BEYOND PAINTING CLASSROOMS Aligning Employee Volunteering with Core Business

Presentation by Susie Mabie: Senior Manager, Transnet Foundation

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EVP GALLERY

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INTRODUCTION

If ORANGE is the new BLACK, then VOLUNTEERING

is the new ORANGE

• The 21st Century has seen the dawn of ordinary people doing good

out of choice and voluntarily

• Popular social trend RAK, Random Act of Kindness, sees young

people making volunteering fashionable

Different forms of volunteering:

• Green volunteering

• Tourism volunteering

• Employee volunteering

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TRANSNET AT GLANCE

Transnet is:

• A State Owned Company (SOC)

• Has five Operating Divisions (or ODs): Transnet Freight Rail, Transnet

Engineering, Transnet Pipelines, Transnet Port terminals and Transnet

National Port Authority

• Our core business is freight and transport logistics

• Transnet Foundation is mandated with the social responsibility output of

Transnet

• The Foundation has five focus areas: health, education, sport, socio-

economic infrastructure development and employee volunteer programme

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TRANSNET VOLUNTEERS FOR VILLAGES

Volunteering in Transnet is regulated by the Employee Volunteer Programme

(EVP) business model called Volunteers for Villages.

EVP officially started in 2012 in Transnet.

The Volunteers for Villages model is premised on the African proverb that it takes

a “village to raise a child”; the Transnet EVP interrogates this proverb by asking

but who raises the village?

In response, our employee volunteering seeks to match the diverse skills of our

employees with the diverse needs of a community.

The point of departure for the establishment of a Transnet Village is a socio-

economic baseline study of the Village. This study becomes the basis for

volunteering initiatives and the measurement for success at the end of a three

year period.

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Volunteering is target driven; we identify a Village which is a specific

community and implement the Volunteers for Villages in such a

Transnet Village.

This mitigates against risks and ensures that impact is measurable because

the site of volunteering is controlled.

Villages are communities that are impacted on by the business of Transnet.

TRANSNET VOLUNTEERS FOR VILLAGES

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GOING BEYOND PAINTING CLASSROOMS

Does the theme of our workshop, Beyond Painting Classrooms suggest

that painting classrooms has no strategic value in employee volunteering?

The value of changing a dull, tired space into a warm, vibrant space is

indescribable.

This is what underpins a fresh coat of paint on a classroom wall.

However, if this, metaphorically, is the full extent of our reach, then we have

short-changed the power of employee volunteering.

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Some examples of going beyond painting classrooms in

Transnet’s EVP are:

• Installing a Clearvu Fence around the perimeter of Mfesane Secondary School in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth

• Building a playground with a mini road and a jungle gym at Engelbrecht Primary School in Elands Bay, West Coast

• Building 67 safe sanitation (toilet blocks) at 67 creches in Orange farm, Johannesburg

• Planting 300 indigenous trees at 4 cemeteries in Saldanha Bay, West Coast

• Converting an abandoned Transnet property into a Youth Precinct (shelter for 20 homeless boys, resources centre and recreational park) in De Aar, Northern Cape

GOING BEYOND PAINTING CLASSROOMS

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TO BE A VOLUNTEER OR A CORPORATE VOLUNTEER?

Where does employee volunteering fit in this

dynamic new world of volunteering?

If employee volunteering wants to avoid being the new

orange, and like any seasonal vogue risk being

pushed out of favour or even existence when the new

black comes into favour, then the fundamental value of

employee volunteering must be aligned with the core

business principle of the company, namely good

governance. Ascribing to good governance thus

means seeking its mandate from the company.

21st Century Business

Good Governance

Process of Decision Making

Mandate

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TO BE A VOLUNTEER OR A CORPORATE VOLUNTEER?

Employee volunteering is neither rogue, nor

freelancing, nor charity.

If it gets its mandate from the company, then its

position is clear, it is social responsibility through

employee volunteering.

When a company realises the value of mandating its

employees to volunteer, then employee volunteering

and its far reaching benefits that go beyond painting

classrooms may be saved from being a flash in the pan

but a boardroom strategy for companies to invest in

communities.

Employee volunteering

EVP mandate

Company

Social responsibility through employee

volunteering

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(RE) ALIGNMENT

DRIVERS AND MEASUREMENTS OF BUSINESS VALUE

= ECONOMIC VALUE; ENVIRONMENTAL VALUE AND SOCIAL VALUE

Employees are the face or ambassadors of a company; so, when we use our own

employees to offset potential negative attitudes of external stakeholders, our EVP

programmes contribute towards our external stakeholder value proposition and

strengthen our relationship with such stakeholders and communities.

Outcome:

Improved external stakeholder relations

with a potential to create economic value

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(RE) ALIGNMENT

In work place environments where employees are increasingly considerate of the

social responsibility and sustainable footprint of their employee, it is prudent for

employers to create opportunities where their work force can be of benefit to vulnerable

communities. The EVP programmes create such an opportunities for employees,

thereby positioning the company as a socially responsible company to work for.

Outcome:

Improved internal stakeholder relations through

a happy and dedicated workforce

with a social conscience

that has the potential to create

social and environmental value

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(RE) ALIGNMENT

In order for employee volunteering to create value for its company,

its mandate must come from

an allegiance to the sponsor, the company.

The mandate of an EVP will seek to align

the value unleashed through employee volunteerism

with the core needs of the company.

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MAKING CENTS OF EMPLOYEE VOLUNTEERING

If it is voluntary, who says it needs a budget?

“Volunteering is only for the rich; people like me can’t afford to pay to work for others.”

Total Cost of Volunteering Global Volunteers

The service program fee covers your food, lodging, in-country transportation, a trained

team leader, emergency medical and evacuation insurance, 24-hour emergency phone

access, work projects supplies, orientation materials, reading lists and pre-departure

tips for responsible volunteering. (Excludes transport and living expenses)

COUNTRY 1 WEEK 2 WEEKS 3 WEEKS

China (Kunming) $2,695 $2,895

China (Xi'an) $2,495 $2,695 $2,895

Cook Islands $2,695 $2,895 $3,095

Costa Rica $2,395 $2,595

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AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR

EMPLOYEE VOLUNTEERING

An enabling environment will:

• Allow employees to volunteer during working hours;

• Ensure accountability to company policies and procedures;

• Ensure workman’s compensation cover when volunteering;

• Ensure control systems and measures are in place to govern the volunteering;

• Provide employees with project tools and protective clothing;

• Report quantitatively on impact, measurable outputs and sustainability of

interventions;

• Institutionalise volunteering in the company through governance

(framework in which volunteering takes place);

• Drive an internal campaign with line managers and an external campaign with

beneficiaries to communicate the benefits of employee volunteering.

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CONCLUSION

A study by Tshikululu Social Investments conducted among 41 senior business leaders

found that only 22% of respondents identified the following as key motivators of

corporate social responsibility programmes: “It gives us a competitive advantage” and

“It helps us to reduce business risks and / or other costs”.

Instead, value-driven factors were rated as the most important motivators.

Beyond Painting Classrooms workshop concept document from TSI 2013:12

Should employee volunteerism enter this space of creating value?

Could employee volunteerism create a competitive advantage for the company?

Would employee volunteerism benefit from offsetting business risks?

If EVP should, could and would, then the real winners will be the

Villages where employees volunteer.

It takes a Village to raise a child, but it takes more than corporate philanthropy to

up-skill, empower, capacitate and fast track the village into a competitive 21st Century.

THANK YOU