By Tay Suan Chiang
Business planning and development manager Lee Chen Chuen takes up to three days of leave annually for volunteering activities such as building homes for needy families in Batam.
The time-off does not come from his annual leave but from the volunteer service leave granted by his employer, Standard Chartered Bank.
‘Regardless of how busy we are at work, having three days of volunteering leave allows me to take some official time off to make a small but significant contribution to the community,’ said Mr Lee, 32.
HELPING THE COMMUNITY
‘Regardless of how busy we are at work, having three days of volunteering leave allows me to take some official time off to make a small but significant contribution to the community.’
Standard Chartered business planning and development manager Lee Chen Chuen
The desire to help staff do good has spurred more companies to approve special leave to let employees take part in the firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes or other volunteering efforts. These companies tend to be large ones, from investment firms to banks to multinational companies. Most give two to three days of volunteer service leave.
Source: The Straits Times