The company has been running the Employee Voluntary Work Scheme for 5 years. Over one and a half thousand company staff are involved in charitable work. They performed almost 11,000 hours of voluntary work and collected 445 thousand PLN. The money was spent on a variety of projects, some of which were the initiative of the workers, others like A Phone to call Mum at hospitals, or School Without Violence, were implemented by the company itself. The voluntary work that the company supports and encourages is a key element in the company’s corporate culture and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is a trend that is prevalent in many companies around the world.
Henkel, the German based company, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Make an Impact on Tomorrow program, which supports volunteer work of its current and retired staff members. More than 4,000 employees and retirees performed volunteer work in 100 countries. What is unusual is that it is the employees who are the driving force of all projects. They are responsible for the selection, planning, organization and ultimately the implementation.
In-kind support is beneficial not only for the positive image of the company but also for the employees themselves. Employees feel proud that they are affiliated with an organization that shows concern and commitment to the community. What is more, employees develop new professional skills such as event management, leadership, budgeting and public speaking. Volunteer work can also move one’s career forward, as companies send their employees to work on nonprofit projects in developing countries. The trend in the corporate world to help others has been growing year by year as people feel responsible for the communities they live in. We can therefore say, that along with CSR, a new trend of management has emerged called „Corporate Citizenship”.
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