CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AWARDS Pfizer, Caterpillar, PwC, Citi, ACS International Schools
New York – GLOBAL HR NEWS was pleased to honor the first recipients of the CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AWARDS in a New York ceremony on 23 May 2007.
The Awards recognized three specific corporate programs that either prepare employees and families for effective international assignment, or foster exemplary goodwill in the international communities in which the company does business.
The company programs receiving the Awards were Caterpillar Inc. for their International Employee Assistance Program; Pfizer, Inc for their Global Health Fellows Program; and PricewaterhouseCoopers for their UK-based Ulysses Programme.
The judges who reviewed the nominations and agreed on the awards were Philip Berry, VP Global Workplace Initiatives and Corporate Officer, Colgate-Palmolive Company; Austin Fragomen, Partner and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Fragomen Del Rey Bernsen & Loewy LLP; Dean Foster, President, Dean Foster Associates, Intercultural Consulting & Training; Andrew Kittell, Director of Corporate Relations, ACS International Schools; Judson Scruton, Director, New York & London, GLOBAL HR NEWS; and Ed Cohen, Editor & Publisher, GLOBAL HR NEWS.
The Caterpillar “International Assistance Program (IAP)” Award was announced by Andrew Kittell, who highlighted some of the essential facts about the program. The program was started in 2004 to assist their more than 1,000 employees living and working outside their native country. The program features extensive pre-departure orientation, proactive, ongoing outreach to employees and spouses, educational webinars, professional counselling as needed, and repatriation assistance. Caterpillar’s IAP program recognizes that expats and their families often do not seek the help they need until there is a significant crisis. The Caterpillar program invites international assignee families to accept help before a crisis develops. The company cites improved retention and productivity as a result of the program. Kittell said that the Caterpillar program was “as good as any I have seen in a decade of working with multinational companies.” Accepting the Award for Caterpillar was Dr. John Pompe, Manager, Behavioral Health Programs.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “Ulysses Programme”, a global leadership development program that was started in 2001 and has sent 80 partners from 32 territories on 26 projects in 20 different developing countries was announced by Philip Berry. One of the objectives of the programme is “to integrate stakeholder collaboration into the role of high performance business to create sustainable success for communities and markets across the world.” An example of this would be the 2005 Rural Electrification Project in Madagascar where four PwC Partners from Russia, France, Indonesia, and the US went to the Andapa and Sambava Districts of Madagascar to work with a UNDP to do a social-economic study to guide the selection of projects best suited to reduce poverty and create economic growth. The programme consists of eight weeks of preparation, eight weeks on location, and a week of review and recommendations, plus follow-up. Among the benefits PwC sees for this programme is creating “a sustainable brand in which PwC is differentiated by the quality of our relationships with our people, our clients and the community.” Accepting the Award for PricewaterhouseCooper was Richard Baird, Global Human Capital Leader and Kellie Roberts, Ulysses Programme Manager.
Part of the presentation ceremony included a look at the sustainability theme as it related to Caterpillar. Judson Scruton introduced this theme stating that sustainability is one of the key words in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)—in Corporate Citizenship. He mentioned that if a company is successfully sustaining its employees in overseas assignments, or using biofuels in its equipment, or is partnering with suppliers who are themselves practicing sustainability, or those companies are learning from the leading CSR theories being taught in Business Schools…then the Caterpillar story demonstrates this full cycle.”
To illustrate this point the presentation included looking at the video on the website of Fairmount Minerals, a major minerals company that supplies Caterpillar with materials to build their equipment and works with them to develop a process for reusing spent sand for fertilizers to grown corn for ethanol companies to produce biofuels. Caterpillar makes biofuel equipment; Fairmount Minerals buys Caterpillar biofuel diesel equipment.
Fairmount Minerals has a major sustainability focus throughout their operation, a more than $300 million dollar operation with operations in the US, Canada, Mexico and soon to be in China. They have won numerous awards from major environmental organizations. Fairmount Minerals’ VP for Administration, Jack Wymer, was at the ceremony to accept a certificate for Corporate Citizenship Teamwork as it related to Caterpillar.
A Pfizer executive had this to say about their award-winning program: “A scientist working on a database to improve patient care at a refugee camp in northern Kenya. A research manager bringing her skills to bear on an AIDS vaccine clinical trial in Uganda. A doctor assessing training for medical colleagues in Russia.”
“These are the faces of Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows Program (GHF), an innovative public-private partnership that leverages our most valuable resource – our people – to address systemic public health challenges in developing nations.”
“Now in its fourth year, the GHF program selects volunteers from among Pfizer employees to serve with non-profit organizations in developing countries. Their goal: transfer knowledge and technical skills to build capacity over a period of three to six months that will be helpful long after they have gone home. The 128 scientists, clinical researchers, financial and data analysts, nurses, doctors, HR managers and others, whom Pfizer has deployed to 30 developing countries, all share an incredible desire to do good. With the strategic guidance, established partnerships, and technical resources of Pfizer, these individuals become powerful catalysts for change.”
“They are also manifestations of Pfizer’s overarching purpose: helping people live healthier lives. In fulfilling this mission, Pfizer prioritizes three key arenas:
* discovering and developing new medicines;
* improving access to medicines; and
* finding health system solutions.”
“The Global Health Fellows program has allowed us to advance all three in a new way for us – and for multinational companies across industries.”
Unlike some Corporate Citizenship and CSR Awards, GLOBAL HR NEWS CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AWARDS were chosen from very specific programs nominated by the companies themselves.
“We were honored to have such outstanding programs to recognize with our first Corporate Citizenship Awards. Each of these programs makes a distinctive and valuable contribution to global management. We firmly believe that effective global management measurably contributes to better understanding, human development and perhaps to world peace, and I believe that companies and their international assignees and their families are actually “everyday Ambassadors” living and working in the community and coming into daily contact with local residents, businesses, and organizations,” said Ed Cohen, Publisher, GLOBAL HR NEWS.
He concluded by saying, “We are taking this initiative globally and our next CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AWARDS event will be in London 28 November 2007 for companies primarily located in or doing significant business across Europe, in the MidEast or in Africa. The Awards ceremony will be an integral part of theEURO-ATLANTIC WORLD TRADE CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS, during the Conference Luncheon Program. We expect the conference to be a “sell-out” so if you have some interest to come and be involved please do not hesitate to contact us for information on registration. Thank You.”
