Goodstart announced as a finalist in the 2019 Workplace Giving Excellence Awards

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provider Goodstart Early Learning has been announced among a shortlist of finalists for the 2019 Workplace Giving Excellence Awards.

 

The fourth annual award recognises the most outstanding workplace-giving programs across Australia, and are intended to ‘”motivate and instil pride in employees, inspire stakeholders and create an overall sense of achievement” for organisations across the country, a spokesperson from the One Million Donors campaign said. 

 

The campaign was launched by The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull MP in 2014 with a mission to see one million Australians donating to charity direct from their pay. The Awards are a key pillar of the campaign, with One Million Donors being spearheaded by Workplace Giving Australia and supported by high-profile employers and charities, as well as leading community organisations. 

 

This years’ awards saw “a significant increase in large corporations from across Australia getting involved”, the spokesperson noted, with ANZ, EnergyAustralia and Suncorp all being shortlisted in the ‘Best Launch/Refresh (Employer)’ category.

 

Jenny Geddes, CEO of Workplace Giving Australia, said the team were “delighted” by the calibre of those supporting the 2019 Awards, noting the “distinct change” observed since the inception of the awards. 

 

“Since the Awards program began we’ve seen a distinct change in what employees are expecting of their employer and the role they play in society.  Having a highly organised giving program for employees to participate in is now becoming the norm. It’s representative of a heightened sense of social awareness we’re seeing among people in general” she added. 

 

Many of the finalists shared similarities in the way they implemented their workplace giving programs. A key factor to the general successes of the program correlated to the level of support from the CEO or executive team.

 

“One factor for success is definitely support for the giving program from the leadership team. If an organisation’s leader is behind the program, the interest and take up follows. Leaders that we work with share the important role these programs play in engaging staff and building positive cultures,” Ms Geddes said.

 

The category with the highest number of entries was the ‘Most Innovative Charity/Employer Partnership’, which is sponsored by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.  

 

Typically, the spokesperson noted, successful partnerships are those that are aligned to the company’s values and, as a result, staff care deeply about the outcomes that the charity is able to achieve with their collective support.

 

Winners of the Workplace Giving Excellence Awards will be announced on 12 November 2019 at 5pm at a ceremony in Sydney hosted by Hoyts.

 

The Workplace Giving Excellence Awards finalists and categories are below:

 

 Best Overall Program

• Clayton Utz
• JB Hi-Fi
• King & Wood Mallesons

 

 Best Launch/Refresh (Employer)

• ANZ
• APT Travel
• EnergyAustralia
• iNova Pharmaceuticals
• Suncorp

 

Best Launch/Refresh (Charity)

• Deakin University
• Goodstart Early Learning

 

Best Pro Bono/Workplace Volunteering

• King & Wood Mallesons
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Westpac

 

Best Public Sector Program

• Australia Post

 

Most Unique Innovation

• Bain & Company
• BOC
• JB Hi-Fi
• Pacific Equity Partners

 

Most Innovative Charity/Employer Partnership

• AMES with 7-Eleven
• Kids Under Cover with JB Hi-Fi
• Rural Aid with Australia Post
• SolarBuddy with Flight Centre

 

More information about the awards, and the broader program, may be found here.