 million investment from players of People’s Postcode Lottery. Set to launch later this year, the platform is designed to remove barriers to volunteering for all – offering thousands of flexible, inclusive roles to suit modern working patterns.
For businesses, it will offer an end-to-end solution: matching staff to relevant opportunities, making volunteering easier to manage, and enabling organisations to track participation and impact. Subscription-based, the platform aims to become the UK’s largest digital volunteering community – one that works for businesses, causes and volunteers alike. It will be free for charities and the public to use.
The new platform and Volunteering Marketplace build on Royal Voluntary Service’s proven ability to mobilise volunteers at scale as seen during the pandemic.
About the research
Analysis was conducted by The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). To estimate the potential productivity uplift from volunteering in 2024, Cebr drew on data from Pro Bono Economics, which calculated the productivity gain for an individual in a professional/managerial role who volunteers.
Cebr updated this figure to reflect 2024 values by using the latest official earnings data from 2023 and applying the wage growth for 2024 to estimate the current average salary. Cebr then applied the original uplift ratio from the PBE report to calculate the updated per-person productivity benefit.
To assess the total potential impact, Cebr used results from a consumer research survey of a representative sample of 2,000 UK adults to estimate the proportion of professionals/managers who are offered volunteering days. This percentage was applied to the total number of workers in those roles. For a maximum-impact scenario, Cebr assumed all employees in professional/managerial roles offered volunteer days used their allocated volunteer days. By multiplying the per-person benefit by the number of qualifying individuals, Cebr estimated a total potential productivity boost of £32.5 billion to the UK economy in 2024.
*Research among UK businesses was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 1,000 HR Decision Makers (aged 21+), with a minimum of 50 who work for a FTSE 350 company. The data was collected between 27.02.2025-04.03.2025. Censuswide also conducted research among a sample of 2,002 nationally representative UK respondents between 28.02.2025 - 03.03.2025. Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.
Data footnotes
1. This figure represents the added productivity to the UK economy in 2024 per employee, if all individuals in professionals and managerial roles offered volunteer days fully utilise the volunteering days available to them. This provides an indicator of the productivity gains from corporate volunteering.
2. “We currently do this and have been for over 12 months” and “We introduced this in the last 12 months” answers combined
3. “Very important” and “Somewhat important” answers combined
4. According to a Censuswide survey of 2,000 UK Adults aged 16+. 30.06% of UK workers are offered paid volunteering days. This equates to 10,176,504 people being offered volunteering days in the UK.* The average number of days offered to all UK workers is 2.34. This equates to an average of 23,794,124 days a year being gifted, or 190,352,994 hours (based on 8 hour day). The mean percentage of volunteering days taken in the last 12 months is 26.22% = 49,907,338 hours taken in the last 12 months with 140,445,656 going unused.
*According to the latest Labour Force survey, during October to December 2024, the number of people aged 16+ in employment was 33.86 million.
5. Volunteer Leaders are defined as the top 20% of businesses in terms of volunteer day usage, with employees volunteering on average 1.44 days.
