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Connecting the skills, expertise and energy of our people to causes they are passionate about helps to build our brand, improve employee engagement, and strengthen our business.
Through Energy for Life, AGL’s Volunteering and Employee Giving initiatives provide opportunities for our employees to directly contribute to the community.
AGL’s Volunteering program, which was introduced in June 2004, gives all employees the opportunity to take one day of paid volunteering leave each year to support community causes and charitable organisations.
As well as delivering social outcomes for the community, volunteering makes an important contribution within AGL – by engaging employees, encouraging teamwork and building morale.
The Volunteering program supports those employees who are already community volunteers and encourages others to get involved. Our employees volunteer in a variety of ways including undertaking team projects, pursuing individual interests and getting involved in key AGL-led initiatives.
Volunteering projects ranged from preparing and serving meals at The Salvation Army soup kitchens to cleaning up Ronald McDonald House in North Adelaide, South Australia.
During 2008/09, 159 AGL employees recorded their Volunteering leave contributing more than 1,272 hours to community causes of their choice. Compared to 680 hours of volunteering leave recorded in 2007/08, this represents a significant increase of 87%. This was achieved by increased employee communication about the Energy for Life.
Using the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) model the 1,272 hours of volunteering leave taken in 2008/09 is conservatively valued as providing a benefit of over $89,000 to the community.
On top of the official volunteering leave, our people also actively embraced company-wide organised events by supporting fundraising activities for our charity partners, such as the Toy and Book Appeal for The Smith Family, Christmas lunches for Mission Australia, Pancake Day for UnitingCare, and the Red Shield Appeal for The Salvation Army.
AGL employees can elect to make regular payroll contributions to any of our 18 charity partners through the Employee Giving initiative. Teams of employees can also raise funds for these charity partners, with AGL matching each employee contribution to a total maximum of $200,000 per year.
During 2008/09 the average monthly participation rate was 7.2%, compared to 6.9% during 2007/08. AGL will be targeting an average monthly participation rate of 10% during 2009/10. AGL aims to build this participation level to 15%, a benchmark level for companies of similar size, over the next three years.
Together with AGL’s matched funding, we contributed over $120,000 to our charity partners in 2008/09.
Donations given through Employee Giving have supported the following charities:
Alzheimer’s Australia |
National Breast Cancer Foundation |
To reinforce our support for our Employee Giving charity partners, AGL has also matched donations raised by employees through fundraising events. In 2008/09, AGL raised in excess of $40,000 for our charity partners through employee-organised fundraising events (including both funds raised and AGL matched dollar-for-dollar contribution).
In response to the Victorian bushfires in February this year, AGL pledged $50,000 to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Fund to assist survivors in rebuilding their lives.
In addition, Energy for Life was overwhelmed by donations from our employees. In just nine days, more than 200 AGL employees generously raised over $49,000. AGL matched every dollar of employee donations and, with the Energy for Life program donating an extra $10,000, over $109,000 was given to AGL charity partner, The Salvation Army to assist those communities affected. These amounts are in addition to the donations and matching made through our Employee Giving program outlined above.
Several AGL employees volunteered their time with the Country Fire Authority (CFA) to battle the fires in Taggerty, Thorton, Eildon, and Mount Beauty to help operate the phones at an emergency call centre, or to assist The Salvation Army to clean up.
Across AGL sites, fundraising drives were organised to raise money and other essential items for the RSPCA and The Salvation Army appeal.
As discussed in the Customers section of this report, AGL also donated an additional $100,000 to financial counsellors operating in the region and to provide appliance replacements where appropriate.
During 2008/09, AGL took a more strategic approach to the Energy for Life program by incorporating communication components to increase employee awareness of the program.
Communication elements included:
These initiatives have contributed to the increase in the Employee Giving average monthly participation rate from 6.9% in 2007/08 to 7.2%, and the 87% increase in recorded Volunteering leave taken over the same period.
