Mark Valena, CEO GMHBA, presentation to the BacLinks 730 Member Breakfast
20 November 2009
11 August 2009, Mercure Hotel Geelong
From left: Mark Valena, CEO GMHBA; Sheree Holdsworth, Manager BacLinks; and Daryl Starkey, CEO Karingal
“Marketing and brand management advisors tell us that businesses benefit from CSR. This is because consumers, employees and investors increasingly are coming to believe that economic growth should be linked to environmental and social well-being and that a business that embraces CSR can increase its competitive advantage as consumers place more and more value on good and ethical behaviour.
Beyond this business value view there is, however, a more basic and fundamental reality. Business and community are not disconnected. One cannot survive without the other.
From my personal experience I have now worked and led two organisations that have understood this reality.
Both have allowed the boundaries between business and community to be blurred. They have volunteered labour and supported the great work many of their employees already did in their own time.
I have seen what this did to the heart and spirit of these organisations. I have seen what it did for employee’s pride in their workplace, sense of community involvement and achievement, and improved workplace relations. I have seen what it did for the development of people, myself and for the workplace with more engaged staff, improved team work and collaboration. We got more back than we ever gave!
We understand that as an insurer of peoples’ health we are not sustainable unless we have a healthy community. This means recognising an obligation to the broader community, not just those that can afford health benefits, to assist and support communities and individuals in their own endeavours to be healthy.
GMHBA celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Traditionally GMHBA has always supported the community. As a business we make a significant injection into the region every year through employment and we care for the health needs of our members. We also donate to sporting groups and not-for-profit organisations, as well as maintaining long standing partnerships with organisations such as United Way. We are looking forward to strengthening our community connection.
One of the ways we identified to assist our community was to support BacLinks to grow and become self-sustainable. Whilst a donation is crucial to the day-to-day operations of BacLinks, GMHBA wanted to support BacLinks and help them prosper by addressing the fundamental barriers to their growth. We saw the best way to achieve this end was to fund a Business Partnership Officer position to recruit new BacLinks memberships.
Another way has been to initiate a Community Benefit Program that will raise funds for BacLinks on an ongoing basis. 3.5% of the premium for every new member will go to BacLinks. For family membership this equates to a donation of just over $100 to BacLinks for this and every year membership is continued.
Why BacLinks? Because the BacLinks Program helps businesses to connect with community and takes all the hassle out of organising volunteering opportunities by finding projects that best fit both the needs of the business and community. They coordinate the project and provide opportunities for post event feedback. This makes building employee volunteering into our operations very easy and we are looking forward to accelerating our program.
We have now participated in two volunteering projects with BacLinks. One has involved hands on assistance, alongside volunteers from the East Geelong Men’s Shed, to prepare timber equipment for the new Whittington Link Early Learning Facility. The second was a day spent helping out at Rainbow Riders, an organisation that provides equine assisted learning programs for disabled and disadvantaged children.
Both these projects have not only been great fun but also rewarding for those who have participated. I can highly recommend getting involved in similar projects organised through BacLinks”.