Global Connects understands the importance of corporate social responsibility and we continually seek imaginative ways to provide social, environmental and economic well-being throughout our local communities and beyond.
Working with our Local Communities
Through our Public Sector Contracts and the delivery of those services Global Connects is perfectly placed to give significant opportunities for work to local people. This represents an important contribution to local economies and the many forms of social value that stem from income going into every linguist’s household. The nature of our work offers linguists from ethnic minorities regular work, and also offers a degree of flexibility for parents managing child care logistics.
Fair Employment
We already have a successful record in offering employment to long term unemployed candidates. We can guarantee to offer an interview to at least one long term unemployed person for any vacancy within the company, where such candidates meet the minimum essential criteria of the person description for the post. We have the same policy for disabled applicants in terms of guaranteeing an interview.
Training for Linguists and employees
We have a number of training opportunities allowing both new and experienced linguists to upskill both through online training courses and other more advanced training events. This includes encouraging more linguists to gain a recognised qualification such as the Diploma in Public Sector Interpreting and the Diploma in Translation.
Community Benefit Fund
We channel a small percentage of our net profits as a company into a Community Benefit Fund, from which we are able to offer donations to charity and support to community projects in local areas where we work.
One of our staff members acts as our community champion to look at finding ways to benefit the community alongside the work we do in each framework and significant contract.
As a company, we have supported a number of charities in recent times including:
- Educate the Kids
- Scottish Ethnic Minority Sports Association
- BBC Children in Need
- Comic Relief Red Nose Day
- The Movember Foundation
- Macmillan Cancer Support
- Parkinson’s UK
Aside from sponsoring nationwide charity organisations, we have also contributed to a small independent charity called Educate the Kids who constructed Joluarabi School, near Mombasa, they are a non-profit organisation who ensure every penny they raise goes to the local children in this very poor Kenyan village.
Over the years we have also fostered a close relationship and offered financial support over a number of years to the Scottish Ethnic Minority Sports Association. This organisation works to promote sport and healthy living among ethnic minority communities in Scotland and also throughout the whole United Kingdom through events they organise. The sports involved include football, athletics, badminton, swimming, basketball and netball. The organisation also offers children’s activities and yoga classes for all ages and uses events such as International Women’s Day to promote sport and fitness to British Asian women.
In conjunction with SEMSA, we provided financial support to the UK Asian Football Championship which is held each September in Glasgow. A number of our clients were involved in this annual event including Police Scotland, Glasgow City Council and the Scottish Football Association. The SEMSA president, Mr Dilawer Singh, is one of our longest serving interpreters, having worked with us for almost 20 years.
The event was reported on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/49805127
We have also recently worked with the Positive Action Team at Police Scotland to help them reach out to people from minority ethnic communities across Scotland. Police Scotland understand that it is important their workforce represents the increasingly diverse communities they police every day, and Global Connects was happy to work with them to build up their recruitment from minority ethnic communities through our network of translators and interpreters.
As we expand our services to customers in other parts of the UK, our policy is to actively identify similar opportunities to promote social value that simultaneously cover a range of complimentary objectives. We envisage this could include cultural, sporting, community and health events and initiatives, especially perhaps when aimed at engaging with more people who do not have English as their first language.
