Staff get a day of paid leave to volunteer in community

The importance of voluntary work is recognised by the University, as staff are encouraged to volunteer.

This year has been a strange one, but although we’ve all had difficulties to get through, it’s amazing to see how our University community has reached out to help and support a huge range of different initiatives and projects. Staff at the University are entitled to one day per year of paid leave to volunteer.

For staff

It’s incredibly easy to organise and there are several ways you could go about doing it:

1. You can use the day to continue your volunteering work with a charity or organisation you’re already involved with.
2. You can get together with other colleagues from your school or team that may want to initiate a project as a group.
3. You can try something brand new. In the current climate there are numerous charity projects that need extra hands. If you’re not sure where to start, try asking about in your local community to see if there’s something you can help with, or try Volunteer Edinburgh; a great resource to find out more about volunteering projects.

Once you’ve decided which option to go for, you simply need to request a volunteering day from your Line Manager.

All the details about the policy can be found on the HR webpages here. You can find out a bit more about projects going on around the city on the Edinburgh Local website and the University’s Covid-19 response page. If you have any questions, you can email local@ed.ac.uk.

Have you been volunteering in your local area? We’d love to hear about it. Drop us an email at local@ed.ac.uk