Employee volunteering is important to us. We encourage our people to contribute to their local communities – and give them plenty of support to do so. Every employee is given one paid day off a year for volunteering. We donate to charities that our employees support. Through our PULSE programme, employees can spend up to six months working for a non-profit organisation (NGO).
We’re pleased to be able to support communities and charities. But employee volunteering isn’t purely giving to others. It helps our people to gain new experiences and skills plus, in many cases, a deeper understanding of patient needs.
What is Orange Day?
Orange Day was launched to give all our employees one paid day off each year to volunteer for a good cause. Employees across the world have supported a wide range of charities and projects including work in local schools, shelters for the homeless, community gardens, nursing homes and communities affected by natural disasters.
What is PULSE Volunteer Partnership?
PULSE is a skills-based volunteering initiative through which our employees can work with NGOs for three or six months. Employees work full time with the NGOs and lend the same expertise that they have been applying in their home offices. By helping NGOs with their most pressing problems – typically providing help that they couldn’t otherwise afford – employees are able to make sustainable impact for NGOs and the communities they serve.
Recent PULSE assignments included training NGO staff in Zambia, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Kenya in preparation for upcoming AIDS vaccines trials, and improving the efficiency and quality of services for a free health clinic in North Carolina, US.
PULSE offers employees the opportunity to strengthen their leadership skills, broaden their experience and develop new behaviours. After working on the frontlines of healthcare and meeting with the patients, employees feel re-energised and return to us with a renewed connection to help people do more, feel better, live longer.
“There will be a real opportunity and a chance for those people who really feel they want to give something back to society to do that. It is a great chance for our company and the individual to add tremendous value which otherwise cannot be bought.” – Andrew Witty, GSK CEO
