Tomago Aluminium has claimed both Gold and Bronze for its charity work in two highly contested categories at the 2020 Workplace Giving Excellence Awards.

The smelter won Gold in the Best Launch/Refresh category, backing it up with a Bronze award for Best Overall Program.

The awards came in the wake of a major restructure of the smelter’s Workplace Giving Fund, which for many years has supported several local charities and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter through employee and company contributions into two individual out-of-pay donation schemes.

In a move led by Communications Advisor, Katie Burns, and AWU Site Delegate, Wayne Pringle, both schemes were, on 1 July, merged and the Tomago Workplace Giving Fund launched with the support of both Tomago Aluminium’s management and employees.

The change involved a comprehensive site-wide strategic communications plan aimed at increasing both membership numbers and the average monthly donation amount and was, according to the numbers, very successful.

Since its relaunch, just under six months ago, the new-look Tomago Workplace Giving Fund experienced a 13 per cent membership increase, giving it a 68 per cent total participation rate across the site.

The average monthly employee donation amount increased by 16 per cent over the same period.

Katie Burns said that, in the last 12 months, Tomago Aluminium and its employees have donated almost $200,000 to Hunter region charities, an effort of which they are extremely proud.

“In what has been a year of unprecedented challenges we are very proud of our employees’ contribution through the Workplace Giving Fund and we are grateful, too, for the generosity shown by Tomago management,” she said.

“Tomago Aluminium and its employees have a strong culture of giving back to the local community and we have a real opportunity to provide a truly substantial amount of money to some very worthwhile causes.”

Workplace Giving Australia is a non-profit organisation helping businesses develop workplace-based, best practice giving programs as an effective way of supporting charity.

The annual Workplace Giving Excellence Awards, with their prestigious independent judging panel, are highly respected nationally.

Last year’s awards were presented online due to COVID-19 restrictions and Workplace Giving Australia Chief Executive, Jenny Geddes commended all the organisations that took part.

“These organisations have prioritised this form of giving and are seeing the benefits to their organisations and, of course, to the charities they support,” Jenny concluded.

IMAGE | Westpac presented Wayne Pringle and Katie Burns with a special framed collection of photos as a thank you for Tomago Aluminium’s contribution.