Community
Part of the Savills culture includes playing a positive role in the communities in which we operate, and our reputation relies on being a key member of the community. An intrinsic part of this role is supporting charities and other community related activities on both a local and national level.
Whilst we remain committed to encouraging our employees to be actively involved in their local communities, in 2008 we developed more focused community engagement programmes at a national level, for example, in the UK, we selected two major charities to support as our ‘Charities of Choice’ - Land Aid and Honeypot. The charities focus on two areas identified as relevant to our business and important to our employees. These are homelessness, and supporting the development of vulnerable children and young carers aged between 5 and 12 through respite care and long term support.
Where possible we seek to integrate community engagement in our graduate training programmes as we find that this maximises employee commitment and provides real life development opportunities in addition to the societal benefits delivered. A current example is the support of I CAN, a charity assisting children with speech, language and communication needs, by our London graduates. 28 graduates undertook a series of refurbishment projects at the charity’s Meath School in Surrey, England in October 2008. Other projects planned to help the charity include carrying out surveys of existing buildings, examining investment or rental opportunities at each school, and contributing to the construction of an ‘outdoor classroom’' at the site.
In the UK, 61% of our offices actively support local community initiatives and this commitment is also reflected in our overseas businesses. In addition, there are a number of ways in which we support charitable giving by our employees in the UK including our Give As You Earn, Bonus Waiver and donation matching schemes.
Savills Hong Kong awarded Caring Company Logo
Both our Hong Kong Agency and Hong Kong Property Management businesses were awarded the Caring Company logo for 2008/09 by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service in recognition of their community involvement and commitment as corporate citizens. All of our Hong Kong businesses have now been awarded the Caring Company logo building on the recognition of Savills Guardian, our Facility Management business, who have been awarded the logo for six consecutive years (2003-2009). Last year Savills Hong Kong responded swiftly in raising funds to help the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake. A total of HK$1.5m was raised and donated to World Vision Hong Kong for the relief work. A fundraiser was also organised for a Sowerts Action school project.