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KPMG
Education and Inspiration
A range of initiatives run across KPMG pivoted to a virtual offering, with education and literacy remaining fundamental themes of the Corporate Citizenship agenda
ockdown restrictions
Lhaven’t stopped KPMG’s Corporate Citzenship agenda in its tracks, with virtual volunteers and initiatives moving into the online world continuing to make a diff erence, seeing the company nominated across fi ve categories in this year’s Sustainable Business Impact Awards.
To off er staff practical support KPMG off ered over 20 diff erent wellbeing initiatives, which sees the fi rm shortlisted in the Workplace LIC category this year. “We have reached a collective audience of over 2,000 participants who are engaged in these programmes,” says Karina Howley, Head of Corporate Citizenship & Diversity, KPMG. “We successfully off ered everything from webinars on sleep management, to laughter yoga. The response from our people has been overwhelmingly positive; the feedback states they have felt support from their employer at a time when they need it most.”
In the Community Programme LIC category, the ‘KPMG – Making a Diff erence’ initiative saw virtual volunteers becoming pen pals and making weekly calls to help tackle the isolation felt by the elderly during lockdown. Other volunteers provided study support to young people over Zoom and worked with Business in the Community to assist jobseekers by providing CV advice, interview practice and career guidance.
The digital realm also provided a home for a forum which developed as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum last year. The ‘KPMG Courageous Conversations’ initiative (nominated in the Diversity &
Inclusion category) saw 312 of KPMG’s colleagues in a virtual discussion, over the course of 72 hours, contributing ideas, insights and personal stories of racial injustice they had seen or experienced. “As a result of this forum, we have already taken actionable measures in KPMG in Ireland and we will continue to do so,” notes Howley. “As we continue our Courageous Conversations journey, we recently launched digital learnings for all Irish employees. The focus is on important racial topics including: Anti-racism and equity, Managing Biases, Becoming an Inclusive Leader and Acting Inclusively.”
EDUCATION AND INSPIRATION Initiatives that focus on providing access to education and literacy for young people is an ongoing and fundamental theme in KPMG’s Corporate Citizenship
KPMG
endeavours, according to Howley. KPMG has been nominated for KPMG BOLD GIRLS meets 20x20 initiative in the Volunteering LIC category and the Focus on Literacy – Gift a Book initiative in the Partnership with a Charity LIC category.
“Given that disadvantaged families have been more adversely aff ected by the pandemic, including children missing out very valuable school time, the need to focus on literacy has never been more important,” states Howley. “We wanted to reach out to children and young people who need it most. This campaign is trying to give them access to books that have the potential to reduce social inequalities and leverage their future academic success and job security.” According to the OECD, reading enjoyment has been reported as more important for children’s educational success than their family’s socio-economic status.
To this end, KPMG continued their longstanding relationship and support of Children’s Books Ireland, working on the Gift a Book campaign. “The campaign was a way of getting valuable books out to many disadvantaged children who would otherwise not own their own books,” Howley explains. “Books were sent to 95 diff erent locations in 22 counties across the 4 provinces. Children’s Books Ireland worked with 33 partner organisations (including Threshold, Barnardos, Children in Hospital Ireland, BUMBLEance and St Vincent de Paul) and a further 31 individual locations including direct provision centres, domestic violence centres and prisons, helping bring some joy and excitement to children and their families by giving them beautiful books.”
In total, over 8,000 books were delivered to vulnerable children. All the donated books were by Irish writers and illustrators, supporting the indigenous publishing and bookselling sector.
MEETING OF MINDS KPMG’s BOLD GIRLS initiative was recognised with an award in 2019 for its work to address the gender imbalance in children’s literature, inspiring young girls by sending volunteers out to schools to read from books with strong female characters.
Continuing on the work of BOLD GIRLS, Howley outlines, “In 2020 we took the programme and looked at how we could invigorate, reinvent and revitalise it, especially during a pandemic when volunteers couldn’t go out to schools in person.” The idea came about to merge BOLD GIRLS with the 20 x 20 campaign, which aims to increase the visibility of women and girls in sport, to provide more role models and encourage greater participation.
The BOLD GIRLS meets 20 x 20 initiative continued its focus on literacy, provision of books and support of reading, but with a new focus on female sports stars to highlight their achievements. Howley explains, “Through our video engagement and activities, we encourage discussion around why women are paid less than men in terms of sporting prizes (touching on gender pay gap) and why women’s sports aren’t celebrated or seen as high profi le as men’s.”
Whilst volunteers were not able to attend schools in person during the pandemic, the programme was facilitated with a specially commissioned video by RTÉ Sports broadcaster Jacqui Hurley, author of ‘Girls Play Too’, as well as volunteer videos, teacher lesson plans, activity tools and engagement materials.
The success of the project was brought home to Howley by the feedback from schools, with one teacher stating: “As a girls’ school, it was great to see how other girls had changed their lives by striving for what they wanted and to succeed—it sends a very powerful message that you can be or do whatever you set your mind to.”
