‘Helping Hands’ at the Centre of JB Hi-Fi Culture

From the Judges “JB HiFi’s program ticks all the boxes, and their participation rate is outstanding for a large employer.”

JB Hi-Fi’s Helping Hands Workplace Giving program has a strong focus on participation – the more staff involved, the greater the impact the organisation can collectively make in the community.  The workforce has gotten right behind the program with over 70% choosing to contribute.

Helping Hands is an opt in program with Workplace Giving team donations matched dollar for dollar by JB, with funds directed to nine charities representing a range of cause areas.  Staff can to choose which charity or charities to support, or split their donation equally across the partners.

In addition to the regular donations, JB Hi-Fi has run two highly creative promotions in partnership with two of their charity partners, The Song Room and Redkite.

Since its inception in 2011, the PlayAir Campaign, in conjunction with The Song Room, has raised over $500K, helping to put real instruments in the hands of disadvantaged children by the sale of ‘air instruments’ through JB stores.  The Redkite Superhero Campaign was launched in 2016 with the sale of Superhero Post Cards in store, and raised over $100K to assist young people and their families during their cancer journey.  These post cards were designed by JB staff specifically for the campaign.  Both of these innovative programs were embraced by the JB team with dress up days, bake offs and plenty of friendly competition between the stores.  Both events were well publicised across social media channels, such as Yammer, and the dedicated JB Hi-Fi Helping Hands Facebook page.

JB Hi-Fi’s executive team are very committed to the program, and actively promote Workplace Giving to the broader business community and work with other business leaders to bring workplace giving to their organisations.

The Helping Hands program features prominently in JB Hi-Fi’s communications and is seen by employees as a key part of the ‘JB DNA’. The program is highlighted in the annual Workplace Giving Month, during which JB Hi-Fi donates an extra $100 for every store or support office team that reaches 100% participation.

Employee participation has improved steadily since Helping Hands launched in 2008, to a record all time high of 72% this September and in 2016 the program reached the impressive milestone of $10 million in donations to charity.