Employee volunteering

Total volunteering time in paid hours (@ £20 per hour) - £49,680.

O2 wants to inspire employees and provide the conditions in which their actions in the community can be fulfilling and make a tangible difference.

Our operating businesses each have separate charity partnerships and projects that enable employees at every level to get involved through local volunteering.

These include:

• O2 UK - Weston Spirit.
• O2 Airwave - the National Trust and the BTCV - a volunteering organisation for environmental conservation.
• O2 Germany - The German Children and Youth Foundation with Schola-21 and startsocial.
• O2 Ireland - Irish Autism Action.

We are also active in schools in the UK, Ireland and Germany in long-term associations and mentoring schemes. These include working with Her Majesty’s Prison Service in the UK to steer youngsters away from crime.

O2 Community Awards

We want to recognise O2 employees in action in the community. We know this work often demonstrates skills and dedication that far exceed our expectations in the workplace.

O2 launched its Community Awards in 2004 and held its second event, at London’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), in October 2005.

Of 75 entries, each nominated by colleagues, the best-in-class entry from each O2 business reached the final. The charity of choice of each shortlisted nominee received £4,000. Among them were Muscular Dystrophy Ireland, the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital, Aid to Africa and the Somerset Youth and Sailing Association.
 
Our winner this year, receiving £10,000 for Hands of Hope, was Tommy Harrison of Manx Telecom, who not only worked for the charity, but also founded it himself. Hands of Hope supports poor families and children in Romania with new housing, food parcels and better conditions for infants in hospital and in overcrowded orphanages.