COMPANIES will be encouraged to reward their staff for volunteering at a conference on how to better use corporate 'muscle'.

Charities are looking for financial help but according to the Oxfordshire Community Foundation, who help match charities with funding, they also highly value the wealth of professional skills, talent, knowledge and experience that businesses possess.

The organisation will be running a conference on how to improve the relationship between charity and business and show some of the skills companies might take for granted are priceless to charities and community organisations.

This event will be the chance to hear from other leading businesses about the voluntary roles their staff have taken, and to attend interactive seminar sessions on topics such as how to link volunteering with career development, and where to go to find opportunities to share skills with charities.

Planned speakers include William Downing, a Partner at Blake Morgan who is Chair of Homeless Oxfordshire; Graham Beith, who is Branch Manager at Handelsbanken in Reading and volunteers as a charity trustee; and Clive Johnson, Group Head of Health, Safety and Security at Westgate developers Landsec.

The conference will take place on April 10 from 9.30am to 2pm at Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre. Book via oxfordshire.org