CASE STUDY
How organized a community week that engaged 46% of employees and saw a £68,000 SROI
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Lendlease is a globally integrated real estate and investment group with core expertise in shaping cities by creating strong and connected communities. With more than 60 years in the business, they believe in finding better ways to build places that will leave a positive legacy, putting a focus on safety, innovation, and sustainability.
Company: Lendlease Industry: Construction & Development Number of employees: 1,300 across UK & Italy Case focus: Developing an annual Foundation Community Day, which runs over a week, that effectively empowers employees to take action within their own region.
The context Laura Caporossi, External Partnerships & Programme Manager at Lendlease, has spent the last 8 years managing the company’s internal regional programs, enriching employees with meaningful experiences based around the company’s pillars of education, diversity & inclusion, and sustainability. Building strong and connected communities has always been at the heart of their business, making serving them a key component of their efforts as a company. For that reason, their employee volunteering and giving program enables their dispersed team to get out into the communities where they are located and make a difference at the local level.
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The focus of our program is to create meaningful experiences and development opportunities for our employees, while at the same time connecting our teams and colleagues to the communities where we have a presence. The projects that we currently have with Lendlease have been around for a long time, so the impact that we have on each specific local community is quite substantial. And part of our mission is not just to create more sustainable, connected, and beautiful cities or communities - but it’s also to create positive social change by making a difference for our residents, neighbors, and community groups.” Laura Caporossi, External Partnerships & Programme Manager
The challenge Lendlease was founded with a strong internal culture of looking after their employees and an external focus on supporting their communities - both of which feed their need for a compelling social impact program. But with a team spread across multiple regions, they needed a better way to facilitate this program that would engage employees within their local communities. With busy schedules, varied interests, and remote working, Lendlease realized it was crucial to bring more flexibility into their program if they wanted to maximize participation. From sourcing personalized activities to offering adaptable scheduling, there was a lot to consider if they wanted to launch their Foundation Community Day that they had in mind.
Their main challenges were to: • Define a strong policy that establishes how employees can lend their time during company-wide initiatives.
• Create a flexible program that enables employees to personalize their experience without too much manual work for the team. • Connect with nonprofits related to their core business within their desired regions without being on the ground in each area.
The solution A flexible program adapted to employee tastes through the Alaya platform With the help of Alaya’s database of international nonprofits, Lendlease is able to provide compelling volunteer experiences during their Foundation Community Day that account for employee locations, languages, preferred causes, and scheduling. A team spread across regions connected in one space Despite the physical distance, employees are able to connect through Alaya’s user-friendly dashboard to spur on more engagement and celebrate the team’s joint efforts. Instant impact reporting to inspire further engagement Lendlease captures the attention of stakeholders and motivates teams to contribute more by measuring personal and companywide impact through the Alaya platform, then sharing their results internally and externally.
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Alaya is the home of all our volunteering opportunities. It’s the key that kind of allows everybody to access activities, choose what they want to do, and get the information that they need. It’s very easy to navigate from the member and administrator points of view and is also incredibly easy to use.” Laura Caporossi, External Partnerships & Programme Manager
The results 46%
3,000 hours
Participation
donated over 5 days
£68,000
Supported 30
social return on investment
charities in 5 days
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Through our 66 Volunteering initiatives, we supported 30 different charities in five days, which created a social return on investment of nearly £68,000 British pounds. It’s incredible to actually know that by giving two or three hours of your day, you, your colleagues, the people on your team, and everyone together can create nearly £68,000 of social value in one week. Just imagine if every company had the opportunity to do that once a year. It would make this world a better world, I would say.” Laura Caporossi, External Partnerships & Programme Manager
Tips & Advice for other companies 1. Start internally promoting your campaigns 8 to 10 weeks in advance in order to maximize participation.
2. Build a strong company policy, including paid-time off for volunteering, to establish a common language amongst your employees.
3. Create a flexible program that accounts for employee preference based on location, preferred causes, and scheduling.
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Since we’ve launched our program in both the UK and Italy, it’s great to have virtual opportunities that can be accessed by both countries. So for a global company, like Lendlease, it’s a big advantage to have a platform like Alaya that can adapt and bespoke opportunities across different regions, while still using the same portal.”
Laura Caporossi, External Partnerships & Programme Manager
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