Andrew is the Commercial Lead for Digital Business Banking at Barclays, and has been working with Mindful Peak Performance on their marketing and social media strategy as they look to broaden their audience to businesses.

Why do you volunteer?
ELBA offer some great volunteering opportunities and working with Mindful Peak Performance (MPP) on their marketing and social media strategy stood out as something that was a good fit with my experience. MPP is a not-for-profit enterprise dedicated to sharing its mindfulness-based approach to performance and transforming the image of mental wellbeing. Barclays is very supportive of volunteering, and it’s nice to do something outside your day job that also supports local businesses and communities.

What have you gained from your volunteering experience?
MPP is a really interesting enterprise with a great cause, and working with them gave me valuable insight into the challenges that these types of organisations face when looking to scale. They don’t have the luxury of having specialists in lots of different fields, so need to draw upon all of the resources available to them and upskill as much possible. Being able to support in this area was really rewarding, and it was interesting to see where I could add value. I’m also lucky enough to have some great colleagues who I could call upon when I needed to provide deeper insight in a specific discipline.

Would you recommend volunteering to a colleague and, if so, why?
Definitely, especially if you have expertise in an area that smaller organisations may not. There are so many worthwhile causes, and the process through ELBA is simple – making it really easy to find a relevant opportunity and sign up.