Harnessing day-job skills for charitable purposes
StanChart hopes to leverage the professional skills, experiences and interests of employees to deepen its philanthropic efforts
Ilyas Salim
MARCUS Lim has had to reschedule a number of meetings this year, but his colleagues and friends have been happy to accommodate these calendar changes.
That is because the associate director of marketing had volunteered with social enterprise Hatch from July to August. He participated in an immersive programme that helped to prepare youth aged 16 to 25 from vulnerable backgrounds for a potential career in digital marketing.
Drawing on his marketing expertise, Lim came up with a problem statement, based on real-world situations. The students then developed solutions for this, and presented their work as a capstone project to Standard Chartered and Hatch during their Demo Day.
“I hope (the exposure to digital marketing skills and knowledge) can open up more job opportunities for (the youth) in this field, or even allow them to start their own business as a pathway to financial independence,” he said.
Integrating skills-based volunteering
Lim’s volunteering activities were encouraged by StanChart, which actively curates a variety of volunteering events for its employees and provides them with three days of paid volunteer leave. In 2022, more than 3,000 of the bank’s Singapore-based employees volunteered their time and skills to support various causes.
To further its philanthropic endeavours, StanChart is growing its focus on skills-based volunteering, to harness the professional skills, experiences and interests of employees such as Lim to support relevant needs in the community. Such efforts can be channelled towards directly improving the lives of people, or towards supporting non-profit organisations in capacity-building to serve their beneficiaries better.
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Michele Yap, StanChart’s cluster chief risk officer for Singapore and Asean markets, said: “We believe that we can leverage our employees’ unique skills and talents to create greater positive impact in our community.”
One key issue that StanChart hopes to address is the digital divide, which affects both the younger and older generations. It is important, said Yap, to establish technology as a “key enabler for social and economic inclusion”, and ensure that its benefits penetrate society evenly.
The bank’s 2023 Futuremakers reports that more than 282 million youth globally are not in education, training or employment, with an estimated 14 per cent of young people living in working poverty. For this group, the acquisition of digital skills is important to enable their economic inclusion, given the centrality of technology in the modern workplace.
Encouraging seniors to go digital
On the other side of the coin, proficiency in technology is just as vital in promoting social participation and inclusion among the elderly – a salient point in the context of Singapore’s rapidly ageing population.
In hopes of alleviating this issue, Yap rallied her colleagues from the risk function to volunteer with the non-profit organisation FaithActs and conduct digital clinics for seniors to help them embrace technology.
Through one-on-one sessions at the various FaithActs centres, the volunteers made use of their technological know-how to guide the seniors on topics from online safety to phone functionality. Yap anchored the project – which involved at least 100 StanChart volunteers – and encouraged her fellow team members to volunteer for the project. The volunteers also guided the seniors on the use of apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Google Maps.
The collaboration with FaithActs was brokered by the SG Cares Volunteer Centre @ Queenstown, and is part of the bank’s broader participation in Project V, a national-level corporate volunteerism pilot led by the National Council of Social Service, the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, and the SG Cares Office. The initiative aims to bring together the private, public and people sectors to forge sustainable volunteer partnerships.
Celestine Foo, a volunteer executive at FaithActs, noted that the digital clinics have been helpful in providing a regular platform for seniors to ask about digital issues. “These seniors are in their 70s, and they are generally living alone,” she pointed out. “Hence, there is no one that can readily and consistently answer their digital queries.”
Such sentiments were echoed by one of the seniors, Lynda King, who said: “Sometimes we are stumped by new everyday problems which need instant fixing. It is commendable that the volunteers came by to share their knowledge despite their work schedules.”
Tangible takeaways for volunteers
Importantly, noted Yap, the volunteers, too, have much to gain in channelling their skills towards charitable causes.
“Skills-based volunteering is a unique opportunity for them to grow personally and professionally,” she said. “Volunteers can learn new skills or hone existing ones, expand their networks by collaborating with colleagues and organisations in the community, and feel a sense of fulfilment and camaraderie among employees.”
Lim concurred; he said that his volunteering experience not only taught him to be empathetic, grateful and appreciative of what he had, but also provided tangible takeaways. “By working with the students on my problem statement, it also offered me fresh and valuable insights which I can potentially apply at work,” he shared.
StanChart intends to further integrate skills-based volunteering into its broader philanthropic endeavours by working more closely with its community partners to better understand society’s needs and allocate resources accordingly. It also aims to empower its employees by more actively involving them in the planning and decision-making process.
Yap said: “As an organisation, promoting volunteerism helps with enhancing employee engagement and job satisfaction. Colleagues, especially the younger generation, increasingly want to know that they are working for a responsible company with values aligned to theirs.”
The bank further said that it aims to create a mutually beneficial relationship where employees grow personally and professionally, while the community gains from their expertise and commitment to effect positive change.
This article is part of a series on doing good for our community, supported by Standard Chartered Bank
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