Employee volunteering

Our volunteering programme offers Boots UK employees the chance to participate in a wide range of community activities in working time and their own time, sharing their expertise and knowledge with local schools, charities and voluntary organisations.

Examples of some of the initiatives our people are involved in include:

Volunteering for Macmillan Cancer Support

As part of our commitment to working with Macmillan Cancer Support to reach and improve the lives of everyone affected by cancer, we have developed a number of volunteering opportunities for our people. This gives them a range of practical ways to support the charity and those affected by cancer. The opportunities are:

Event support - from cheering at marathons, greeting people at concerts, handing out goody bags or serving refreshments at a coffee morning, volunteers help make Macmillan events extra special and help raise vital money for life-changing services.

Cancer voices - use your insight into cancer, whether as a patient or a carer, to improve the support people affected by cancer receive in the future. We currently have 33 Boots UK people signed up to get involved in this.

E-campaigning - signing up to email campaigns is quick, simple and easy way to get results like getting prescription charges scrapped for people affected by cancer and over 150 Boots colleagues are taking part in this.

Macmillan in every community - a new volunteer-led pilot scheme to offer practical support to people affected by cancer, providing support with shopping, housework and errands to people who are currently unable to do this for themselves because they either have cancer or are caring for someone affected by cancer.

Pharmacy pre-registration volunteering programme

Getting involved with the local community is an important part of our pre-registration pharmacists' training in the UK. All of our new trainees (620 in total) work in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and local Primary Care Trusts to organise health promotion events. During 2010/11, as a result of this partnership, communities benefited from over 50 healthcare focused events being held in their local areas providing information on a range of subjects including cancer awareness, sexual health and healthy eating.

Look Good...Feel Better

Our No7 consultants use their time and expertise to support Look Good...Feel Better beauty workshops for women with cancer, an initiative sponsored by the cosmetics industry.

The free sessions take place in hospitals across the UK. Many of our No7 Consultants regularly volunteer at these sessions, providing morale-boosting makeovers and advice on skin care and make-up. By the end of 2010/11, workshops were taking place in 60 hospitals, with around 120 No7 consultants volunteering. Boots UK also donated over 40,000 No7 products during 2010/11 to support these workshops.

No7 consultants were provided with training on giving advice to people experiencing the visual side effects of cancer treatments including how to draw on eyebrows and make eyelashes appear thicker for people who have undergone chemotherapy as well as advice on skin changes.

Suncare consultants

Boots expert suncare consultants are encouraged to get involved in supporting sun safety activity in their local communities. We provide them with resources to help them do a great job in sharing their knowledge and expertise on why it is so important to be safe in the sun. Throughout the summer many of our consultants help local schools and playgroups, work with health professionals to educate parents and children, and work with community groups to support events in parks and on beaches.

In summer 2009, we worked with educational experts to create a new online children's storybook featuring Sunshine Sam. The interactive story is available to download from our schools website www.bootslearningstore.com

Sunshine Sam also featured in an educational TV advert on the children's channel Nickelodeon Junior, linked to a competition to win a Boots summer backpack. The competition was a great success, exceeding expectations and firmly establishing Sunshine Sam as a favourite with young children.

Supporting the community through team challenges

Team challenges give our people the opportunity to spend a day in the local community sharing their skills with schools, charities and community groups. Challenges have included helping to plant new gardens, revamp meeting rooms, organise birthday parties and renovate community benches and gardens. During 2010/11, 485 colleagues from Boots UK's support office delivered 36 projects and donated over 3,700 hours to the community.

Sharing expertise from across the business

From voluntary work with the Nottingham Hospice back in 2007 to improve their retail design, that resulted in the charity opening a 'flagship' store in Ruddington in 2008, our people rose to the challenge from the national body, 'Help the Hospices' by sharing their expertise to a much wider group of charity shop owners. Read about how a range of disciplines came together to deliver both a valuable resource and informative conference for twenty two local charities in the case study. The 'Introduction to good retail practice' document can be found under Further Information.