The ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ programme was established to focus and align all of Hays’ global volunteering and fund-raising activities towards the aim of ensuring we are supporting the communities and societies we serve by both lifting the employability of people who may not have the same opportunities as others and protecting the environments where we are based in order to create a more sustainable future world of work.
This framework has been designed to capture all Hays’ social activity and channel it into areas aimed at improving the employability of people who may not have started with the same opportunities as others. Hays aims to help them to better realise their potential, opportunities and prospects and thereby help to improve their lives. In addition, we want to protect the environments where we operate so we can be a sustainable business going forwards.
In recognition of their passion and the important role our employees play in realising the aims of the ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ programme, we have entitled and empowered every Hays employee across the world to take one paid Volunteering Day each year to help with causes aligned to ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ – this is potentially over 10,000 days of time per year that Hays is giving to help the societies in which we are based.
In order to align our efforts and support the communities in which we operate across all our regions we have linked our support to four of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) which are globally recognised as key areas to address. These are Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Reducing Inequalities. ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ aims to benefit people within local communities and wider society in different ways to ensure that they have the opportunity to develop and enhance their employability through education, increased skills, reduced inequalities and ultimately support them in gaining decent work.
In 2021 we were proud to become a net-carbon neutral company, and in line with this commitment we also included activities that protect the environments where we are based.
The seven areas on which we are focusing all our volunteering and charitable efforts are:
- Workers living with a disability – facilitating a level playing field for those living with a disability when it comes to creating opportunities in the world of work.
- Ethnic minorities – improving the working opportunities for ethnic minorities in the workplace.
- Members of LGBTQ+ communities – supporting people in these in these communities to overcome prejudice and bias and improve their opportunities in the world of work.
- Underutilised talent – identify and develop the pool of talent that may not be considered in the workplace for a range of reasons e.g. bringing talent out of poverty, supporting carers in their careers.
- The mature age workforce – supporting this demographic to either upskill/reskill to stay in the workforce or to re-enter the workforce where there is a skills shortage.
- Youth engagement – working across the education sector to support and build skills across all levels from school to trainees.
- The environment – working to improve the environment in the communities in which we operate and create a more sustainable future.
While we recognise that many members of these sectors of society are successful in their working careers, we have chosen to place our focus within these sectors because it is evidenced that some of their members do find it harder to get into the workforce and to progress in their careers. As a result, companies and economies miss out on the benefit of their talent.
To demonstrate how important we feel the work of ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ is, during 2021 we commissioned a report called: ‘Focusing on Employment Inequity: How We Can Help’. This report highlights the employability challenges faced by many members of these sectors of society and indicates the areas that can be supported by our ‘Helping for your tomorrow’ actions. Published in April 2022, you can download a copy of our report in the footer of this page.
As the world’s largest specialist recruiter, we feel have a real obligation to enact change for the better, because we’re in the position to do so and simply, it is the right thing to do. We believe that by helping those less advantaged into the workplace, we are not only improving the economies in which we operate, but the people we help are potentially our future clients, candidates, employees, suppliers and shareholders and the consumers of our services who will contribute to our future business success. By operating sustainably and responsibly, we also protect the communities in which we are based and our environment for future Hays’ generations. This is a win:win for everyone and we hope we can make a real impact for years to come.
Download our report, ‘Focusing on Employment Inequity: How We Can Help’, to learn more about Helping for your tomorrow.