Workplace and community
Our aim is to be recognised by existing and potential future employees as a responsible employer that values its people and provides an environment in which they can develop their skills and make a contribution to the success of the business.
We also wish to make a contribution to the communities in which we operate, building goodwill and a reputation as a good neighbour and employer. Our community investment strategy and charitable giving policy support this aim.
Highlights of our workplace and community programme include:
- Over 150 teams across the Group made and delivered CSR commitments as part of our activities to launch the new financial year; and
- 79% of employees thought that Premier Farnell is socially and environmentally responsible, the highest score in the employee survey carried out in August.
Our community investment strategy is based upon building sustainable partnerships with local community groups using our resources and in particular our time to support their activities.
Employees are encouraged to volunteer in company time. Funds are raised principally through employee fundraising activities and supplemented for specific projects with funds from the corporate charity budget. All employees are eligible to apply for funds and these can be a cash donation, matched funds or goods in kind. The budget of £20,000 has been fully utilised this year.
Our community partners and projects represent causes with which our employees have demonstrated (through discussion groups and surveys) their interest and support. Through dialogue with the community partners, activities are identified which can be supported by the employee volunteering programme. These include large projects, met by team challenges and ongoing, regular activities met by individual volunteers.
In the US, all of the Group’s businesses participate in the United Way, a community-based umbrella organisation supporting various human services organisations with whom the businesses have had a relationship since the 1980’s.
In each of our US businesses we have employees who undertake leadership roles in United Way’s fundraising activities and every year we run a pledge and donations drive. A number of team and individual initiatives have this year benefited local community groups and charities including Adopt a Soldier programmes, donations of clothing to a homeless shelter and the annual American Cancer Society’s Daffodil days fundraiser, which is a great success and hugely popular with employees.
Our largest site in Europe and Asia Pacific is in Leeds, UK. This is located in an inner city area which borders on the prosperous and fast developing city centre. Two-thirds of the employees at this site live in Leeds and of these over half live in the local area. If we make a difference in our local community, we contribute to the community in which many of our employees live.
We have established partnerships with two local groups who work with the elderly and disengaged young people and a number of local schools. Regular activities such as escorted shopping trips and tea dances for the elderly, supporting primary age children in reading programmes, mentoring of young people and team gardening challenges have been undertaken this year by a committed group of volunteers.
Across the Group employees have identified the good causes they want to support and are giving their time, money and commitment in a variety of ways: examples include the donation of money raised through the recycling of aluminium cans to a local children’s hospital and loose coin collections to sponsor a child in a developing country.
The Group recognises that these types of activity not only benefit the community groups and good causes involved, but also deliver business benefits in providing training and development opportunities for those employees who participate. Our new online personal development planning system “Futures” enables employees to capture the volunteering activities they have undertaken, assess the development opportunities and benefits delivered and discuss these as part of their performance review process with their line manager.