Special Feature - Global Community Engagement
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Adopting the spirit of corporate citizenship in everyday life
In 1991, Omron established its Corporate Citizenship Charter, in which May 10 of each year was designated “Founder’s Day” (“Omron Day” in Japan). Every year on this day, which marks the anniversary of Omron’s founding, Omron volunteers at worldwide sites provide service in their local communities. Established as a corporate event to mark Omron’s 75th anniversary, the Eco-Volun initiative is designed to involve all 35,000 Omron Group employees around the world in a range of environmental initiatives and volunteer work, and make donations in amounts according to employee efforts.
The origin of Eco-Volun was a site-wide project started at Omron’s Tokyo head offi ce in 2006 to encourage employee participation in environmental and social activities. With this program, employees at the Tokyo head office were awarded points for their contributions to their local communities and the environment. Converting the total points accumulated each year into monetary value, the company donated wheelchairs, seedlings or other forms of donations to local charities and NPOs.
With the launch of Eco-Volun, Omron expanded this initiative to all sites around the world. The goal was to link individual employees’ volunteer activities with the Omron Group’s corporate citizenship, while also boosting the pride and motivation of all Group employees. Through volunteer and environmental conservation efforts, all employees aimed to live up to Omron’s corporate core value, “working for the benefit of society,” not only at work, but also in their private lives.
The Eco-Volun Initiative
Making donations in each area according to employees’ volunteer efforts
The Eco-Volun initiative continued from Founder’s Day 2008 until September 30 of the same year. To promote this 5-month campaign globally, all Group sites were divided into five areas.Japan/Korea, the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacifi c and Greater China. Area-specifi c activity lists were prepared to introduce environmental/volunteer activities in which employees in each area could engage on a daily basis. Moreover, point values were determined by the scope of each activity, such as 3 points for recycled milk cartons, 20 points for blood donation, etc.
Omron also developed a point entry system by which employees can enter points through the Internet and keep track of their own progress. Points were tallied for each area and converted into a monetary sum, which was then donated to charitable organizations selected respectively by each area, with the maximum amount set at 10 million yen.
Campaign guidebook and poster to encourage
employee participation throughout the world
To enhance employee awareness of the initiative and encourage their active participation, explanatory sessions were held in various places around the world. Campaign guidebooks and posters as well as point entry system operation manuals were created in 24 different languages and distributed to all sites. Participation did not grow very quickly right after the launch of the initiative. But in response to the event committee’s call and active solicitation efforts at all sites worldwide, the number of participants increased steadily over time, with 30,280 employees in total participating in Eco-Volun activities in their respective sites and workplaces.
Eco-Volun Point Totals by Area
Eco-Volun Promoter Comment
Environmental/volunteer activities as a matter of course
Akinori Kobayashi
Omron Business
Associates Co., Ltd.
In Japan, Omron and its labor union promoted the Eco-Volun initiative, which demonstrated to employees Omron’s serious commitment to the program. We at corporate communications also tried to relay information in a friendly manner, for instance, showing photos of smiling employees doing volunteer work, and posting point rankings by handle name on the website.
Through their Eco-Volun experience, I think that employees will no longer feel awkward carrying their own bottles to work, their own bags to shopping and their own chopsticks to restaurants. It will feel like an ordinary and cool thing to do.
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