Hawaiian Telcom Launches Employee Volunteer Program, Encouraging Staff to Give Back
Hawaiian Telcom, a Certified Blue Zones Worksite®, launched their employee volunteer program, Mālama Hours, giving full-time employees the opportunity to use up to 40 paid hours to volunteer in the community every year. Mālama Hours means to care for others and is aligned with Hawaiian Telcom’s mission to serve Hawaii.
As a Certified Blue Zones Worksite, focusing on volunteering is not only good for the community but it’s also good for employee health and happiness. According to a 2017 Deloitte study, organizations that encourage volunteering boost employee morale, workplace atmosphere and brand perception. The research found that an overwhelming 89 percent of employees think organizations that sponsor volunteer activities offer a better overall working environment and 70 percent believe volunteer activities are more likely to boost staff morale than company-sponsored happy hours. In addition, more than three-quarters of survey respondents believe volunteering is essential to employee well-being.
Hawaiian Telcom’s 1,200 employees logged over 8,500 volunteer hours in 2019, the first year of Mālama Hours being offered to employees. Over the course of the past year, volunteering in the community has looked very different than in the past however employees still found unique ways to volunteered 1,160 hours during the pandemic.
Virtual Tutoring
Mask Making
One employee, James Migia, logged 33.5 hours with the Japan International Karate Center. James shared the following about his experience volunteering during the pandemic:
"During the pandemic lockdown-period, the dojo was not able to hold any type of in-person classes. So at first, I volunteered my time to help them produce videos to upload to YouTube for the students to continue to learn and train with. We produced a lot of videos to cater to the different belt-levels. Then the head instructor wanted to start being more involved again with the students, so I was able to use my personal gear to put together and operate a station for them to stream LIVE on YouTube to hold real-time classes and have some form of actual interaction with the students through the live chat and get actual feedback. He did have the option to do one-on-one sessions over other forms of communication like Skype or FaceTime, but at the beginning of the pandemic big group conference apps weren’t as prevalent as they are now. With the karate school having several hundred students, it would have been virtually impossible to have individual sessions with all the students."
How long have you been volunteering with the Japan International Karate Center (JIKC)?
"I have been volunteering my time with JIKC in one way or another since 2017. This pandemic-era volunteer work has been by far the most important. If the head-sensei would not have been able to continue any form of classes, he would not have been able to continue to charge tuition (although he did cut it down to half the normal fee), and he most likely would not have been able to pay his overhead costs on the dojo and possibly shut his doors for good."
What is your level/rank?
"I started karate with JIKC with the head-sensei when I was just 2 years old. I obtained my black belt with this very same sensei as well, even though he wasn’t the head instructor at the time. By the time I stopped training in my teens, I had obtained my 3rd-degree black belt."
What does the Mālama Hours program mean to you?
"When the Mālama Hours program first began I was in the cable maintenance department out in the field. In that position we worked a lot of overtime and already had limited time at home. I believe this program really gives all Hawaiian Telcom employees a chance to effectively give back to their communities without having to compromise their job and/or home-life by allowing us to do these hours during normal workdays. I was very excited the program (launched) because I knew it would be a chance for me to help out an organization/school that has meant a lot to me my entire life (at least since I was 2) and to my family as 2 of my 3 children currently are students."
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