Paid time off to volunteer for a cause that matters.
Employee volunteering — sometimes called volunteer time off or VTO — is paid leave specifically for charitable or community work. The natural pair to Payroll Giving and matched donations.
Everything we've written on Employee Volunteering.
- 01 Paid Volunteer Leave UK — 2026 Practical Guide for Employers
Everything UK employers need to know about paid volunteer leave (VTO) — typical allowances, policy design, legal position, and tracking.
- 02 Skills-Based & Pro Bono Volunteering for UK SMBs — 2026 Guide
How UK SMBs can match staff skills to charity needs through Pilotlight, Reach Volunteering, Trustees Unlimited and others — and the ROI versus hands-on days.
- 03 Tracking Volunteer Leave: 2026 Options for UK Employers
How to track paid volunteer leave separately from annual leave, what data to capture for CSR reporting, and the simplest tools for under-50-staff teams.
- 04 Team Volunteering Days in the UK — 2026 Employer Playbook
How to run a team volunteering day in the UK in 2026 — logistics, insurance, where to find a project, budgets, and what actually works.
- 05 Volunteer Policy Template for UK Employers — 2026 Edition
A practical UK volunteer policy template covering eligibility, approval workflow, expenses, insurance, ACAS overlap and the clauses most employers miss.
It works best when paired.
The strongest workplace-giving programmes layer two or three pillars together. Start here, add as you grow.
The questions HR keeps emailing us.
How many paid volunteer days do UK companies typically offer?+
1–3 days per year is the most common allowance for UK SMBs. Larger firms typically offer 5–7 days.
Is paid volunteer leave taxable?+
No — for the employee, paid volunteer leave is treated like normal paid working time. Not a benefit-in-kind.
Do you have to track volunteer leave separately from annual leave?+
Yes — best practice is to track it as a distinct leave type so reporting is clean and the entitlement does not get burned through accidentally.
This pillar is editorially independent — and underwritten by Leavely.
Leavely is leave management for UK SMBs. It's most relevant to the Employee Volunteering pillar, where it tracks paid volunteer days as a separate leave type — but it's where most of our HR readers come from, so we link it up here too.