Employees at New Directions are being actively encouraged to do their bit for a cause close to their heart with the introduction of a fully paid ‘Giving Back Day’ which is to be taken away from the workplace.
Every employee across the New Directions Group of award-winning companies has been given the opportunity to spend a day working to support a cause they feel passionate about as part of the new scheme.
The New Directions Group provides specialist recruitment and training support within education, pharmacy and social care, delivers specialist domiciliary care to individuals and their families, as well as offering an effective online management system for employee checks to organisations UK-wide.
Its ‘Giving Back Day’ doesn’t have to be linked to a sponsored activity or involve any financial contribution or association, and has been opened up to all 180 people employed by New Directions across the UK.
Catrin Reed, a Recruitment Consultant with New Directions Educations, is among the first to have taken advantage of the scheme, and spent her ‘Giving Back Day’ umpiring a school netball tournament organised by the Urdd in Ceredigion, Wales.
The Urdd is 100 years old and provides opportunities for children and young people to socialise through the medium of Welsh, and enables them to make positive contributions to their communities too.
Catrin said: “For many of the children, the tournament was the first activity they’d done with other schools since the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began in 2020. I speak to a lot of the teachers every week to help with their staffing needs, so it was also great to finally meet in person and start putting faces to the names.
“Community is really important and I really felt like I was contributing to a fantastic cause. We could’ve made a decent team out of the teachers that were there, too!”.
Employees can choose to use their ‘Giving Back Day’ either on an individual basis, or as part of a team, with some people already using it to clean up green spaces locally as part of initiatives organised by the recently launched New Directions Eco Committee, among other things.
Some may also choose to volunteer or support related initiatives in the sectors New Directions works in – Education, Health and Social Care, Domiciliary Care, Pharmacy, Employment Checks – but staff can ultimately choose to use their ‘Giving Back Day’ towards any good cause they’re passionate about.
Emily Tune, Chief Executive Officer at New Directions, said: “The ‘Giving Back Day’ really is as simple it sounds – it’s about New Directions as an organisation giving the highly valued people we work with the opportunity to support local charities, organisations, activities, events and projects in any way they choose.
“Our only stipulation is that it positively impacts and benefits the local community in some way, with the view that all of our employees here at New Directions get to experience just how great it feels to support a cause that is truly relevant to them.”
