The water company AWG is drawing up plans to extend its employee volunteering scheme worldwide.
AWG – formerly Anglian Water – provides water for almost 12 million people around the world and employs more than 5000 people.
The ‘Give Me Five’ scheme was launched in September last year in eastern England.
It involves the company matching every five hours an employee spends on community work with one hour of company time. The amount of company time an employee can spend on community work in any one year is capped at 30 hours.
‘We are now looking for UK-based non-governmental organizations with international arms to act as partners for our European and overseas operations,’ said AWG community co-ordinator Shelagh Linkleter.
‘We will make sure we have the involvement of AWG regional managers so the scheme will be locally implemented, culturally sensitive and not imposed by the UK,’ she added. ‘By April 2002 we hope to have drawn up a plan of what we are going to do in our various areas.’
The Give Me Five expansion will be co-ordinated from company bases in the Czech Republic for central and eastern Europe, Chile for Latin America, and Thailand for south east Asia.
Around 200 staff members have now signed up to Give Me Five in the UK. AWG is confident it will meet its target of 400 volunteers by next spring. Employees can volunteer their time for projects in three areas identified by the company: education, the environment, and work with people living in deprived areas.
Ken Smith, AWG’s principal scientist and a member of the company’s sustainable development team, claimed Give Me Five was already benefiting the business ‘in terms of recruitment and retention of staff, morale and attendance’.
He added: ‘It also helps us produce managers who are more rounded’.
AWG requires staff to choose volunteer work relevant to their personal development needs, as identified in yearly appraisals. ‘If, for instance, someone needs to develop their leadership skills we may send them on a mentoring programme in schools rather than a training course’, said Smith.
Staff have worked with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Tools for Self Reliance (which recycles tools for use in the developing world) and at a psychiatric hospital in Northampton, among other organizations. The volunteers include some senior managers.
AWG says it is expanding Give Me Five because it wants to develop its socially responsible policies, which have traditionally focused on the environment.
In a separate initiative, the company is drawing up a global code of principles on sustainable development to replace its existing environment and community policy.
Smith said the code, which is awaiting board approval, would cover issues such as human rights, supply chain tracking, equal opportunities and bribery.