IT firm gives back through community service

MANILA, Philippines - They call it “Volunteer for the Community Day.” With manpower in the Philippines of about 2,500 whose average age is 27, Thomson Reuters deems it fit to volunteer in charity organizations as a way to celebrate yearly the company’s merger anniversary – at least in the country. Thomson Reuters is a merger of industry data service provider Thomson Corp. and news organization Reuters Group.

“This volunteer activity is just a hit with our employees,” notes Marla Alvarez, Thomson Reuters’ Communications Manager and Corporate Responsibility Lead.  “They seem to have made volunteer work as an outlet for their youthful energy.”

“For each year, we choose one charity organization with established relations with the company to be given a donation,” explains Alvarez.  She says Thomson Reuters donated the same amount last year to Gawad Kalinga and $10,000 to Ospital ng Maynila the year earlier. 

“The company, however, focuses not on money donation, but on personal efforts in helping the charity groups,” emphasizes Alvarez. “We got energetic, young people and we would like to offer our staff’s quality time.”

“It’s a way of giving back and engaging the employees,” says Peter Buenaseda, Thomson Reuters Manila Senior Site Officer and Human Resources head, of the company’s volunteer work.   

“A lot more employees would have wanted to join this year’s volunteer activities,” discloses Alvarez.  But, she says, there was just not enough slots to match the company’s partner charity beneficiaries’ needs or schedules for the day.

Those who missed this year’s Volunteer for the Community anniversary celebration joined another company volunteer work last May 11. It was for the Isang Litrong Liwanag community project in San Juan and for a public school cleanup activity in Taguig. 

“This is part of Thomson Reuters’ All Asia Corporate Responsibility Day,” says Alvarez, “where the projects are done simultaneously with other offices of Thomson Reuters in the region from New Zealand to Australia to Japan.”

Thomson Reuters is a $12.1 billion company as of end of 2011, employing over 60,000 people in over 100 countries accross the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

It ranked number one among financial data service providers in Fortune Magazine’s 2012 List of World’s Most Admired Companies.

The company was also named to Ethisphere’s 2012 World’s Most Ethical Companies List for the fourth year in a row. 

Since the merger in 2008, it has continued to rise in the Best Global Brand Survey, going two notches higher to 37th from 39th in the Interbrand 2011 survey.

Thomas Reuters Manila won the 2010 People Program of the Year Award from the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines and, likewise, the Shared Services Excellence of the Year Award at the International ICT Awards in 2011, for providing high-value services to the company’s global network.