Our volunteers
‘We think it is important to promote volunteering around the
world not only in our offices but amongst other employers, because we see the benefits
it brings to our people and those they come into contact with, for example, in schools,
colleges, and organisations working with homeless people. For our volunteers it
is personally rewarding, improves their skills and confidence, and is a real opportunity
to build teams with other people in the firm. We are very proud of all our volunteers
for putting in so much time into this important aspect of our corporate social responsibility
programme.’
John Davies, partner and member of the Business in the Community/ENGAGE
leadership group, which aims to promote volunteering around the world
In total, over 1,300 people worldwide were involved in our community and pro bono activities in 2006/7, contributing over 25,000 hours to the programme.
|
Number of staff involved 2006/7 |
Number of staff | Percentage of staff involved | Total hours contributed |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 736 | 35 | 19,565 |
| Mainland Europe | 511 | 18 | 3,504 |
| Asia and Middle East | 41 | 11 | 761 |
| US | 50 | 42 | 1,175 |
| Worldwide | 1,338 | 24 | 25,005 |
Some of our offices and departments are more actively engaged in our community and pro bono programme than others, and we hope to see more consistent levels of activity following our first firm-wide Community Challenge month in October 2007. The offices where over one-third of people are active volunteers include Barcelona, Brussels, New York and London.
The highest levels of hours contributed by volunteers to our community programme are in London, Germany and New York, while the highest levels of activity on our pro bono programme are in London, Brussels, the US, and China and Hong Kong.
Participation varies for many reasons. Attitudes towards volunteering differ in each country, as does the approach to providing pro bono legal advice. For example, the US and UK have strong traditions of providing free legal advice, and in Brussels this is part of a lawyer’s training. This is reflected in the higher levels of activity in these offices. Several of our offices are involved in the new pro bono roundtables designed to encourage and promote more pro bono work, including those in Brussels, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Moscow and Paris.
Awards for our volunteers
In 2007, corporate associate Kate Burns won the East London Business Alliance Mentor of the Year Award for her mentoring work with GCSE pupils at Haggerston School for Girls in Hackney. The recommendation came from Hackney Schools Mentoring, which emphasised her ‘tremendous support to the programme, volunteering for five consecutive years. During this time she has helped many students plan their career development paths, source work experience placements and helped them decide their future plans after GCSE/Key stage four. She has been an excellent mentor, and her experience has been invaluable. She kept in contact with students even while being on secondment during 2004. Past students have described her as ‘intelligent but fun and down to earth at the same time’, ‘approachable’ and ‘a very good role model’.
In 2006, finance secretary Cynthia Miller, one of our reading partners at Redlands Primary School, won the Company Volunteer Award from Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership. Redlands School, which nominated her for the award, commented: ‘Cynthia has been a Reading Partner for many years. She has often worked with pupils with special needs, and takes a personal interest in all the children she works with even when she has stopped being their Reading Partner. She attends school assemblies and goes on school trips when she can.’
Our community and pro bono data has been compiled according to London Benchmarking Group (LBG) measurement principles. Our application of the LBG model has been assured by The Corporate Citizenship Company.