Charity begins at home (the children's home, that is)

[andrewducker]

My employers believe in community. They're a mutual company, which means that they aren't owned by shareholders (and indeed, don't have shareholders, or indeed, owners, as far as I can tell) and they have a guiding set of principles which includes doing good for the society around them. We sponsor a variety of good causes, raise money for charity on an occasional basis and generally stick to good people practice even when we don't have to.

One of the ways this is done by my particular department (Information Services, Development Group 2 - Marketing) is the yearly away-day, whereby we all go out to a local charity and try to help out for a day. This year we're going to a children's home in nearby Falkirk and spending the day redecorating. Stripping walls, painting fences, erecting sheds, etc. The department manager is currently assigned to wallpapering duty, which gives the impression that he's serious about the fact that this is supposed to be a day of good deeds, not just an excuse to look good. Of course, it's a useful team-building exercise (I'm building a shed and I'm rather looking forward to chatting to the various people I'm doing it with), and I'm sure it means that we can tick something off on a corporate check-sheet somewhere, but people seem to be generally enthused about it (in a "Dear Lord, please don't make it rain tomorrow." way).

One of the other cool things they do are "lunchtime learning sessions" whereby employees give talks on things they've done that might be of interest to others. I've signed myself up for a session on NLP, one on 5000 years of Chinese Culture and one on "Food and nutrition for mental perfection" because I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. They're only monthly, but I'm glad it's something that the company supports.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

That's impressively cool. Are such companies at all common in the UK? Other than liberal non-profit charities, I can't think of any similar companies in the US.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

Nah, they're not that common.

Although we have large, corporate-driven charity events, that buy as much publicity as they cost us, we are relatively altruistic.

Tomorrow's excursion, for instance, benefits no one but the children's home, and at no small cost to the company (the loss of around 50 staff for the day, and all that entails). OK, as Andy points out, it's a useful team building exercise - but team building could be accomplished just as well by doing something less worthy, that takes less effort and enthusiasm.

"The company" is actually a pretty good one. It's ethos is perhaps slowly changing, becoming more 'normalised', but they still take pretty good care of their staff, and any board past or present has always been comprised of people that believe in giving back to the community. In fact, we have a department, Community Involvement, which is specifically there to manage the various things we do to benefit the people around us.

Bottom line? We're in business to make money for people, which isn't perhaps the most wonderful, world changing business there is (although there's nothing inherently wrong with helping people save for retirement). However, of those businesses, I reckon we're a little less ruthless and a little more community focused than most.

[andrewducker]

It's not that common, although there are a few of them. The co-op, for instance is a similar organisation and runs the third largest funeral homes.

[kpollock.livejournal.com]

John Lewis (unless they changed - they were talking about it)

[taromazzy.livejournal.com]

My experience in the USA suggests that many companies do litter picking by the side of the road one day a month. They 'sponser' that bit of road.

I think it's a great idea, but don't know if they do it with more people relevant charities. But they probably do, 'cause Britain is rarely first in these areas.

Also, America's got an excellent incentive for donating to charity shops, as anything given can be deducted form your final tax bill. Big companies can pretty much right off enormous tax bills by donating some money to a charity.

(Though being cynical, it probably goes to museums that friends of the CEO like)

Lots of companies are doing the half day a month to voluntary work thing now - it motivates staff for a low cost, and makes the company look good. The Body Shop do it and the Guardian is always highlighting firms that do so.

Anyway, people who volunteer generally live longer and have lower stress levels than peers that dont. (yeah, thats research, but I can't be arsed finding it on the internet - it's American though)

So build that shed Andy - it may save help you live longer!

[allorin.livejournal.com]

We're not owned by anyone?

Hmmmm.

Depends which of our literature you read, or what interviews with our CEO (current or previous) you've listened to/read.

Up until about six months ago, we were quite happy to say that we were "owned" by our With Profits policy holders.

Ever since Stonebanks, who tries to assert that as a WP policyholder he part-owns the company, and therefore has a say in how it's run (ie, when it will demutualise), we've tried to distance ourselves from that.

Truth is, as far as I can make out, we ARE owned by the WP policyholders, at least from a legal POV. However, the board are essentially elected by the WP PHs at each AGM to run the company for them, so complaints WP PHs have against the board are, at the very least, a little belated. I should add the disclaimer here that this is all my very humble personal opinion, and in no way related to the opinion of the company, or the board of the company.

Boy, I'm trained good.

It's all fun though - part of what makes work for us so interesting!