PwC in the Community

Why this matters to PwC

Through our PwC in the Community programme we recognise our broader responsibilities within society. Our programme enables us to contribute our time, skills and resources while also offering opportunities to everyone involved to gain new skills and personal fulfilment. The success of our programme also helps us to strengthen our business relationships and underpins our vision of doing the right thing for our clients, our people and our communities.

What we do

PwC has had a commitment to supporting the community for over 15 years. And perhaps more than any other area of our sustainability efforts, a fundamental part of this commitment is involving our staff. During FY09, 4,600 of our staff across the country donated 41,300 working hours to a wide range of national and regional activities which focussed on education, employability and the environment.  In FY09, our total community contribution – including cash, time and in-kind support – amounted to £7.9m.

As a professional services business, the development of our staff and their ability to give sound business advice to clients are fundamental to the success of the firm.  Involvement of our people in community projects enables them to:

• develop additional skills in a non-work related environment, eg coaching, mentoring
• improve morale and motivation
• build teams and networks, both internal and external
• develop a greater awareness of community and social issues, enabling them to give advice to clients based on an understanding of these issues and the impact they may have on their clients’ businesses

 

Some of the employee volunteering programmes in which our staff are involved include:

• supporting primary schoolchildren with reading and numeracy skills
• mentoring secondary school students, head teachers and social entrepreneurs
• providing students with an insight into the business world through our work with education charities and our work experience programme
• environmental and sustainability programmes for schools
• helping people get back into employment, education or training through our employability programmes
• team challenges which includes helping to improve the local environment and raising the educational achievement within our communities.

We deliver a variety of programmes from our offices around the UK and across all our projects, our aim is to be fully integrated with our communities. A good example is our programme in Southwark, south London, where our wide-ranging efforts stretch back to the early 1990s. More details on our programme in Southwark can be read in our PwC in Southwark case study.

Whilst much of the firm's community effort is channelled through our community partners, we also recognise the commitment our staff give to supporting charities in their own time and more details can be found in our policy.

Where next

In 2008, PwC was one of the first businesses to be awarded the CommunityMark, the national accreditation, developed by Business in the Community, to recognise businesses that are deemed the best investors in their communities.  To achieve the accreditation, the firm underwent an in-depth independent assessment of how the firm invests in and works with their local communities, including scrutiny by our employees and community partners.  The feedback from our community partners was very high, representing the best in the class for large companies across many areas. 

The accreditation is valid for three years and to sustain and build on our community impact and to attain this recognition we have set ourselves objectives which include:

• undertaking a review of our existing community projects with a view to implementing programmes which address continuing and emerging trends in the community involvement agenda, particularly providing:
  
  
  • a greater emphasis on using our people’s professional skills
    
    
  • work experience and employment in/from our local communities
    
    
• continue the integration of our programmes with other elements of the firm’s corporate sustainability programme, particularly environment and people development
  
  
• measuring the programme’s effectiveness – particularly concentrating on establishing its outputs and impacts