Newcastle tech company gives staff three volunteer days a year to help North East charities

Newcastle-based technology and IT consultancy Accenture is giving every member of its team three days a year to take whenever they want to volunteer at charities across the North East.

Solution Architect Dominic Taylor, who works at Accenture in Cobalt and is the company’s charity lead, has encouraged other businesses to do the same: “It is amazing for us as a company based in the North East to be able to give back to the community in a way that clearly offers a tangible benefit to both the charities themselves and our staff. I have organised charity days in the past and it is always nice to see the changes that our staff can make in their very own communities. For the staff as well, it allows them to work in a different environment out in the open, building up connections and their own morale, and it shows them the value of volunteering and helping the charities closest to us.”

Some of the charities that Accenture’s 900+ employees already work with include Durham Foodbank, The People’s Kitchen, Marie Curie and The Ouseburn Trust, as they plan to expand and create links with other charities in the months and years to come.

Accenture also has a Tech4Good scheme, where employees have contributed 1,200 hours of support, using their technical expertise to address critical business challenges faced by the organisation. One of its Tech4Good initiatives is ‘Tech Sessions’, where Accenture hosts virtual training for up to 20 different charities, focusing on various useful skills such as creating an online web shop, chairing an online meeting, design-based thinking and creating marketing content.