Deloitte & Touche: Learning Business Skills Volunteering Abroad
One of the most satisfying ways for employees to volunteer is to bring their unique skills to an organization in desperate need of help. That’s what HR consultants Stéphanie Boucher and Christine Bertrand did when they headed to West Africa for Uniterra’s Leave for Change Program. Based in Montreal at Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche, the duo headed to Africa – Boucher to Bamako, Mali, Bertrand to Kougoudou in Burkina Faso – with two different, challenging, assignments.
As a human resources consultant Boucher ran HR training courses for directors of community health centres and helped develop an action plan. Once the two-week stint was over she left behind reference tools for them to continue using. But they also gave her something – a sense of satisfaction that she’d made a difference.
Bertrand, a consultant in Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche’s commercial risk division, was placed with ADIP/S, which fights poverty and HIV/AIDS. Her task: help support the organization’s staff in producing financial reports for funding agencies. Finding it to be more than volunteer work, Bertrand believes the cultural immersion experience gave her a sense of the possibilities of international cooperation.
Building Skills Through Volunteerism In Canada, and internationally, Deloitte is committed to volunteer programs that not only benefit the organizations and communities they’re helping, but also help employees to grow and develop their own personal goals. In the UK the consulting firm developed a matrix that helps employees identify volunteer opportunities that match their personal skill-building goals. According to an interview in The Globe & Mail Leila Fenc, director of community investment for the Deloitte Foundation helping employees build new skills through volunteering can often replace training programs that Deloitte would otherwise finance.
Keeping Employees Happy But it’s not just about building skills – which benefits employees and employers, it’s also about keeping employees happy. According to a 2009 report from Junior Achievement on the benefits of employee volunteerism, 62 per cent of workers 18 to 26-years old prefer working for a company that provides opportunities for them to apply their skills to help nonprofits. Employee volunteerism has also been known to boost job satisfaction and increase retention rates. This is likely the inspiration behind Deloitte’s Impact Day. Each year about 50,000 Deloitte people across 60 countries contribute their time and skills throughout the year to serve their communities. Individual offices arrange the events which range from working at a food bank, fixing up communities, building a skating rink or helping new immigrants with their resumes.
Read more at:
Leave for Change with Samson Bélair/Deloitte & Touche 
Deloitte Canada boosts employees’ skills through volunteer opportunities
Tags: abroad, business, corporate, uniterra, volunteering, volunteerism, west africa
