OPEN DOORVolunteering Colleague stories
Across two days in March, colleagues from our Operations and Commercial teams visited Open Door in Berkhamsted, a community garden and café, to visit the amazing volunteers, learn more about the positive impact they are having on the local community and get stuck into some gardening!
This was a great opportunity for our colleagues to spend time with the volunteers and see first-hand the hard work that goes into creating and upholding this strong community space. Our teams were put to good use and the volunteers were hugely grateful for all our efforts throughout both days.
Open Door is a community centre where the goal is to help tackle social inequality and isolation by creating a space where everyone is welcome to connect and contribute, for their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of the wider community. There is a café on site where all members of the community are encouraged to meet friends (new and old!). Our colleagues got the chance to sample the tea and cake within the café during their wellearned lunch break.
There is also a community pantry open 24/7 encouraging the community to “take what they need and leave what they can”, a great initiative especially during the ongoing cost of living crisis.
The Open Door ‘Wellbeing through Food’ project focuses on promoting social connections through food and the benefits that cooking, sharing and appreciating food can bring to wellbeing, often using produce directly from the community garden!
Last year, Harpenden Building Society donated £7,200 to Open Door. It has been amazing to support this positive influence on our wider community. The opportunity to visit the centre and meet and thank the volunteers was fantastic.
We look forward to visiting again soon!
Scan to find out more about Open Door
Pizza making
In April, our first colleague social event of the year took place as we went to Pizza Express to make our own pizza.
My story - careers fair
In March, I was delighted to be able to attend my son’s secondary school for a careers fair. This gave me the opportunity to promote our Society as well as the Financial Services Industry amongst the younger generation. I felt privileged to be there, and talk to so many students, of a variety of ages, about all things careers within the industry. It was insightful for me, as much as it was for the students.
I received very positive feedback from the school, the students and even my son! I was able to do this using one of my paid volunteering days all society employees benefit from and I feel this was time very well spent.
We are not sure Gordon Ramsay will be worried about any of us coming for his job, however the pizzas on display looked fantastic. The same probably can’t be said for our colleagues in their hats and aprons.
When cooked, everyone was delighted with their pizza, which of course always tastes that bit better when cooked by yourself.
It is not often that colleagues from the head office and branches manage to get together, so social events such as these are a great way to enhance team bonding.
A terrific time was had by all, we look forward to our next social event which will be held in June.
Jon’s achievement
Congratulations to our Product Manager for Savings Jon Sweeting who recently achieved a new certification: Chartered Manager from Chartered Management Institute.
Gemma Fient Director of Operations
After tying together nearly 25 years of financial services experience and evidencing some of the successes and challenges that has afforded him, Jon has accomplished the ultimate accolade in management. This recognises his status as a professional manager and the positive impact he is making in his career.
A fantastic achievement, everyone at HBS is extremely proud of you Jon! Well done!
