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Although HBOS Australia is a relative newcomer to the competitive Australian financial services market, it is already developing a tradition in innovative community participation.
For an emerging company like HBOS Australia, which already has a strong tradition of community participation and support through 100-year old banking arm, BankWest, and a strong role model in UK parent HBOSplc, the first step to a sustainable future was to establish a charitable foundation, the HBOS Australia Foundation. The Foundation was launched in early 2006, with John Van Der Wielen, Managing Director of insurance company St Andrew’s Australia as Chairman and Dr Fiona Wood, 2005 Australian of the Year, as the patron. “For a company to be successful and deliver value to its shareholders, community goodwill is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. It goes beyond having a social licence to operate and becomes an integral component of day to day business,” says Van Der Wielen. “What happens to the community affects the company operating there and this has had an impact on community expectations. “Establishing a Foundation meant we could create an entity that belonged to the newly formed HBOS Australia, that all staff could relate to and become involved with, and it could be the vehicle that would develop a shared culture aligned with our organisational values and allow us to meet some of our community obligation.” The Foundation assists the underprivileged in our community and helps educate the wider community in financial literacy. In total, more than A$1 million has been committed in the first year of operation towards homelessness, disadvantaged youth, indigenous youth, water safety and the sight-impaired. “Although we may identify organisations that we think we can assist, typically organisations approach us looking for assistance and we consider their proposals in the light of a number of criteria. “Usually in addition to understanding the community benefit we will look at what opportunities there are for staff to be involved.” Assisting a diverse range of organisationsThe Foundation has provided the Clontarf Foundation with funds to assist in the national expansion of their program to encourage young indigenous men to remain at school, build self-esteem and find meaningful employment using Australian Rules Football as a source of motivation and engagement. It has also provided money to OzHarvest, an organisation that collects fresh food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it to charitable organisations that provide meals to Sydney’s homeless, hungry and vulnerable. It has participated in a mentoring program at Ashcroft Senior High School, in a New South Wales high school, which has been identified as significantly disadvantaged, providing both funding and volunteer mentors. “Our Foundation is fairly new compared to other organisational programs,” says Van Der Wielen. “However, it’s an important focus for us, and we are determined to grow the spread and reach of activities, and make it a successful part of our operations in exactly the same way we are determined to grow our business and become a significant player in the financial services market.” About HBOS AustraliaHBOS Australia is a fully owned subsidiary of HBOSplc, one of the world’s largest financial services companies with total assets worth £540 billion. It comprises four financial services: It has a goal to become a major financial services provider in Australia and already is one of the fastest growing financial services organisations in a number of categories. Contact: Ray Jordan
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Website: www.hbosa.com.au HBOS Australian Foundation: http://www.hbos.com.au/HBOSA_Foundation/
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