Volunteering may be motivated by a desire to give back to others, but as a conversation with Christian, Monique, and Gilles soon reveals, it brings meaningful reward to the volunteers themselves. They’re three of the driving forces behind JB Cares, the employee association set up twelve years ago at Julius Baer. It brings together employees who want to have a positive impact on their community by contributing professional competencies, knowledge, and manpower.
Through its combination of fundraising, volunteering, and donation collections, JB Cares has raised many hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years for beneficiaries such as Beirut disaster relief, India corona relief, and civilians in Ukraine – with the donations topped up by matching contributions from the Julius Baer Group.
“I’m humbled by what we’ve achieved by pulling together as one community”, says Christian. “Take our recent appeal for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. We launched a call for donations in early February and by the end of the month our employees had donated CHF 155,000, which rose to CHF 310,000 with the matching donation by the Bank. The reactions we get each time from employees across Julius Baer are incredible.”
Organic growth
Last June, JB Cares teamed up with the culture team of the COO & Intermediaries and IWMS divisions within Julius Baer to organise a month-long series of volunteering activities aimed at giving people the opportunity to take action and support various environmental and social projects. “We pitched the idea to Executive Board members Nic D. and Nicolas d.S. and they gave us fantastic support, contributing resources and temporary headcount”, says Gilles.
The month-long initiative did wonders to promote community engagement within the Bank. More than 870 employees registered for volunteering activities in 35 projects at 16 different locations – participating in everything from forestry and agricultural initiatives to social volunteering activities. Now the organising committee, made up of representatives from JB Cares and the divisions, aims to extend the impact further this year by organically growing the number of participants and projects.
“Volunteering is a great opportunity to share our core values of care, passion, and excellence and our purpose of ‘creating value beyond wealth’ with the external world. Not just by talking about the values, but by putting them into action” adds Christian.
Empowerment of employees
As Gilles explains, what makes JB Cares special is that it’s run independently by employees for employees. “The idea is to have something which is designed by the staff and reflects the causes they wish to support. That’s why JB Cares achieves such impressive numbers in fundraising and volunteering because it gives our people a platform to express what causes they feel the greatest urge to support.”
The uniqueness of this approach is backed up by academic research. Christian took part in a study last year run by the Institute of Leadership and Human Resources of the University of St Gallen. “They surveyed employee representatives from 23 corporations to find out how best to foster cohesion and engagement in volunteering programmes”, he explains. “Their report found that Julius Baer was the only organisation where employees are fully responsible for generating volunteering ideas as well as designing and executing them.”
Highly professional approach
Of course, the openness to employee suggestions does not mean that all ideas are equally valid. JB Cares is assessing potential beneficiaries with great rigour. “We’ve put in place several directives with the support of Human Resources, Compliance and Sustainability, and we follow strict due diligence”, says Gilles. “We select causes that are in line with Julius Baer’s values as a non-political and non-religious organisation.
Gilles sees the association’s independence as an example of successful empowerment. “The members of our steering committee come from a wide range of functions across the bank and bring all sorts of expertise, so the Bank trusts us to make the right decisions as professionals”, he says while Christian adds, “This is what makes Julius Baer such a great place to work. It enables staff to take full ownership of projects and contribute meaningfully to decision-making.”
What’s more Volunteering Month is just one of the many internal opportunities the Bank provides for employees to collaborate across its different functions on topics that people really care about. “This initiative demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to its purpose of creating value beyond wealth by caring for others and for our environment”, says Gilles.
Global setup, local focus
JB Cares has branches in different parts of the Julius Baer world, including teams in Switzerland, the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Germany. A Group-wide decision board comprising representatives from each local team meets each quarter to share ideas and discuss which upcoming events and activities to support. The emphasis is placed on achieving the biggest local impact.
The London office has a long-established tradition of employee-led engagement in its surrounding community. “We’ve focused over the years on a broad range of causes close to us, including support for local children’s hospitals, homelessness charities, and cancer relief”, says Monique. “It started off as quite a simple thing with people coming together in the office to celebrate events like World Food Day, and that led to us nominating a different charity each year. We now have an annual calendar plotting out the activities we support. This could be anything from volunteering for a charity, raising funds for different causes, or participating in events like Tough Mudder.”
In Switzerland, too, there’s a close identification with local organisations. “We try to put the focus on initiatives where we can make the biggest difference, rather than being perhaps only a drop in the ocean”, says Gilles.
Leading by example
Commitment is certainly something Christian, Monique, and Gilles bring to their efforts, often dedicating extra time to JB Cares initiatives outside their normal working hours. “There are no hierarchies or strictly defined roles and responsibilities”, says Gilles. “We pass the baton from one to the other depending on our different workloads. It’s all very agile!”
Christian points out that this commitment to volunteering is something that has to feel natural and right to each individual, rather than an obligation. “The clue is in the name – it should be voluntary. We don’t want anybody standing in the middle of a forest thinking ‘what am I doing here?’ It’s not our role to evangelise but to lead by example. I want people to see what we’ve achieved and be inspired to join up of their own accord.”
Monique is motivated by the chance to connect with colleagues from all levels of the organisation. “When you’re clearing up a forest, you’re all on the same level. No matter whether you’re an apprentice or the CEO, you’re still digging the ground the same way. You can discuss your own lives in a way that’s not possible in the office.” This has advantages during the working week, too. “It breaks down any inhibitions you might have about contacting colleagues from other divisions because you’ve built a relationship with them.”
New connections
Charitable work has brought the three into contact with people from very different backgrounds and walks of life. Before joining the Banking world, Gilles first discovered the rewards during a life-changing gap year when he co-founded a social project in California to integrate South-East Asians left homeless by the Vietnam War. “We set up activities to give the younger population something to do during the summer break, because that was when the street gangs would try to take them in.” He realised that volunteering paved the way to connect with other cultures. “We even had good relations with the gangs because they understood what we were trying to do and didn’t see us as a direct threat.”
Recently, Monique’s JB Cares experiences saw her win friends in very high places. Following Julius Baer’s support for food redistribution charity The Felix Project, she attended King Charles’ February visit to the charity’s London warehouse. “Many global CEOs and the London Mayor were in attendance. I thought ‘What on earth am I doing here?’” she says. “Mingling together beforehand, none of us accepted a drink because we were too scared that we’d drop the glass if the King shook our hand! He came over to me holding a cup of tea and asked questions about Julius Baer and our volunteering activities. He seemed very interested. It was the most amazing experience.”
While an encounter with a King provides a stand-out memory and is a notable recognition, it’s clear from the many years Monique, Christian and Gilles have spent in support of worthwhile causes that their motivation derives from a different place. “You don’t have to make some huge grand gesture to change the world”, says Christian. “It’s the sum of all the small acts of charity that we do that change people’s lives. Every one of us can do something to make a difference – especially when we work together as part of a community.”