As the hospitality sector recovers from the consequences of the health crisis, the AccorInvest Group is demonstrating its solidarity by committing itself to noble causes through a corporate volunteering programme.

As part of its ESG strategy, AccorInvest is launching its very first corporate volunteering programme to encourage its employees to get involved in a social or environmental cause during their working hours. This project was made possible thanks to a partnership with the start-up company Vendredi, which has a vast repertoire of projects and associations around the world.

This approach, also known as skills sponsorship, allows employees to make themselves available during their working hours for a project of general interest while receiving their salaries. The choice of cause is left to the employees, while the company decides how much time to give to the programme. Depending on the individual's convenience, this corporate volunteering can be done in one go, in several hours or for half a day.

The start-up Friday even offers interested employees the opportunity to get more involved by participating in training programmes or by taking on challenges proposed by the community. The panel of associations can be enriched by the employees themselves, as they can propose associations for which they are already involved or that they have heard about.

The implementation of this scheme obviously benefits the associations but also the employees and their well-being, by allowing them to invest enthusiastically in a cause of which they can then become ambassadors. This corporate volunteering programme covers 3 of the 19 issues in AccorInvest's ESG strategy: 

• Supporting employee development to improve employability
• Strengthening employee commitment to ESG
• Respecting local communities and supporting local associations and projects 

We see a real benefit for our employees in this approach. It gives them an additional opportunity to develop professionally, to find meaning in their commitment by devoting time to a cause that is dear to them.

Jairo Gonzalez, General Secretary of AccorInvest