GUS & the community:
Experian
Managing community activity in Experian International
Experian International has a Community Affairs team that manages most of its local community engagement projects. Funding decisions are taken by a Community and Charity Committee, comprising staff representatives from across the business.
Experian International’s Community Involvement focus is “Changing Lives, Improving Futures”. By working with partners from the business, public statutory and voluntary sector, Experian is able to develop programmes and influence the direction of change, which creates opportunities for people to improve their education, skills and knowledge and to broaden their employment prospects. The programme tends to have a strong geographical focus on Nottingham where the vast majority of Experian’s Uk employees are based and offers employee involvement in projects, providing motivational and developmental benefits for Experian’s people, and leading to high-impact, high-profile projects in the community.
Experian also has a strong consumer affairs / consumer education team. The focus of this work is on informing consumers, helping people make better financial decisions and control their finances more effectively. Experian is involved in a number of financial services industry initiatives, which are described more fully in the section on marketplace issues (hyperlink).
Managing community activity in Experian Americas
In Experian America the community involvement programme has a strong identity of its own and is known as ‘The Heart of Experian.’ The programme is designed to engage employees, encouraging them to feel proud of Experian and working there, and helps bring Experian’s internal brand values to life.
‘The Heart of Experian’ focusses on helping people help themselves through education and community assistance. It comprises a number of elements:
- Volunteer Matching: An employee may request that Experian make a $200 donation to an organization where the employee has completed at least 50 hours of volunteer service in a 12-month period.
- Organization/Community Funding: Local area non-profit organizations are eligible for donations with decisions made by the Heart of Experian Committee based on written applications.
- Employee Participation Donation: Experian employees (not family members) may request that Experian make a donation in support of a particular event (walk/run, bake sale, etc.) designed to raise money for a qualified organization.
- College Matching: Experian will match employee contributions to accredited non-profit higher education institutions up to $100 per college/university.
- Junior Elite: Junior Elite is a yearly programme that awards employee's children for exceptional scholastic achievement. The top 50 students (based on Grade Point Average) selected from received applications will be awarded a $100 US Savings Bond.
- Scholarship Awards: Experian awards twenty $1,000 scholarships each fiscal year to qualified graduating high school students of employees.
Case Study - The Heart of Experian
What was the need? The Heart of Experian meets a number of needs: it provides employees with a very direct way to get involved in community activity; it makes donations to a wide range of local projects and it helps as a significant donor to some large-scale initiatives.
How did we help? The programme makes employee time and financial donations widely available, including all the elements described above. In 2006 $325,000 was donated plus over $300,000 in gifts in kind including shoes, food, toys, mobile phones and computers.
What is the social benefit? The direct financial donations reached more than 125 different organisations, helping support a broad base of small charities and projects. The in-kind donations widened this to by further 50 organisations. Among larger donations, over $80,000 was raised for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which is one of the US’ largest private funding sources for breast cancer. 24 high school seniors received $1000 scholarships helping fund their education, and 50 students in the Junior Elite program were each awarded a $100 savings bond. The very local and diverse nature of the awards can make the benefits hard to record, but Experian believes that employees are often the best placed to understand the needs of their own communities, and this is a key tenet of the programme’s operation.
What impact did the project have in the business? 24 employees participated in the employee participation program, 52 in the volunteer match program and 10 in the college donation match program. Between them they recorded more than 3,500 volunteer hours, which represents a significant commitment from these individuals. But the programme’s impact goes beyond this: the Heart of Experian helps all employees relate to and feel proud of the business that they work for. It is a popular and important part of Experian America’s approach to business.
Case Study - The ‘On Track’ programme
What was the need? To reduce drug use it is essential to equip children with the life skills they need to grow up safely in a drug-using world. Whilst there were many schools-based programmes available, research showed that none specifically targeted children aged 6-7.
How did we help? Experian donated £116,600 to develop and evaluate ‘On Track’ - an education programme for schools - in partnership with Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire City and County Local Education Authorities, and Southampton University, who evaluated the programme. The materials were distributed free to all schools in Nottinghamshire and forms part of the child’s personal, social, health and citizenship education (PSHCE) in both mainstream and special needs schools. The materials give children knowledge, life skills and understanding to help them make informed choices about medicines, drugs and healthy lifestyles.
What is the social benefit? ‘On Track’ has been exceptionally well received, by teachers, parents, children and industry professionals attracting comments such as “an inspiration”, and “very teacher friendly and a child friendly approach”. It has been hugely successful, with evaluations by Southampton University indicating that children retained this important knowledge. ‘On Track’ has also been successful working with vulnerable young people, children in referral units and traveller children, often where more traditional education failed. Following ‘On Track’s’ successful launch to Nottinghamshire primary schools in 2002, it has been developed to include a web-site and DVD containing all the materials needed to deliver ‘On Track’. The partnership is now developing ‘Keep On Track’, - which can be used alone or following on from ‘On Track’ to give additional skills to 8 – 9 year olds. The national forum for drug education is showcasing ‘On Track’ as an example of good practice.
What impact did the project have in the business? The new materials were launched at the House of Commons in 2005 by Graham Allen MP, helping raise Experian’s profile with important groups of stakeholders. The project has also helped demonstrate Experian’s commitment to the local communities around its Nottingham headquarters.
