Citibank Handlowy was honored by the main prize of the fifth edition of the Colors of Volunteering competition, in the category of "Corporate Volunteering". Slawomir S. Sikora, CEO at Bank Handlowy w Warszawie SA received the award from Dariusz Pietrowski, Chairman of Volunteer Center Network at the Gala in the Warsaw Skarpa club on 18 December 2005.
The Citibank Handlowy's Employee Volunteer Program coordinated by the Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation was the best of the projects in the new category "Corporate Volunteering". The jury appreciated its innovative structure, systemic IT solutions and the number of employees involved. What is equally important, the program was judged to be the closest to the actual idea of the volunteering which is provided on the basis of the employee's own initiative and internal need, and the company is there just to create the appropriate conditions for such activities.
"We want Citibank Handlowy to be for its employees the place which forms their attitudes and inspires to action. We are keen on actions arising from the internal need to help other people, which we all have. We encourage our employees to use their knowledge, experience and skills to support the selected social projects and we facilitate their access to volunteer service" - said Slawomir S. Sikora, CEO at Bank Handlowy w Warszawie SA.
The Colors of Voluntary Service competition organized by the Volunteer Center Network is the only competition in Poland addressed to volunteers. Its purpose is to honor the best initiatives and ideas in the area of volunteer activities in Poland. The primary criteria on the basis of which the jury assesses the projects submitted are: commitment, innovation, effectiveness and partnership.
"It is extremely difficult to indicate those who are "best of the best", because this actually applies to all volunteers. Nevertheless, we award those volunteers whose attitudes are of the highest merits. In this year's edition of the competition we have awarded for the first time volunteers in the category of Corporate Volunteering. We want to encourage employees to social activities, to motivate businesses to create conditions for such activities and to support their employees. Citbank was the best in this regard" - said Dariusz Pietrowski, President of the Voluntary Service Center.
The Employee Voluntary Service Program has been carried out at Citibank Handlowy since March 2004. Currently, more than 200 employees are engaged in this program, and their number increases from month to month. Its two main pillars are financial education of young people within the framework My Finances program run in cooperation with the National Bank of Poland and Junior Achievement Foundation as well as house construction with the Habitat for Humanity Poland. Furthermore, the Bank employees can select among hundreds of voluntary service offers sent from the Volunteer Center: translation and interpretation for non-governmental organizations, childcare, English teaching, conducting training sessions and presentations.
Volunteers will find an offer corresponding to their individual preferences, owing to the ingenious structure of the program. The special Lotus Notes-based IT system automatically attributes the job offers to the volunteers' preferences and calculates the hours of their actual work. The central element of the system is the database of volunteer-seeking organizations. The database is supplied with the use of the special form of the Volunteer Center. On the other hand, volunteers are entered in the database. The Citibank Handlowy employees who would like to work as volunteers complete the questionnaire available at the Intranet, marking the type of work they are interested in. The data of organizations and employees are analyzed by the system so that the volunteer profile matches best the nature of the jobs offered. Owing to this, the employees who reported their readiness to work as volunteers obtain individualized offers out of which they select the projects, which suit them best.
On behalf of the bank The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation ensures logistic and financial support to the volunteers. The Foundation deals with the coordination of activities, logistics, project selection and internal promotion. The Foundation reimburses to the volunteers their transport costs, provides insurance and takes care of all the formalities.
Each employee engaged in social work has the right to one paid day of leave per year for the purposes of voluntary service. The employees who have worked 50 hours per year for the benefit of the specific social organization can transfer to such organization the donation of $500, funded by The Citi Handlowy Leopold Kronenberg Foundation.
