Interview with Eva Merpillat CSR Assistant

At TMHCC International, we believe in supporting the local communities in which we operate as part of our ‘To Be a Good Company’ vision. We do this by delivering our charity programme that supports charities both financially and through initiatives that engage, educate, and inspire our employees to generate positive change. As an organisation, our daily focus is on doing the right thing and always acting for the benefit of our customers and society.

Last year, the TMHCC International CSR Team grew and welcomed Eva Merpillat as CSR Assistant to continue delivering and improving our charity programme and diversity & inclusion initiatives. To introduce herself and the CSR Team’s work, she answered the below questions:

What exactly does your role as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Assistant entail and what attracted you to CSR in the first place?

I have always been passionate about charity work! I touched upon CSR in my studies and know that the private sector is key to shaping tomorrow’s world. Going into this role, I quickly understood that there is potential for TMHCC to make a real difference.

My role is varied, challenging, and ever evolving since the Corporate Social Responsibility area aims to engage employees while responding to changing challenges. Our CSR strategy focuses on charity, diversity & inclusion initiatives and social activities. CSR Manager,  Ashley Rice, and I make up the CSR team and no one day looks the same for us. We manage internal or external communications one day, work with our charity partners on tailored financial support the next, then can be hosting company events in the evening. It’s a rich and rewarding role that allows me to discover all parts of the business – and I am still not done!

How do you make sure employees are engaged with the charity programme?

Everyone at TMHCC is extremely busy – however ever since I started in this role, I have only seen growing interest and engagement in charity-related activities! I have seen that most employees want to give back in any way they can, even if it is often difficult to find the time or the headspace to do it. That is why the CSR team works to make engagement with our charity programme accessible and easy.

First, we make it as flexible as possible with a range of activities to suit everyone’s tastes and timetables. Activities include internal events, lunch and learn sessions with charity partners and providing regular updates and newsletters on progress made.

Taking advantage of the various company policies, we also organise volunteering days with our charity partners for people to use their 2 paid days a year to volunteer. We also encourage individual fundraising efforts too, such as someone running the London Marathon, since TMHCC has a generous matching policy for its employees.

Which has been the most rewarding project you have worked on?

All of the events feel like a victory to be honest! I love the volunteering days, they are a unique occasion to meet people from your office and enjoy a day outside together while helping out our charity partners. Volunteering at Stepney City Farm in Tower Hamlets with all the animals watching you work is definitely something I would want to do again!

One of my personal favourites however is our Pick a Project initiative. It is a popular one too! The idea is that we offer our charity partners an opportunity to have a special, unrestricted grant, for them to develop a project for which they haven’t been able to secure funding for. Gathering the necessary funds for a new charity project can be tricky as the charity doesn’t yet have supporting evidence of the project’s efficiency. The Pick a Project grant allows them to gather evidence of the relevance of their project and secure future fundings. Our employees have the last word and vote for the final project. The winning project in 2022 was the Young Lives vs Cancer’s project which provided emergency grants this winter to struggling families facing cancer, especially with the cost-of-living crisis.

On a final note, please don’t hesitate to share with us any ideas or suggestions you might have on our charity programme or our diversity & inclusion initiatives. We would love to hear from you!