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GoodCompany.com.au, Australia’s largest unified workplace giving, volunteering and fundraising platform has announced the results of its inaugural ‘Best Workplaces to Give Back’ survey. And the winners are…
IAG, which is Australia’s largest insurer, has been identified as the best workplace to give back, closely followed by Origin and National Australia Bank (NAB). Each of the companies demonstrated a strong commitment to partner with their staff to support the community through volunteering, payroll giving, fundraising, sponsorship and other prosocial initiatives.
In an effort to tap into the natural competitiveness of Australian businesses, Good Company’s CEO, Ash Rosshandler, hopes that the ‘Best Workplaces to Give Back Index’ becomes an important accolade for companies to vie for.
“We believe that this can become a true measure of a company’s success. Just as their yearly profits are viewed as a success measure, so too will their focus on contributing to the community around them”
Major corporations have realised the benefits of a strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program go well beyond ticking boxes and good PR. They have identified that the best way to attract, inspire and retain staff is to have a CSR policy that appeals to them.
“Many professionals are looking for workplaces with meaning. But it’s not easy to find out which companies share the same values as they do. They are keen to give back to communities that they feel passionate about” Rosshandler explains. The Index also allows charities to easily identify which corporations are receptive to their causes and allow investors to understand which companies share their values.
GoodCompany identified that of the top 40 companies 88% offer paid volunteer leave, with 61.4% of the companies offering a budget to support volunteering. Whilst the majority, 65.9% give a single day to volunteer, encouragingly 21% offer two or more days. “This shows a true commitment to the meeting the needs of charities as many of the skilled volunteering projects require more than a day to create an impact” Rosshandler says.
Flight Centre Volunteering
How it works
Companies were invited to submit their internal practices surrounding workplace volunteering, payroll giving, community-based sponsorships and further commitments such as Diversity, Reconcilliation Action Plans, Green Energy Targets and Recycling Programs. These were then ranked based on three main criteria; the size of their programs, the broader context in which the programs were running and the innovation adopted by the company making their programs unique to their organisation. And this year, IAG came in at #1.
The Winners – IAG
At IAG we’re driven by our purpose to make your world a safer place. We support our people, customers and communities to bring this purpose to life. We encourage our people to nominate charities they are passionate about and through the IAG Foundation they are able to make a positive contribution through workplace giving and volunteering. In recognition of their support we match each contribution dollar for dollar”, IAG Foundation Board Member, David Harrington explains.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of the top 40 companies offer payroll giving with 81.2% matching the employees’ donations to some level. 15% have this set as uncapped.
Fight Centre
“We recognise that our workplace giving program is the most effective way for us to have real impact in our community. To further enhance the program, we match our employee workplace giving donations and work with a select group of charity partners to support key programs and projects”, Flight Centre CEO Graham “Skroo” Turner.
Origin Foundation
Origin has set up the Origin Foundation which provides volunteering and matched giving opportunities for Origin employees as well as managing their program of financial grants. It operates as a standalone philanthropic foundation.
Frank Calabria Origin Energy CEO Volunteering
“There are many things that make me proud to lead this great Australian company, but one that sticks out is the passion and commitment of our people to making a difference in their communities. We support them to do this through our Foundation by volunteering their time and skills with our partners or donating to causes important to them through our matched giving program.” Origin CEO Frank Calabria said.
Each company has set up their own workplace giving structure which mirrors their values and the needs of their workforce.
NAB
“As a workforce of 30,000, we understand the impact our people can have so we actively encourage and support them to become involved in their community.” Nicola Murphy, Head of Corporate Responsibility Engagement at NAB explained.
“NAB’s Workplace Giving is simply the best way for me to support the organisations that I care about. It’s so simple to organise, I don’t have to worry about tax and it’s just terrific that NAB doubles my impact.” James Bentley, Workplace Giving donor stated.
Many of the companies who took part in the survey noted that CSR, when executed and communicated well is a competitive advantage that employers are now taking seriously.
AGL
AGL (which came in at #9) has found are that their workplace giving program encourages teamwork, engages employees and gives them a sense of pride in working for an organisation that cares about giving back to their employees’ individual choice of charity. “The ‘Power to Give’ program is an important factor in my employee satisfaction for working for AGL.” Said Neil Cooke (AGL workplace volunteer).
“Working at AGL means I am lucky enough to be able to help others. AGL’s dollar for dollar donation matching means you can double the impact to your charity. I’m glad I can give back and I’m proud AGL supports me to make the biggest impact possible”. Said AGL’s CFO Brett Redman.
Rosshandler is encouraged by the commitment that these companies have to the community but is also aware that it is often hard for charities to get on their radar. “We want charities to learn which companies can support them and in what ways. As GoodCompany.com.au works with over half of the companies listed, we also hope charities will contact us to see how we can best connect them to these companies. It’s encouraging to see how important giving back to those in need has become to companies of all shapes and sizes in Australia.”
The Top 40 ‘Good Companies’ are…
IAG
Origin
NAB
Westpac
Optus
Flight Centre Travel Group
AECOM
ANZ
AGL
Small Giants
Commonwealth Bank
CSL Limited
Toyota Australia
Fuji Xerox Australia
VIVA Energy Australia
Zurich Financial Services Australia
Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Pandora Jewellery
Accenture
nbn co
Konica Minolta Australia
ClubsNSW
nib health funds
Pro Bono Australia
Netwealth Investments Limited
Event Hospitality & Entertainment
Luminary
Sodexo
Spotlight Holdings Group
TechnologyOne
Blackbaud
Stone & Wood Brewing Co.
Gilchrist Connell
Variance Infotech Pty Ltd
American Express Global Business Travel
QBE Insurance
Colin Biggers & Paisley
Stone & Chalk
Synchronicity Consulting t.a. Spark Strategy
PageUp People Limited
For more information on Workplace Giving platforms see www.goodcompany.com.au