COMMUNITY

Community - the contribution we make to the communities in which we operate and our obligations to the broader society.

Giving something back

We are committed to playing an active role in the wider community through supporting local initiatives and making charitable donations. We believe this commitment leads to greater employee engagement and is also attractive to potential employees, suppliers and customers.

Our community programme is an important contributor in enabling the Group to attract and retain the best talent. Our enthusiastic and talented staff make a significant contribution – in money, time and effort – to good causes, from charities to schools.

Our Community programme covers:

Charitable giving 

Just under £100,000 was donated by the Group during 2011 to selected charities.

The majority of our charity donations are made to employee related causes. This includes matching money raised by our employees through personal sponsored events, matched money raised by employees through fundraising activities at our premises, and donations in recognition of employees giving up their time to volunteer for a charity. No political or religious causes are supported, and preference is given to those charities operating close to our offices. If you are a UK Registered Charity and would like to find out if we can support your cause this year, please contact our Internal Communications team.

Employee fundraising

Employees are encouraged to organise office-based fundraising activities for charities they nominate. This is an important aspect of team-building and employee engagement. Through fundraising activities held at our offices during 2011 our employees raised over £20,000 for their chosen charities.

Community sponsorship

The Group is committed to playing an active role in the wider community through supporting local initiatives. We have various sponsorship opportunities in place, which helps to generate awareness of our brands, and shows our commitment to the society in which we work.

To find out more about what activities we are engaged in this year, please view what have we done this year?