Bupa offers its staff a range of volunteering opportunities, including team-building challenges that highlight causes close to employees' hearts, teaching local schoolchildren about healthy eating, and an international biannual charity project.
Bupa's first project in 2007 saw 60 employees travel to northern Thailand to work in an orphanage. Almost all (98%) of the employees said they were proud of Bupa for taking part in charitable work.
That was followed by the Ecuador Challenge, which saw 120 staff build a health and community centre in Ecuador in 2009. Another trip is being planned for 2011, with the destination yet to be decided.Claire Atkinson, community affairs manager, says: "Employees learned skills that are transferable to the workplace. That message was spread across the workforce. It seems to be a very engaging project and more people are applying each year."
Project details are communicated to staff via the firm's Community Connections website and through its internal Bupa World magazine.
