The board have decided to formalise our arrangements for employees that do voluntary work for others.  They want to create a procedure where any employee can do voluntary work for an organisation of their choice, and we pay them (on a sliding scale - they get full pay for one day a year, reducing if they do more - they can't go off to work for a charity full time and have us pay them).

Does anyone have a similar system?  How do you handle insurance?  Do employees volunteering for other organisations have cover under your Employers Liability insurance?  Do you inspect and validate the charity’s insurances?  I’m slightly nervous because we’re doing it partly to look good in marketing, which is arguably for the furtherance of the business.  Even though the individuals won’t be at their normal work, they’ll be doing something that looks like work, and we’ll be paying them while they are doing it, and we’re doing that because we think it’s good for the company (indirectly).

What do you do about PPE, RAMS etc.?

I should note that we specify that the voluntary works must not be something that is their normal work. We are a consultancy, most of our employees are knowledge workers, but they can’t volunteer and do for free anything that the company might otherwise get paid to do.  This is mostly to sidestep complex issues in our Professional Indemnity insurance, and avoid any uninsured professional liability falling on the individual.  (As an aside, the company does take on some pro bono work, but individuals working on that are paid just the same as if the client was paying the business.)