Beginners Guide to Internet Marketing

Description

Beginners Guide to Internet Marketing document sample

Shared by: kwy13966

Tags

Beginners Guide, how to, internet marketer, generate cash, own Internet marketing, resale rights, make money online, A Beginners Guide, Beginner's Guide, free ebooks

Stats

views:: 8
posted:: 1/6/2011
language:: English
pages:: 13

Public Domain

Document Sample

The Complete Beginners guide for public sector
organisations wishing to start an employer supported
volunteering scheme

Getting Started

This guide is intended for public sector bodies who would like to set up an employer
supported volunteering scheme to support their employee's volunteering activity.

The public sector covers a wide range of organisations with different functions e.g.
 Central government
 Local government
 Health trusts
 Educational bodies e.g. schools and colleges

This Beginners Guide will take you through the steps to setting up your own programme.

Getting started - first steps
The first step in thinking about setting up an employer supported volunteering scheme is to
draw up why you would like to get involved.

Would you like to:

 bring real benefits to the local community?
 develop employees’ skills and increase their morale and motivation?
 improve links and communications across departments and directorates?
 create networks with potential service users and partners?
 enhance the public perception of your organisation?
 get closer to your policy development areas?

Employer supported volunteering can help all of these objectives. Deciding on the most
important factors for your organisation will help define your strategy. For more information on
the business case for employer supported volunteering visit The business case for
employer supported volunteering

What kind of issues are employers getting involved with?

Employers are active in a huge range of issues, which include:

 Alcohol and substance misuse
 Arts and media
 Black and minority ethnic issues
 Conservation, environment and heritage
 Criminal justice system
 Disability
 Education
 Health and mental health
 Homelessness
 Older people
 Refugees
 Regeneration
 Social Exclusion
 Unemployment
 Young people

For more information on the wide range of charities in the UK, go to the Charity Choice the
encyclopaedia of charities on the internet at www.charitychoice.co.uk

How to write an employer supported volunteering strategy
A written employer supported volunteering policy has several benefits, including:
 demonstrating that the employer supported volunteering programme has the support of
senior management and that the programme is taken seriously
 ensuring everyone knows the procedures involved
 promoting the programme

Writing a strategy requires careful planning to ensure a fit with the structures and culture of
your organisation. The following 12 steps are recommended to ensure success:

1. Assess the current situation
2. Secure support across the organisation
3. Decide on the structure of your programme
4. Write a policy
5. Set objectives
6. Allocate resources
7. Find suitable partners
8. Recruit volunteers
9. Recognise and reward your volunteers
10. Monitor and evaluate your programme
11. Publicise your programme
12. Final considerations

How to write an employer supported volunteering strategy
1. Assess the current situation

It is important to assess what volunteering is already taking place. Some departments or
sections may already be quietly supporting employer supported volunteering. This
information will help you decide whether to build on existing activity or to develop completely
new programmes. It will also allow you to monitor the success of your programme at a later
date.

Questions to ask include:
 What community activity is already taking place?
 What issues and causes are employees interested in supporting?
 What skills would employees like to offer to the community?
 What internal structures can be used (e.g. house magazines, retiree networks, social
clubs, unions)?
 What help is available to establish links with community organisations? (e.g. brokers).

Surveys that ask for information about employees’ private voluntary activities rarely go down
well. Try alternative ways of gathering information, such as:
 talking to key people such as team managers
 adding a few questions to a more general survey
 asking staff to nominate causes they would like to support.

2. Secure support across the business

The employer supported volunteering programme will need the support of the whole business
if it is to succeed.

Senior Management
Senior level support will be needed to agree:
 which charities or community organisations to support
 limits for financial contributions and management costs
 how activity will be initiated or managed
 the availability of other resources to help the community such as facilities, services,
furniture and equipment
 how to evaluate the programme against objectives
 the policy for volunteering in work time

If senior managers can get involved in employer supported volunteering activities, this sets an
excellent example.

NB A statement of commitment to employer supported volunteering from directors will be a
powerful endorsement.

Middle Management
Middle management support is crucial to the success of an employer supported volunteering
programme, but the most difficult to gain. This is because middle managers are likely to be
most affected by their team volunteering. They may simply see that their members of their
team are absent, rather than the benefits that volunteering will bring. To try to overcome this,
make sure there are no surprises.

Explain:
 what the programme is and how it will function
 the benefits it will bring
 how essential they are to the programme’s success
 how they can support the programme
 that there are clear guidelines on such areas as use of facilities and paid time off.

All other employees
For an employer supported volunteering programme to succeed you will have to create ways
to involve all your employees and enable them to feel ownership of the programme. They will
want to be involved in generating ideas and organising activities.

Base all your communications on messages that convey ideas of sharing, support and
partnership. Listen to what your employees say. Which causes do they want to help? What
kind of support do they want? What kind of recognition would they like? You could think about
setting up a steering group where these ideas and activities can be discussed. If so, you will
need to arrange for training and support, provide a meeting-place, and ensure the group is
encouraged by colleagues. You could also organise a community visit so employees can see
first hand how they can help.

When consulting employees, questions you might want to ask include:
 What sorts of social issues and needs will they be interested in supporting?
 Are there any issues that employees would prefer not to be associated with?
 What sort of skills could employees contribute?
 Is it possible for employees to take time away from work on a regular basis?
 Would employees be more interested in continuing involvement or a one- off event?
 Would employees prefer to volunteer at a place near to home or to work and do they
have access to transport if there is a distance factor?
 Would employees prefer to be involved in team or individual activities?

Unions
Unions are generally in favour of volunteering. However, it is wise to consult your union
representatives when shaping your policy, to get their full backing and support.

The aim is to show that the programme is employee-led and employer-supported.

3. Decide on the structure of your programme

From your enquiries on what volunteering is already taking place you will be best able to
decide how to proceed.

If you decide to build on existing volunteering...

Now that you know what volunteering is occurring, you can decide what progammes to put in
place to support this activity further.

Ways to support existing activities are:

Recruit and support volunteer co-ordinators. Volunteer co-ordinators often are part of
a larger committee and can link up volunteering activity across the company to
provide maximum benefit to the employer and the community organisation which is
receiving the volunteers. This role also provides development opportunities in
managing resources, organisation, and leadership and communication.

Set up a Time Bank to allow employees to take work time for employer supported
volunteering that can only take place during working hours. The fact that the
employer is prepared to donate work time for this is a strong indicator of its
commitment to volunteering.

For additional information go to Key issues/paid time off

Create an internal awards scheme. These are a popular way to support employees
and are a good vehicle for recognising charitable work. Award schemes should be
well publicised and available to all.

A wealth of information on internal and external awards schemes can be found in the
Recognition section

If you would like to develop a new programme...

Developing a new programme could be the result of employees wanting to keep their own
volunteering private, or when your organisation decides that it would like to focus strategically
on activities or issues that fit with its values and business goals, often linking into to a broader
Corporate Community Investment or Corporate Social Responsibility strategy.

For further information visit our sections on CCI and CSR

To develop a new programme:

1. From your review of employee volunteering, consider its place within a wider Corporate
Social Responsibility framework.
2. Get senior support for the business and human resources objectives
3. Assign dedicated personnel to take responsibility for programme management
4. Ensure a Human Resource framework of professional development and training needs to
match with employer supported volunteering activities.
5. Obtain dedicated resources to:
 draw up a development strategy
 develop budgets
 cover time and travel costs of volunteers
 build employer supported volunteering into the your appraisal systems
 plan for evaluation of programmes
 encourage participation
 roll out programme of presentations and workshops
6. Identify voluntary/community organisations which:
 have values and objectives that you can support
 have needs that your organisation can fulfil
 can support and incorporate volunteers well
 will give you feedback, evaluation and information about the programmes
 share enthusiasm
7. Communicate objectives and benefits internally and externally through
 publications and presentations
 through open internal communication, i.e. intranet, notice boards, etc.
 celebrations
 marketing and PR
 award schemes.

These points are elaborated on further from points 4 - 11 of this Beginners Guide.

4. Write a policy

A written employer supported volunteering policy has several benefits, including:
 demonstrating that the employer supported volunteering programme has the support of
senior management and that the programme is taken seriously
 ensuring everyone knows the procedures involved
 promoting the programme

A good employer supported volunteering policy will aim to meet the needs of both your
organisation and the voluntary/community organisation you are working with.

It may include:

a brief statement of commitment on employer supported volunteering and the reasons for
that commitment -

guidelines on paid time off for community involvement -
For more information visit:
Key issues/Paid time off

guidelines on in-kind contributions -
For more information visit:
What is CCI?/In-kind contributions

guidelines on financial support if this is to be linked to employees’ fundraising or personal
volunteering activities -
For more information visit:
Key issues/Financial support

a statement on how projects are to be chosen and the level of employee involvement in
this -
For more information visit:
Key issues\How projects are chosen

guidelines on insurance and health & safety -
For more information visit:
Health & safety

a short statement recognising the value of the voluntary activity undertaken by employees
as private individuals, which may be in addition to or instead of participation in the
structured programme.
For more information visit:
Support for employees who already volunteer

5. Set objectives

If you are setting up a new employer supported volunteering programme, consider how the
programme will help to meet your organisation’s business aims or strategic objectives. You
will also need to consider the objectives of the community partner you will be working with.
Try to define jointly what you want to achieve and how you will measure success. True
partnerships are best achieved by working together from the start.

It is useful to set objectives that relate to the impact you want the employer supported
volunteering programme to have, such as:
 helping staff development -
improving employee morale -
increasing staff retention –
For more information visit:
The human resource benefits of employer supported volunteering
 transferring business skills to community organisations
 improving your profile in the community -
For more information visit:
External and internal communications

You may also want to talk to other similar companies that have already set up an employer
supported volunteering programme. Joining a local or national network can be very useful to
talk to people who are already engaged. The Employees in the Community Network is a
national network run by Volunteering England and has regular events where companies,
charities and the public sector meet to network and discuss best practice and up-and-coming
issues.

Make sure your goals are realistic. Most employers looking for employer supported
volunteering opportunities find that, with the exception of group projects, most volunteering
opportunities do not need large groups of volunteers at one time, but a regular supply of
smaller numbers of volunteers.

Decide how you will know if your objectives have been achieved, and make sure you keep
records so that you can evaluate this.

If you want to improve an existing employer supported volunteering programme, then it’s
easiest to set objectives in relation to the activities already under way.

These might include:
 increasing the number of employees participating
 establishing a structure to enable activities to be organised more regularly
 increasing the variety of activities
 encouraging community organisations to contribute their ideas to the programme.
What can go wrong?

As with any project, poor planning results in a project failing or not fulfilling its potential. From
the outset clear objectives should be put in place, responsibility for all aspects of the project
allocated and agreed, and communication paths established. Do not strive for perfection with
the first project or launch the programme globally immediately. Start small and build on
success.

The National Survey of Volunteering in 1997 found that there were a number of issues that
reduce the success of volunteering projects:

The drawbacks of volunteering, 1997

You find yourself out of pocket

The organisation isn't really going
anywhere

Too much is expected of you

Your efforts aren't always
volunteers comments

appreciated

Your help is not really wanted
Series2
Series1
It takes up too much time

You don't get asked to do the
things you'd like to do

You can't always cope with the
things you are asked to do

You sometimes get bored or lose
interest

Things could be much better
organised

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Percentage agreeing

Proper planning and management can reduce:
 Poor organisation
 Administrative failures
 Lack of communication/information
 Shortage of funds, staff and volunteers.

6. Allocate resources

Employer supported volunteering programmes bring a lot of benefits, but they’re not free. For
your programme to succeed there will need to be a member of staff responsible for making it
happen. You need to decide who that will be and whether they will do it on a full-time or part-
time basis. Or you might want to set up a committee to run the programme, which would
involve training key staff in volunteer management.

You will also need to allocate resources to give volunteers an initial briefing or more in-depth
training depending on what volunteering they will be doing e.g. if it is with vulnerable groups
they will need appropriate training, if it is a practical 'challenge' they may need health and
safety awareness training.

Bespoke programmes require central co-ordination and monitoring. However, the natural fit
these programmes have with HR means no large additional costs are incurred, as many of
the necessary resources are already covered.
Using financial resources for volunteering may at first seem problematic. By using budgets
creatively - training and marketing budgets, for example - funds should be able to be found to
cover costs.

Depending on the programme, added costs that are sometimes overlooked are:
 Consultancy or brokerage services
 Internal promotional literature
 Development costs for flagship projects
 Incidental expenses such as travel and subsistence
 Resources to aid employee committees, such as notepaper, t-shirts, and posters
 Recognition and celebration events
 Monitoring and evaluation.

For schemes that match fund raising, there is a cash implication, but even here, this may not
mean 'new money' but could be resources transferred from existing budgets.

7. Find suitable partners

Existing relationships in the community

Think about your existing relationship with the local voluntary sector. You may not yet have a
relationship with any group at this stage, but perhaps your business has donated money to a
local charity or community group? You may find they are willing to build a closer relationship
with you and share ideas for employer supported volunteering activities.

Questions to think about when looking for suitable partners are:
 Are we aware of what's going on in our local communities?
 Are we looking for a unique relationship with a community organisation?
 Does the organisation have the potential and capacity to involve us?
 Can the organisation identify areas where our employees can bring benefits such as
skills, practical help, financial advice, project management, strategic management,
research and development, personnel consultancy?
 Are there organisations that can help us find a match, such as a local broker?
 Can the organisation provide a member of its staff to act as the main contact for
employer supported volunteering?
 Does the organisation already involve volunteers successfully and is it experienced in
risk assessment? For more information visit:
Health & safety

Using brokers

You may know of a local broker, such as a Volunteer Centre or Council for Voluntary Service,
local Business in the Community or Cares who will help you to find suitable partners. At any
point in preparing a volunteer programme it is possible to get in touch with a broker. These
are the intermediaries who enable employee involvement in the community by matching the
needs of all parties. They are useful for three main reasons:
 Companies, public sector bodies and community organisations may lack the time to
research potential partners.
 Brokers know the needs of all sectors and are experienced in translating these into
negotiated outcomes.
 Brokers understand local community issues and can match suitable partners to bring
about positive change.

For more information on brokers go to our Brokers section

8. Recruit volunteers
By far the best way of recruiting volunteers is by word of mouth. Recruit ‘employer supported
volunteering champions’ to spread the message to their peers. Include profiles of employee
volunteers in the staff magazine, or invite people from community organisations to come and
speak to your employees about the difference their involvement could make. Remember half
of all volunteers get involved because they were asked.

Recruitment tips

 Communicate personally rather than relying on written material, where possible
 Ensure that potential volunteers know what support is offered and whom they can contact
to find out more, or to suggest ideas
 Ensure that the person responsible for the programme is receptive to what people are
saying and that they easy to reach
 Develop a distinctive identity for the programme - perhaps involve employees in choosing
a name and/or logo for it
 Try and ensure the volunteering opportunities are attractive and varied
 Explain exactly how the volunteers will make a difference
 Spell out what your organisation is contributing
 Make it sound fun!

For more information visit:
External and internal communication/Internal communication

Remember: if you have involved employees all the way through the conception of the scheme
recruitment will be much easier.

9. Recognise your volunteers

Recognising and publicising the contribution that employee volunteers make will demonstrate
to your employees that their efforts are appreciated - and will also help to recruit more
volunteers.

Ways of recognising employee volunteers include:
 internal award schemes -
For more information visit:
Recognition/Internal awards schemes
 parties
 articles in newsletters and magazines
 a personal thank you letter from the Head of the Directorate/Chief Executive
 Did they find it worthwhile?
 Did they enjoy it?

The effect on your partner organisation
You will of course need to liaise over this with your partner organisation, but your questions
could include:
 Did the end result match the original aim of the project?
 How well-received was it?
 How well did your partnership work on a practical level?
 Were there any problems, and how were they dealt with?
 How can you build on what has been achieved so far?
 Have there been any measurable impacts on society, either to the end-users of the
service, or to the wider community?

Methods to use
Some of your aims may have been quantitative - e.g., you might have wanted to involve a
minimum of 10 per cent of all employees - and these are easy to evaluate if you have kept
good records. Qualitative benefits are more difficult to assess. You could try using one or
more of the following methods:
 questionnaires or surveys
 asking for reports
 telephone conversations with participants
 interviews
 focus groups
 written records.

The key factors in evaluation
 State clearly in advance what all the groups involved expect to gain from the project or
programme.
 Stay in touch with, and seek information from, all the stakeholders in the programme.
 Set up record-keeping procedures to gather and store the information you need as you go
along.
 Plan the evaluation, and the data you will need to collect, before the programme begins
or as soon as possible after it starts.
For more information visit: Resources/Evaluation

10. Publicising your employer supported volunteering to your external
stakeholders

You will need to decide whether you wish to publicise your employer supported volunteering
activities. This can take several forms:

 Part of your annual report -
For more information go to:
External and internal communications/reporting
 A separate published report which could be part of a larger Corporate Community
Investment or Corporate Social Responsibility report.
For more information on CCI go to: Key issues/ reporting

For more information on CSR go to: Employers/CSR
 Press releases -
Radio and television coverage
 Entering local and national awards -
For more information go to: Recognition/External awards schemes

Publicising employer supported volunteering externally needs to be handled carefully as if
there is a suspicion by employees and community groups that the main focus of your
programme is to generate positive publicity, this could backfire. Furthermore, you will need to
take into account any wider issues within your organisation when seeking to publicise your
employer supported volunteering, which could damage your programme, such as
redundancies, poor financial performance, poor human rights or environmental performance
and so on.

Entering your programme for an award, whether a local, industry or a national award, can be
very time consuming. However, if you are a winner, this can give your programme a welcome
boost with both volunteers, potential volunteers and with the board, as well as possibly bonus
of more funds for your programme.

11. Final considerations

The following are some final points to consider:

Senior management
 Make the business case live with some real examples of successful employer
supported volunteering projects in your area.
 Incorporate in your mission statement the importance employer supported
volunteering (as part of your CSR) has in reaching your business goals.
 Encourage your most senior members of staff and board to set an example and
volunteer.
 Communicate the importance of volunteering consistently to all your external and
internal stakeholders.

Human Resources
 Enlist the help of HR to set up proper policies and procedures.
 Lobby for volunteering to appear on the job descriptions of those who already have
contact with volunteers as part of their work.
 Set up a cross-departmental support group within your company.
 Develop volunteer projects that utilise the distinctive competencies and skills of your
company and its employees.
 Ensure your volunteers are properly briefed before they volunteer - they are your
organisation’s ambassadors.

Targeting your efforts
 Survey employees to determine their interests
 Conduct regular and ongoing evaluations to determine your programme's impact on
your employees, your organisation, your partner organisations and the wider
community.

Celebration
 Volunteering should be rewarding for all those who take part. Ensure that fun,
worthwhile activity, appreciation and recognition are at the core of your programme.

****************************************************************************************

Appendix

Eight approaches to employer supported volunteering

 ‘Charity of the Year’ programmes.
Your company, prompted by employees, commits to supporting a range of volunteering
activities, focusing on a specific organisation. This enables you to build long-term
relationships with a charity or community organisation. Care needs to be taken to ensure
that this is not seen as top-down choice, contrary to the employee-led principle. Some
flexibility and resource should be kept to one side to allow for requests from smaller charities
with immediate and one-off requests for assistance.

 Fundraising
Employees can be supported in their fundraising activities by offering practical resources such
as meeting rooms, telephones, photocopying and by offering to match the amount they raise
(often with a stated maximum).

The Charities Aid Foundation can help with the financial side of this - go to
www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?page=6842 for further information.

You can also try www.fundraising.co.uk – a site for fundraisers with a whole range of
related information
 One-off ‘challenge’ events.
A 'challenge' is a task, usually practical, set by local community organisations e.g. painting a
hall, clearing a river, building a dry stone wall, creating a children's playground, giving a
Christmas party. Challenges can involve employees’ family members, particularly when the
event is carried out over a weekend. Challenges can provide a good ‘taster’ for those new to
volunteering and brings practical resources to community organisations who may not have
the resources to do it themselves. Challenges are excellent for teambuilding and motivation.

Challenges do require careful planning and managing to avoid problems such as:
 too many people with not enough to do
 people not turning up
 accidents.

For more information on health and safety go to Health and Safety

Challenges can be difficult to translate into a sustainable programme after the first rush of
enthusiasm. It is important that information is provided on the day on how employees can
continue volunteering with that organisation.

For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/community challenges

 Mentoring schemes
Mentoring provides the opportunity to develop the interpersonal skills of coaching, listening
and motivation through one-on-one relationships set up with clear guidelines as to purpose,
limits, timescales and venue.
For example, employees can be partnered with:
 secondary school pupils to help provide positive role models, advise on career
aspirations, provide an insight into the world of work
 young homeless or unemployed people to assist them to acquire skills and join the
job market
 primary school pupils to improve reading, maths and IT skills
 staff at various levels in the voluntary sector to transfer skills and experience
 business start-ups e.g. through the Princes Trust

Mentoring is highly motivational because its positive effects on the mentee are very visible.
Mentors do need training before they start, including on any cultural differences between
themselves and the mentor, and issues such as confidentiality.

For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/mentoring

 Virtual Volunteering
Already well-established in the US, this approach; enables volunteers to work at their desk on
behalf of groups in the UK, overseas and on the web. Examples: web research; email
mentoring or ‘listening’ chat room or newsgroup supervision. Virtual volunteering is helpful if
volunteers have limited time as they can keep in touch via email or phone. However, the lack
of face to face contact may not motivate the volunteer and might make it difficult to build
relationships with partner organisations.

For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/virtual volunteering

 Board membership
Volunteers, often bringing professional or managerial skills, can serve on school boards or on
the management committees of voluntary or public sector organisations. This enables them
to experience the strategic management of a whole organisation. Board membership offers
high community visibility and gives good experience in management, decision-making and
developing strategies and policy. Board membership usually requires a minimum one year
time commitment and effects can take a long time to show due to long intervals between
meetings.

For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/School governors and board members

 Using professional skills
Using your professional skills to assist voluntary and other organisations such as small
businesses can be particularly rewarding. One example is the project ProHelp, which is a
national network of professional firms who give their time and expertise for free to voluntary
and community groups.
Established in 1989 by Business in the Community, ProHelp has grown to 900 firms in 42
locations and is committed to providing well over £3.5 million worth of professional advice
every year.

For more information go to:
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/offering your professional skills

 Development assignments
These are short placements in community organisations for either individuals or teams.
Projects are clearly defined and meet the development needs of the employee or team -
usually focusing on the skills of project management, confidence, negotiation and
communication. Development assignments are a proven vehicle for improving skills and
teambuilding. They should be tightly structured to enables clear targets to be set and
measured. However, care needs to be taken that participation in the scheme remains
voluntary.

For more information on secondments and development assignments go to
I want to volunteer/what can I do?/secondments and development assignments

The ‘Eight approaches’ has been adapted from a book by Business in the Community,
www.bitc.org.uk.