Involvement in the community is a key part of our company vision where we aim to be 'vital to the well-being of our customers and communities'. We want to be seen as a valued partner in the communities in which we operate.
Our programme has three specific themes. We believe that this concentrated focus will create a greater impact and generate more value to our communities, our business and our employees. The three themes are:
Education and skills
The shortage of skills which are essential to the daily delivery of our business operations is a key issue for National Grid. We focus on the develpoment of engineering and research and development skills central to our business activities. Our employee volunteers are increasingly working in schools to help stimulate interest in the STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths). We aim to encourage students to gain the qualifications that we will be looking for in future employees. We see this as a long-term investment in tomorrow's National Grid workforce.
Energy and environment
We align our support to activities which focus on reducing the causes and impact of climate change, the promotion of the local envrionment around our operational sites, the delivery of energy efficiency and alleviation of fuel poverty. In addition we carry out the majority of our team building in the local community. By working with a small number of local organisations to seek out safe, effective and practical community-based team building opportunities, we benefit the community at the same time as developing our staff.
Community investment
Through established community partnerships we focus on supporting and addressing specific business and community needs. We also support employees who fundraise or volunteer outside of work with our matched giving schemes and employee community grants. Our community support, whether it's through sport with Special Olympics Great Britain, reading with children in the interest of improved literacy or community programmes to support our infrastructure projects is delivered through our employee volunteering programme.
Through our employee volunteer programme we endeavor to provide a range of focused volunteering opportunities that enable employees to develop and share skills whilst making a visible and sustainable difference to local communtiies.