JEDDAH — As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, SEDCO Holding Group launched ‘Volunteer Your Skills' program this Ramadan. It essentially relies on the goodwill and spirit of its employees. The group held two distinct initiatives to shape the values of community work and well-being. The program will now be active all the year with the aim of encouraging the generous spirit of volunteering among the employees in addition to fostering close ties with the community. The initial feedback amongst employees is very encouraging with a total of 262 volunteering hours invested in the two initiatives alone. The first activity, ‘Ramadan Baskets', involved employees driving to a distant village north of Jeddah, where they distributed food baskets to needy families. The second one aimed at empowering the internal bonds between the group's employees themselves. Setting titles aside, and out of thanks for their invaluable efforts, the group's cadres broke their fast with the workers and cleaning staff. Amr Banaja, VP of Corporate Communications and Marketing, pointed out that it was in the group's DNA to contribute to the community's well-being. "Under ‘Volunteer Your Skills' program volunteering becomes an important aspect of the group's CSR programs. And through such initiatives, we aim to achieve our mission ‘Towards Sustainability' by offering our employees diverse programs that enable them to develop their skills, enhance their performance, reach their maximum potential and improve their ability to innovate through various health, social as well as volunteering initiatives.' Banaja added: ‘Our CSR umbrella stands on three pillars — ‘Our people, our community, and our environment'. Each of them cultivates in building loyalty and gratitude toward our workplace, our community and the environment we live in.' Banaja further added: ‘Giving back to the community and sustaining its welfare stems from the teachings of Islam, and with our programs, we aim to reinforce the culture of volunteering and continuously build new volunteering initiatives and enhance current programs.' Known for its CSR excellence, SEDCO Holding Group was awarded the Arab Social Media Influencers Award under the Economy category for the prominent role that the ‘Riyali Financial Literacy Program' plays to create change in the community with the program's beneficiaries now having reached over 50,000. As part of a healthy work-life balance, many personnel development programs were launched including the “Tawasul” program to foster interaction among the group's staff at various events, the “Injaz” program to assess performance and build capacity, and the “Employee of the Month” program that recognizes outstanding achievement.
