William Hill: Making a positive contribution to communities
27.01.2023
At William Hill, we have a long and productive history of giving back to the communities where we live and work. Making a positive contribution to the areas where we are based is ingrained in the culture of the company, with opportunities across the year for colleagues to lead on and contribute to our community approach.
Alzheimer’s society partnership
In 2021, we continued our work towards becoming a dementia-friendly organisation in partnership with Alzheimer’s Society in the UK.
Despite the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic, colleagues participated in a range of activities across the year to raise funds for the charity. As a company we raised over £250,000 for Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Scotland combined, a testament to our colleagues’ commitment to the partnership, and a figure that will support a range of vital care and services that the charity provides for those living with the disease. Over 3.000 colleagues completed the bespoke Dementia Friendly training module, which provided guidance and information to help support people living with dementia.
Rugby league Cares
In 2021, we continued our support for Rugby League Cares. Rugby Leagues Cares is a UK-based charity that touches upon the lives of people involved at every level of the sport, from junior clubs to current and former players. They provide targeted health and wellbeing support to members across the Rugby League community, both during their careers and post-retirement. We worked with the charity to deliver bespoke mental fitness sessions to our colleagues. The sessions were led by a number of ex Rugby League players, including Keith Senior and Robbie Hunter-Paul, and provided everyday tips to encourage positive mental wellbeing.
Switch the Play
We continued to support Switch the Play, a charity dedicated to supporting all sportspeople to successfully transition to life outside of sport. William Hill’s contribution to the charity this year supported their efforts to expand their mental health service, which was launched in 2020, and supported the development of their employability programmes.
Lead IT, Lady
In 2021, the William Hill Foundation created and rolled out Lead IT, Lady, a digital skills programme in Krakow, Poland, focussed on developing the next female leaders in the field of technology. In collaboration with the organisation Women in Tech, the programme involved both current William Hill employees and external candidates from other organisations.
Alongside undertaking individual learning and development modules, participants of the programme also ran pro-bono volunteering projects to share the wide range of skills they had acquired on the course. These projects enabled participants on the programme to share a wide range of skills with over 850 individuals in the community. Projects including creating a mobile application for a local charity and delivering an IT skills conference for young people.
Sustainability and Environment
We reached a significant goal of becoming a certified carbon-neutral business in 2022. We want to ensure as a business we are doing all we can in the global fight against climate change. We have a commitment to become a Net Zero business be aligning to the 1.5% goal of the Paris Climate Agreement. We recognise every company has a part to play by minimising its environmental footprint. The journey to Net Zero has already begun and, in 2022, we achieved the first milestone of that journey by achieving carbon neutrality. The decarbonisation of the business over the last 4 years has and will give us the learnings to apply a Net Zero target timescale.
More information:
- Read more about William Hill’s sustainability efforts
* This article features in EGBA’s recently published annual Sustainability Report.
