8x8’s platform is renowned for boosting the employee and customer experience by enhancing the functionality essential for remote working. As an organisation, we apply the same focus on the social value we deliver. That’s why we are boosting social value for employees’ and customers’ communities by promoting meaningful volunteering opportunities and charitable giving.

Making the most of 8x8’s abilities

By working with several public sector clients, 8x8 delivers social value as an essential part of its contracts. Our efforts go beyond supporting communication and collaboration across public sector organisations, such as local authorities or housing associations. We aim to ensure that the local communities get value too.

It’s crucial for support to be tailored to the specific needs of a given community. We understand that our clients in the public sector are varied and diverse, which is why 8x8 follows the TOMs framework (Themes, Outcomes, and Measures) for evaluating social value when it comes to things like volunteering or charitable donations. Equally, it is important that the social value we promote is based on the skills and expertise within 8x8. As a leading unified communications company, giving back by volunteering remotely to promote digital inclusion and give expert business advice ensures we make the most of our skill set for greater social impact.

Remote volunteering, digital inclusion, and business advice

Maximising 8x8’s expertise to add social value to the communities in which we work, our remote volunteering activities are flexible and accessible ways to volunteer. They allow us to go further, do more, and reach a broader audience.

Two recent examples include our webinars promoting digital inclusion with social housing builder, Karbon Homes. The first focused on digital literacy and contacting (often difficult to reach) businesses online. The second looked at digital security, online threats, and safety. We are also dedicated to bridging the digital literacy gap while also building skills in the next generation of workers. By offering mock job interviews, CV advice, marketing workshops, and more, we support the widest spectrum of skills needed for the future of work. 8x8 has a team of internal experts who have committed to volunteering across all these areas.

Personal value for employees and their communities

Employees want—and expect—to feel valued, and the gold standard is to be valued for who you are and what you stand for. Valuing employees for their authentic selves builds purpose within the organisation and helps to increase employee wellbeing and retention.

One in three Gen Z employees would turn down roles in companies with poor ESG credentials, and over half would take a pay cut of 25% to work for a company that reflects their ethics

To help employees feel valued while supporting them to volunteer, 8x8 takes a similar approach to the public sector social value framework it uses. We promote the best fit between our employees and the ways they give back. To do this, we use the On Hand corporate volunteering app.

On Hand allows 8x8’s employees to volunteer their time to causes that are important to them. Employees can choose where, how, and when to give back. The causes are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals too, promoting broader value and contributing to 8x8’s sustainability targets.

This year so far, 8x8 employees have dedicated their time to a wide range of causes that are important to them, including:

  • Trees for Cities, which promotes biodiversity, clean air, and greener communities.
  • Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), an organisation that raises awareness around International Men’s Day for the prevention of suicide.
  • The Trussell Trust, which provides food and assistance at several London- and Aylesbury-based food banks.
  • Kids Out, an initiative dedicated to buying Christmas presents for children in refuge from domestic abuse.

Looking to the future

At the end of 2023, the 8x8 UK finance team was nominated for the ESG Excellence award at the Robert Walters Finance Awards 2023.

A key example of our environmental progress has been our reduction in carbon emissions. Since 2020 we have been able to reduce carbon emissions by one-third. And, last August, as part of our office relocation, 8x8 donated £300,000 worth of office furniture to Reyooz, which recycles office furniture to reduce waste and unnecessary emissions.

Moving forward, 8x8 will continue to help many such organisations, promote volunteering for our employees, and offer social value within the communities of our customers.

Learn more about 8x8’s ESG initiatives.