10th February 2005
Leading UK disability insurer, UnumProvident, has revealed that last year its employees dedicated well over 600 days to performing voluntary work for communities in the areas surrounding its UK offices. The work is part of an ongoing employer-led scheme to encourage its employees to each donate a couple of working days of their time per year to important, but under-funded, local projects.
More than 50% of UnumProvident employees participated in various projects during 2004, placing the company far in advance of the national average of 25% for company sponsored volunteering.
Over the course of the year, the majority of the projects involved painting and decorating, but some volunteers contributed their own specialist business skills, such as IT knowledge, trusteeship and mentoring.
In addition, UnumProvident also sponsored and participated in the annual Le Jo'g (Lands End from John O'Groats) relay, raising over £20,000 for the charity CLIC (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood). As the only company in the race to enter a full end-to-end team of 100 runners, the team was required to cover the entire 1,000 mile route in 70 mile stages.
Joanne Hindle, Corporate Services Director at UnumProvident, said:
We have a long term commitment to helping our local communities. Whilst the majority of our employees still prefer to volunteer for the more traditional tasks of painting and decorating or gardening projects, we are now actively encouraging them to offer the communities access to their business skills as well.
Apart from the obvious benefit to local charities and worthwhile projects, volunteering presents employees with extra opportunities to improve their team building skills and to acquire new skill sets, all whilst having fun.
Major contributions came from the company's main offices located in Dorking, Bristol and Basingstoke as well as the regional offices in Leeds and Birmingham.
ENDS