Engaging with local employers

Start with writing a list of employers near your brigade. From this work out which ones are most likely to release employees during the day. Prioritise contacting these ones first. These might be your local accountant, a self-employed plumber or the receptionist at your local school. Other things to think about include:

• Would their employees be able to drop what they are doing and easily respond?
• Do they have enough employees that can run the business while others are on a call?
• Hours employees might be available - shift work
• Potential links to existing brigade members
• Any other helpful things to know about making contact

In our downloadable version of this guide, we have a handy table for you to fill out which can help you to think about the types of employers in your community.

Decide on an approach

There are many ways to approach employers. We recommend meeting with employers in person, so that you can answer questions they might have about volunteering. You might:

• Have a conversation at their place of business
• Hold an Open Night/meeting and invite all local employers
• Attend a local business association meeting
• Invite a current employer of a volunteer to join you in the conversation

Consider your audience

Once you’ve identified the employers in your community you want to approach, consider the business type and the kinds of people they might employ.

It’s good to think about the benefits that will appeal to particular businesses. For example, a cafe owner or builder might be interested to learn that their employee would be trained in medical co-response. Whereas the local supermarket might be interested in our employer recognition programme.

Check out our downloadable guide to look at some of the important things to mention.

Gather materials

Once you’ve decided on an approach, collect the right set of materials to support your conversations.

Download and complete the Brigade fact sheet for employers. You can locate all the relevant information on the Brigade Index(external link) under Station Profile. 

Order copies of Employers are part of our crew for employers and Join the crew booklets for employees. You can order these through the Volunteer resource order form.

Give them a heads up

Give the business a call or send them an email to let them know you’re interested in talking to them about volunteering or inviting them to an employer’s meeting.

Next steps

Be clear with employers about how they can help promote volunteering to their employees. Ask them if they would be happy to hang posters or have booklets in their staffroom to let staff know your brigade is recruiting.

You might want to offer to talk to the employees at their next staff meeting. This can give you an opportunity to present some information about volunteering to their team.

Follow up with the employer

It’s a good idea to follow up with the employers you’ve met with to see if anyone has come forward and is interested in volunteering. If their employees are interested, make sure you follow up with them and invite them to training or to have a look around the station. Thank them for their time and let them know you’re happy to answer any other questions they may have.

Even if they don’t have staff available now, this may change in the future. Maintaining positive relationships with the businesses in your community is important.