Staff Engagement and Volunteering

At Scentre Group, we recognise the shared value that is created when we support our people to give back to their communities. We believe it’s our responsibility to create an environment where our people can have meaningful engagement with the community at large and make a genuine contribution. Accordingly, we run a workplace giving and dollar matching program whereby the Group donates an equivalent amount to charities our staff have chosen and donated to. We also support our people to contribute to the community by providing them with two paid volunteering leave days per year.

Every year we engage our people through our ongoing internal communication program, employee survey and community ‘champions’ network to ensure our people are aware of volunteering opportunities with various community organisations.

The contributions made during the year by our people – in terms of both their time and their money – reflects the willingness and commitment of Scentre Group staff to personally enrich their communities.

Our staff personally donated $77,108 to their chosen charities and with the Group’s dollar-matching in place, a total charitable benefit of $154,216 was donated. Our staff also spent 1,714 days volunteering.

Staff spent 63 volunteer days with charities supporting people impacted by domestic and family violence. Employees across Australia and New Zealand participated in activities through this company-wide campaign, which was timed to raise awareness of and support for White Ribbon Day.

We measure our performance through the number of volunteering days used by employees and the dollar value of salary sacrifice contributions to nominated charities.

Our outcomes in 2017 :

  • Expansion of Workplace Giving program to include any charity, not just Scentre Group-nominated charity partners
  • Expansion of our Volunteering program to include opportunities with any charity, not just Scentre Group-nominated partners
  • Personal contributions increased by 72% in 2016, matched by the Group’s dollar-for-dollar program
  • Positive staff engagement with the pilot D&I Volunteering Campaign across Australia and
    New Zealand

Future initiatives:

  • Review Workplace Giving and Volunteering programs further, with a view to increasing staff engagement and satisfaction
  • Continue with D&I Volunteering Program and applying learnings from 2017 pilot campaign
  • Continue to match dollar-for-dollar employee salary sacrifice contributions

Community Engagement

Our customers and retail partners, and the communities we serve, are at the heart of our business. This means being fully open and engaged, and cultivating living centres which our communities are proud to call their own. As the local hubs of our trade areas we have a unique opportunity to enrich the social wellbeing of our local regions. Our commitment to true community engagement ensures we are delivering our purpose of creating extraordinary places, connecting and enriching communities.

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