As surveys show1, participation in employee volunteering is often the first step towards further involvement in community activities. On June 22 this year, thousands of people around the world will have an opportunity to experience this for themselves. That day in over 90 countries Citi's Global Community Day will be celebrated. In Poland, as part of this initiative, Citi Handlowy employees will carry out over 130 community projects.
The Employee Volunteering Program at Citi Handlowy is one of the biggest and old initiatives of its kind in Poland. For 8 years already, through its volunteering program, the Bank has been inspiring its employees to share their knowledge, experience and skills by carrying out various community projects. As a survey shows, employee volunteering is often the first step towards regular activities for the benefit of other people. Among those surveyed, 73% had not engaged in any volunteer activity before joining the Employee Volunteering Program at Citi Handlowy, but currently as many as 62% of them take part in such activity on a regular basis.
Any initiative that promotes socially oriented activities in Poland is particularly important. As the Social Diagnosis2 has shown, despite several years of steady growth in community involvement, only 15.6% of respondents have engaged in activities for their local community in the past two years. The unique model of the Volunteering Programme at Citi Handlowy enables employees to identify and solve social problems in their immediate environment. This makes them sensitive to the needs of others in a natural way and serves as an incentive to maintain newly established relationships and to get further involved in their communities.
The activities carried out as part of employee volunteering bring benefits to all parties - the local community, the employees and the company itself. The volunteers themselves identify and solve important problems in the communities where they live and work. Because of that, what they do is interesting, authentic and well-suited to real needs. The total number of initiatives across Poland gives this activity a unique scale - during the 8 years of the Employee Volunteering Program at Citi Handlowy, over 138,000 people have been helped - says Krzysztof Kaczmar, President of The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation. - Besides getting satisfaction simply from helping others, volunteers improve their professional skills, e.g. project management and team building, and enhance their creativity - adds Krzysztof Kaczmar.
The survey of volunteers indicates that 60% of them believe that volunteering has a positive impact on the way the company is viewed as an employer. Moreover, volunteering helps the company build long-term relationships with customers and business partners, facilitating its smooth functioning in the local community.
In 2013 Citi Handlowy employees, already for the eighth time, could submit initiatives that will be implemented during this year's Global Community Day. Cleaning and repair work and organizing of classes and training sessions are the most common forms of employee volunteering. More than anything else, Citi Handlowy volunteers enjoy working with children and young people. The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation provides its volunteers with funds to cover costs associated with implementation of projects, and also supports them with regard to formalities and logistical matters.
1 A survey of participants in the Citi Handowy Employee Volunteering Program was conducted by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation at Cti Handlowy in 2012. 103 Citi Handlowy volunteers took part in the survey, filling out anonymous questionnaires.
2 DIAGNOZA SPO£ECZNA (SOCIAL DIAGNOSIS), reports: Czapiñski J., Panek T. (ed.) 2011. Diagnoza spo³eczna [2011]. www.diagnoza.com
