SaskTel dials in to community involvement

Editor’s note: This is the fourth of a seven-part series taking a look at some of the best practices of Canada’s award-winning employers. Here, we take a look at SaskTel’s community involvement and why it makes it such a great place to work.

SaskTel’s nearly 4,000 employees are extremely generous. Together they raised $2.2 million for 1,300 charities in Saskatchewan in 2007. A few years ago, they took their community involvement a step further.

A group of younger workers at the Regina-based telephone and communications provider started an initiative called “Next Gen” — a project supported by senior management that helps underprivileged communities in Africa. With the support of their colleagues and several community groups, they collected everything from outdated (by Canadian standards) medical equipment to life and school supplies, such as clothing and bicycles.

All of the items were loaded into a container — paid for by SaskTel — and shipped overseas, where SaskTel employees on a paid leave unloaded it on the other end. A few months ago, Next Gen shipped its fourth container.

“It’s rewarding for our employees who get to contribute on this end and it’s also rewarding for the person who gets to go,” says Doug Burnett, vice-president of human resources and corporate services for SaskTel. “That helps the employees back here in terms of pride and all of those things, to see the pictures and hear all about exactly what happened when it got unloaded.”

From start to finish, the African project costs SaskTel about $20,000 each time, including the container, transportation and travel for employees. The return on investment is worth much more, says Burnett.

“These types of programs are huge,” he says. “We recognize that as being a big part of our culture and a very important aspect of what potential employees are looking for in an employer, as well as existing employees, in terms of being proud to work for an employer who does that kind of stuff.”

There’s also a strong business case for the project, says Burnett, who is also the acting president of SaskTel International. The international division is currently completing a rural infrastructure project in Tanzania and recently won a $5-million contract to develop a communication system in rural Mozambique.

“We have some ties to the communities there, so that’s partly the reason why we’re interested in Africa. We understand the situation and we see the need there and it’s an opportunity for us to give back to some of the communities we’ve done work with,” says Burnett.

Back home, SaskTel supports local charities and non-profit groups both formally and informally. The company has a corporate sponsorship program that co-ordinates donations with an employee benevolent fund. Whatever they earn, SaskTel matches by 50 per cent. Last year, the group raised close to $400,000. Current and retired employees also volunteered more than 74,000 hours through the SaskTel Pioneers service club.

Although the company does not offer days off for charity work, it does allow flexible schedules so employees can take a few hours for a volunteer commitment, says Burnett. The push for community involvement comes from the executive level.

“We measure it a bit indirectly, in terms of employee satisfaction and morale. We measure that annually with surveys,” he says. “And we measure it in terms of customer loyalty. We’ve learned that community involvement is one of the mainstays of this business. It tends to make you more of a home-team player and it helps to weave your business into the fabric of the community.”

However, the HR department has had to learn to “try to stay away from the flavour of the day” when it comes to charities, he says. SaskTel has attempted to be choosier, opting for projects that can be sustained in the end and not abandoned.

“I wouldn’t call it a failure but… we had done that and then looked back and said, ‘We need to make sure we don’t do that again,’” he says.

SaskTel has also extended its local involvement to Aboriginal and disabled communities.

“We don’t do that truly as a social initiative. There’s a very good business reason,” says Burnett.

In Saskatchewan, Aboriginals are the fastest growing population and the most under-represented in SaskTel’s workforce. The company has set a goal to match the employee demographic to that of its customers by 2009.

To meet that target, the company is working closely with community colleges and First Nations communities to promote continued learning and job training. Almost one-half of summer students hired by SaskTel over the past five years were Aboriginal, visible minority and disabled.

The company also awards 11 post-secondary scholarships annually and provides matching scholarship donations in partnership with the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology.

“I don’t think it could be successful without support from the executive,” he says. “It’s very visual and tangible support, right up to and including the president being in attendance at some of the container events, talking about the importance of ensuring our demographics are the same as the customers’ and getting the diversity. We’re very unanimous and together.”

Danielle Harder is a Whitby, Ont.-based freelance writer.