Our community engagement activities in the UK centre on three key areas:
Equitable pathways (education)
We support organisations that provide education for all young people within our local communities to prepare the future workforce. We equip our employees to make a positive impact through mentoring relationships and pro-bono/skill sharing activities.
Healthy, inclusive and sustainable communities
We educate and engage our workforce on key societal issues within our communities. This includes supporting organisations that positively impact healthier, inclusive and sustainable places to live and work in a fair and equitable society that has room for everyone to thrive.
Environment (climate change)
We are committed to protecting our environment and reducing our carbon footprint.
As part of this, we continuously seek opportunities to reduce energy, water and paper consumption, as well as cutting waste and business travel. We support organisations that positively impact our local environments, engaging and educating our local communities whilst also providing green volunteering opportunities for our employees.
Ecologi
Unum UK also encourages our staff to be mindful about the environment. As part of this, in our annual flexible benefits window in June 2021 we introduced Ecologi, an optional benefit that allows employees to make either a one off or monthly donation to compensate their carbon footprint by funding climate projects and planting trees.
By August 2021, Unum employees had planted more than 6,000 trees and offset more than 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in the process. Check out Unum’s ongoing progress since here.
Charity partnerships
Every 2 years, our employees select a national and local charity partner (for our Basingstoke and Dorking offices) who are the focus of our employee fundraising activities.
In 2021, we’re proud to be supporting:
National charity partner: The Alzheimer's Society
Alzheimer's Society is the UK’s leading dementia charity. They campaign for change, fund research to find a cure and support people living with dementia today.
Basingstoke charity partner: St Michael’s Hospice (North Hampshire)
St. Michael’s Hospice (North Hampshire) enables anyone faced with a life-limiting illness, their families and carers, to attain the highest possible quality of life by providing a choice of specialist care and support.
Dorking charity partner: The Woodlands School, Leatherhead
Woodlands School is a school for pupils from 2-19 who need the support of a specialised curriculum to enable them to reach their full potential. The pupils have either severe learning difficulties, very complex needs or autism.
The Unum Community and Social Justice Fund
We partner with charities and voluntary organisations to make our communities stronger, sustainable and thriving places to live and work. One way we strive to do this is through our corporate giving programme: The Unum Community and Social Justice Fund.
This fund awards grants of up to £5,000 for community partnership projects aligned to at least one of our Community focus areas, which help to achieve the following aims:
- Help to build resilient, more equitable and inclusive communities
- Develop projects which will have significant, tangible impact across the UK (priority will be given to charitable organisations located near to our main offices in Surrey and Hampshire)
- Build long-term relationships between our employees and local communities
- Develop opportunities for our employees to volunteer in the local community and enhance teamwork, communication and project management skills
To apply, please complete the online application here.
If you encounter any difficulties accessing our application site, or have any questions about applying, please email UnumUKCSR@unum.co.uk.
Payroll giving
Unum offers all employees the chance to give back to an approved charity partner via payroll, allowing them to increase their donation in real terms by donating pre-tax and also matching each employee’s donation pound for pound.
We’re proud that this has won us the Gold Payroll Giving Quality Mark every year since 2013, which recognises that at least 10% of our employees donate regularly to charities through payroll.
Useful links
- Our 2020 Diversity Pay Report
- Inclusion & Diversity at Unum
- Unum Group Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2020
- LinkedIn — where we share our proudest CSR moments, such as:
- Supplying free water bottles to thirsty children over the summer holidays via the Dorking Area Foodbank
- Our charity car wash for St. Michael’s Hospice
- Pounding the pavements for a fundraising 10km and more.
*Unauthorised use of the charity names listed above is prohibited.