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International management consultancy Accenture is to expand its pro bono activities.
The company’s business units in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the UK will be among the first to adopt a more formalized pro bono programme this September.
‘We’ve been involved in pro bono work for years, but this move shows our commitment to managing it in a more systematic and efficient manner,’ said Heidi Strawson, director of programmes in Accenture’s corporate citizenship unit.
Under the worldwide scheme, pro bono work will be scheduled in the same way as other client work and participating employees paid and appraised as for chargeable projects, with the company subsidizing the costs.
The programme is open only to consulting staff and builds on existing formal programmes in Australia, Brazil and France.
In a recent pro bono pilot involving Accenture’s US division and the US youth education charity Junior Achievement, the business donated the equivalent of one per cent of its total chargeable hours. A similar programme in Spain resulted in the donation of 140,000 hours to 37 non-governmental organizations.
Strawson claims that offering pro bono work improves staff morale and retention – although this is not formally corroborated – and appeals to high-performing graduates who want the opportunity to volunteer without sacrificing the safety net of a corporate job.
Allied to Accenture’s pro bono project is its partnership with international volunteering charity Voluntary Service Overseas. As a founding partner of VSO’s Business Partnership scheme, the company allows staff to take unpaid leave for up to one year to volunteer overseas. Accenture is discussing with VSO the possibility of shorter-term volunteering opportunities for senior executives.
In a separate volunteering scheme, Accenture employees work as consultants for non-profit groups in developing countries. The independently-run Accenture Development Partnership sources volunteers from the top quartile of Accenture consultancy staff as identified by performance appraisal.
The company’s business units in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the UK will be among the first to adopt a more formalized pro bono programme this September.
‘We’ve been involved in pro bono work for years, but this move shows our commitment to managing it in a more systematic and efficient manner,’ said Heidi Strawson, director of programmes in Accenture’s corporate citizenship unit.
Under the worldwide scheme, pro bono work will be scheduled in the same way as other client work and participating employees paid and appraised as for chargeable projects, with the company subsidizing the costs.
The programme is open only to consulting staff and builds on existing formal programmes in Australia, Brazil and France.
In a recent pro bono pilot involving Accenture’s US division and the US youth education charity Junior Achievement, the business donated the equivalent of one per cent of its total chargeable hours. A similar programme in Spain resulted in the donation of 140,000 hours to 37 non-governmental organizations.
Strawson claims that offering pro bono work improves staff morale and retention – although this is not formally corroborated – and appeals to high-performing graduates who want the opportunity to volunteer without sacrificing the safety net of a corporate job.
Allied to Accenture’s pro bono project is its partnership with international volunteering charity Voluntary Service Overseas. As a founding partner of VSO’s Business Partnership scheme, the company allows staff to take unpaid leave for up to one year to volunteer overseas. Accenture is discussing with VSO the possibility of shorter-term volunteering opportunities for senior executives.
In a separate volunteering scheme, Accenture employees work as consultants for non-profit groups in developing countries. The independently-run Accenture Development Partnership sources volunteers from the top quartile of Accenture consultancy staff as identified by performance appraisal.
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