The European Employee Volunteering Awards, which ran during 2011, recognised companies of all sizes across Europe that have developed schemes that help people facing barriers to work increase their employability skills.

European Winning Companies:

Large Company Winner: Koç Holding A.Ş. (Turkey)

Small Company Winner: NORSYS (France)

Innovation Winner: MITIE Group (United Kingdom)

Newcomer Winner: Abbott (Ireland) 

Public Authorities Winner: Magistrate of the City of Wiesbaden, Office for Social Affairs (Germany)

The project was organised by Business in the Community and co-funded by the European Commission. It was run in 22 European Countries and was closely aligned to the European Year of Volunteering 2011.

It was supported by a consortium of expert partners, including four CSR360 GPN partners (UPJ, SMART Kolektiv, Warsaw Volunteer Centre, Foretica), CSR Europe, the Corporate Citizenship, the East England Development Agency and a group of international practitioners from KPMG and Freshfields. The Awards Scheme was sponsored by Alliance Boots, Tata Consultancy Services and Hewlett Packard.
           

Background

The European Commission announced on 3rd June 2009 that 2011 would be the European Year of Volunteering (EYV). This decision came after a 2 year campaign by European networks of volunteer organisations (including ENGAGE) and will entail a range of activities, programmes and events that will take place under the EYV umbrella.

One of the EYV 2011 flagship programmes was the 2011 Year of the Volunteer Awards Programme that showcased best practice in European Employee Volunteering, focusing on effective and well measured programmes, which transfer skills for employability.

KPMG and Freshfields provided development funding to enable this programme to proceed. The support provided follows on from their long term commitment and support for corporate volunteering and their aim to extend engagement across Europe.

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