We take pride in our community and one of the ways we help is by encouraging our employees to participate in local organizations and contribute to local charities.
In 2007, we began an initiative to promote H. J. High’s charitable involvement as a company. We specifically wanted the effort to be employee driven: selected, organized and executed by the employees, with little to no direction from the company executives. What resulted was a program that our employees enthusiastically embraced and implemented. This is not an effort to donate money, but an effort to donate labor to worthy causes while at the same time uniting our employees behind a good cause.
At the end of each year we solicit suggestions from employees as to what charities we should support in the upcoming year. Employees “sponsor” the charity of their choice, preparing a brief presentation in front of the entire company explaining the mission of their chosen charity and why they believe that mission is worthwhile. After the presentations are complete, our employees vote for the two charities they want the company to support. The votes are tallied, and the top two become our adopted charities for the next year.
During the course of that year, we work with the charity to identify their needs and how our employees’ talents can best be utilized. On each prescribed charity work day, H. J. High closes our office so that our employees have the opportunity to contribute as a team. Plus, who doesn’t like a day off work to help other people and share an experience with co-workers?