Employee engagement

Global volunteering day – Hong Kong

Twenty staff from Aberdeen Standard Investments’ Hong Kong office escaped the bubble of the city’s central business district this morning to pack and deliver food boxes to people in need as part of Global Volunteering Day on 18 May 2018.

Our colleagues travelled to St James’ Kitchen in Kowloon district before splitting into two teams. The first prepared and delivered lunch boxes to elderly residents living in government-supplied housing nearby; the second organised and packed dry food at a local social service centre.

Tosh Tangiku, our REIT analyst participated before hurrying off to a client meeting. “It was an educational experience,” he said. “It gave us a sense of how things work in a different part of the economy and society. The recipients were very grateful and you got a sense you were making a difference. We felt grateful to them for being grateful to us.”

The event was hosted by St James’ Settlement - FOOD-CO, the first collaborative food support service in the city. FOOD-CO. works with a range of service operators to promote a save and share culture to alleviate poverty, reduce food waste and create a better living environment.

Sum Chui, project officer for FOOD-CO, said: “If all corporations followed Aberdeen Standard Investments in supporting charitable events, a lot more people would benefit.”

Our Hong Kong Charity Committee made a cash donation to St James’ Settlement – FOOD-CO from funds raised by staff at internal events.

The Aberdeen Charitable Foundation

The Foundation was launched in 2012 and seeks partnerships with smaller charities around the world, where funds can be seen to have a meaningful and measurable impact and we encourage employees to use their time and skills to support our charitable projects. Since 2012, we have donated over GBP 3.5 million and supported over 400 charities globally.

Hong Kong Charity Committee

The committee consists of employees across the business who manage volunteering and office based fundraising activities and are responsible for selecting local charities to support using the funding allocated for each office by the Charitable Foundation. All employees are also entitled to match funding for personal fundraising activities which is administered by the local charity committee.

Volunteering

We encourage all our employees to volunteer and fundraise for charitable projects and all permanent employees are provided with two days volunteer leave per annum. By giving employees the opportunity to dedicate an entire working day on full pay to assist with charitable projects we enhance the value of our financial contributions and actively help to tackle social challenges. At the same time, these activities further enhance the interpersonal skills of our people and promote team spirit – ultimately strengthening our corporate culture.

Year on year we see an incremental increase of employees volunteering. After taking part in a volunteering day or office led fundraising activity, positive feedback is cited as teamwork, networking and feeling better about Aberdeen as a business.

Global volunteering day

Since 2014 Aberdeen employees have been involved in the voluntary initiative of Business in the Community's Give & Gain Day. 2015 saw over 200 employees volunteering in 20 cities over a 24 hour period. In 2016 over 400 employees volunteered from 24 of our global offices.