Employees Worldwide Embody Corporate Mission
Inaugural Global Week of Service Surpass Expectations
STANLEY® Engineered Fastening responded to the challenge with an idea that embodied, "Customers, Colleagues, Communities," with the commitment to undertake a Global Week of Service. During the week of October 9-13, 2017, employees were encouraged to volunteer alongside their colleagues during work hours to support their local communities. Champions were identified in each location to help plan and coordinate the service activities.
"Interestingly, at the beginning, we established our champions for each location within the HR department at each site, but it didn't take long until people were coming in and offering to take over a part of the project or planning," said Victoria Bowles, Communications Specialist, STANLEY® Engineered Fastening, who took the lead in coordinating the Global Week of Service. "The enthusiasm for this program built quickly, and people were excited that we were giving them this opportunity."
With locations spanning the globe from San Francisco to Madrid to Taiwan, and many cities in between, the company wanted to ensure that each team's participation in the Global Week of Service was meaningful on a cultural level.
"Recognizing the huge variety of nationalities and cultures STANLEY® Engineered Fastening encompasses, it was particularly important that each location would decide on an activity or activities that held meaning for them and their community, and that would be impactful on a local level," Bowles said.
It was particularly important that each location would decide on an activity or activities that held meaning for them and their community, and that would be impactful on a local level.The assignment was huge - but by the end of the day on October 13, it was apparent that the size of the project had been eclipsed many times over by the results it had produced. Across 12 countries, 1,286 employees had engaged in 59 service activities in 24 locations. Employees sang to the elderly, made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the hungry in Baltimore, Maryland, cleaned up a highway in one location and tidied animal cages in another, donated blood in Taiwan and blood plasma in India, and much, much more.– Victoria Bowles Communication Specialist, STANLEY® Engineered Fastening
Throughout the week updates from each location's activities were posted on Stanley Black & Decker's internal employee website allowing everyone to view and connect with the progress at the various sites.
Even STANLEY® Engineered Fastening President John Wyatt participated in the event, making more than a few PB&Js himself with the Baltimore crew. "These numbers cannot even begin to quantify the impact felt in the communities that we served and in the hearts of those who volunteered."