Volunteering

Our approach

Volunteering is one of the four elements of ANZ’s (Giving, Investing, Volunteering  and providing Emergency support). It is one of the simplest ways to connect with our communities, understand the issues and causes important to our stakeholders, and ‘give something back’.

We offer all staff at least one day of paid volunteer leave per year to make a difference in their communities. Since 2005, we have contributed more than 400,000 volunteer hours to a wide range of initiatives, projects and not-for-profit organisations. 

Staff are provided with the opportunity to volunteer for a variety of activities of their choice. Some of the activities our employees contribute to include building homes for people in need, working on community facilities, supporting local schools, fighting fires, planting trees and much more.

We also encourage staff to undertake skilled volunteering by applying their professional skills to volunteer work. Research has shown that skilled volunteering helps to develop communication skills, improves the ability to adapt to different surroundings and can help develop influencing and negotiating skills.  These are well-rounded skills and capabilities that are required for leadership positions.

Skilled volunteering also provides a practical and powerful way to understand the issues that matter to our customers and the communities where we do business and to live our customer promise: ‘We live in your world.’

Does your organisation need volunteers?  Visit our Employee Volunteer page for more information.

Case study: Staff volunteer their skills in Asia and the Pacific

A partnership with Australian Volunteers International (AVI) is providing skilled volunteering opportunities to our staff in Asia and the Pacific.

In the Philippines, we are providing business planning and marketing expertise to support social enterprises being developed by Bahay Tuluyan, an organisation focused on improving education and wellbeing among local street children.

In Papua New Guinea, we have signed an agreement with the national university, where our volunteers will use their skills and experience to help improve student administration processes.

AVI’s Chief Executive Officer Dimity Fifer describes volunteering as a profound way for people to better understand their world, contribute to it, and celebrate it. Dimity says:

"Volunteering is one of the clearest expressions of solidarity and community partnership in action. AVI is focused on helping to achieve the development goals of our partners overseas, including working towards good governance and increasing social inclusion of the poor and marginalised. Our partnership with ANZ aims to help build and strengthen this work.”
Case study: Volunteers contribute professional skills to children’s charity

Senior Business Enablement Analyst, Jason Gordon, and Executive Assistant, Jo Galati, are using their ANZ volunteer leave to make a positive difference in the community to sick children and their parents, whilst learning new skills at the same time.

Jason and Jo both volunteer at TLC for Kids, an Australian charity that assists children in hospital by providing immediate distractions and urgent attention to sick children and young people. Since 1998, over 2.2 million children and their families have directly benefited from the service and events provided by TLC for kids.

Jason used his MS excel skills to assist TLC for Kids with their customer database and also trained staff; whilst Jo has joined the Junior Board to help with fundraising and is in the thick of event planning for a number of fundraising events.

“Volunteering for TLC for Kids provided me with an insight into the different priorities and focus areas of a charity, - providing a great view of how different organisations function outside of the finance sector… I found the whole experience so positive that I've decided to volunteer with TLC for Kids when they require my skills, outside work,” said Jo.

 

2011 results

We achieved 91,410 hours volunteering globally against our public target of 100,000 hours. While we were just short of our public target, we achieved a small increase on the previous year.

Total volunteering hours

Activity this year focused on promoting skilled volunteering across our business including further work to establish our local partnerships in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea.

We also introduced our Super Regional Volunteers program which provides three month volunteer secondments in three developing countries.  Working with Australian Volunteers International, three employees will be undertaking in assignments in Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Indonesia in early 2012. The program will assist in ‘fast tracking’ the development of selected employees through international experience and will assist in engaging our employees in the personal and professional benefits of skilled volunteering.

2010 results

This year, we expanded our Volunteer Leave Policy so that, for the first time, all employees had access to one day of paid leave for volunteering. We set a target to achieve 100,000 hours of volunteering in 2010, but fell short of this goal, achieving 90,651 hours.

Region Hours Number of staff Value
Australia 38,824 6,335 $2,283,012
New Zealand 18,285 3,960 $1,113,784
APEA* 33,542 1,917 $191,408
Total 90,651 12,212 $3,588,204

*Asia, Pacific, Europe and America

Total volunteering hours

The future

We have set a target to achieve 100,000 hours volunteering and we are on track to meet our target in the year ahead. This will involve further promotion of volunteering opportunities. Additionally, we will focus our efforts in leveraging our employees’ skills and expertise to help communities in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam to thrive, through our skilled volunteering and capacity building pilots with Australian Volunteers International.

 

2009 results

Across the Group we achieved over 92,000 hours of volunteering in the communities in which we work. This included our formal volunteering program outlined below, plus other community programs, fundraising and initiatives, including in support of the Victorian bushfire recovery.

Volunteering Hours Number of staff Value
Australia 45,089 6,170 $2,876,232
New Zealand 26,778 3,775 $2,276,952
Asia Pacific, Europe
and America		 20,923 3,309 $276,042
Total 92,790 13,254 $5,429,226

Our volunteering program has also experienced increased hours each year.

Total Volunteering Hours

The future

ANZ will continue to enable staff in all our regions to invest time and expertise in worthwhile community initiatives. We will increasingly look to opportunities for our staff to volunteer using the skills and expertise they have developed in their jobs and in turn help build the capacity of charitable organisations to make a significant impact in the community.

2008 results

Across the Group we achieved our goal for 2008 which was to achieve 70,000 hours of volunteering in the communities in which we work. This included 47,862 hours in Australia, 24,438 hours in New Zealand and 7,320 hours in other countries.

Volunteering Hours Number of staff Value
Australia 47,862 7,227 $2,148,200
New Zealand 24,438 3,258 $728,016
Asia Pacific
(including India)		 7,124 891 $71,240
Other 196 43 $6,272
Total 79,620 11,419 $3,007,728

Our volunteering program has also experienced increased hours each year.

Total volunteering hours

The future

ANZ's will continue to enable staff in all our regions to invest time and expertise in worthwhile community initiatives. By doing this we can assist in building the capacity of many charitable organisations, enabling them to have a significant impact in the community while at the same time growing the engagement and competency of our own staff.