We recognise that our employees can make a positive difference to their local communities, whether by using their skills and time for local projects or by raising money for countless charities. We believe that employee volunteering not only benefits the communities where we operate, but also provides our employees with valuable opportunities for individual and personal development.

We support and encourage employee volunteering, which benefits the local community as well as giving our people opportunities for individual and personal development.

Employee volunteering is a key part of E.ON UK's community programme, and there is a range of projects to suit everyone. We made real progress in 2005, with over 1,700 employees taking part in our Energy in the Community programme. We aim to increase this to 2,500 in 2006, which would mean that 20% of our UK employees would be involved in volunteering. Employees can take part in one-off team-based activities or in long-term volunteering activities, such as providing maths and IT support for school children.

The programmes we have developed fall into four categories - team activities, business expertise, matched funding and CHOICE, our long-term volunteering programme.

Team activities in 2005

Teams across E.ON UK take part in community team challenges. These are one-day events where our employees get the opportunity to work together as a team and really give something back to the community. Over 647 employees took part in community team challenges in 2005, and the following are examples of the type of activities undertaken:

• In February employees from the E.ON UK procurement team gave the Mansfield branch of Age Concern a face-lift, with 16 members of staff painting and decorating the shop floor, insurance office and staff office.
  
  "It was hard work of the physical kind, particularly as most of us aren't DIY experts, but everyone was glad to pitch in."
  - Dan Gray, Senior Category Manager, E.ON
• In October the operational Services management team transformed an area at the Ravenshead Gardens Nursery, which offers training and education for adults with learning disabilities. The team created a new garden and tidied up the entrance.
  
  "We're thrilled with the results, the team worked really hard to get everything done in a limited amount of time and have really made a difference to what was a run-down area."
  - Pauline Mordue, Centre Manager, Ravenshead Gardens Nursery
• In October, 173 Retail employees joined in with a weeklong event at the National Trust's Clumber Park. Teams of around 40 volunteers took on three different projects over the week to help clear and protect the landscape and habitat.
  
  "It is astonishing that long-term projects can be completed by E.ON volunteers in a matter of days! Everyone gives 100% and is enthusiastic about the tasks in hand, together with some healthy competition; there is a brilliant atmosphere on challenge days. The work done by E.ON teams is sincerely appreciated - a huge thank you is owed to everyone, past and present, for their support!"
  - Anne Inskip, The National Trust
• In December members of the Desktop Application Deployment team took part in a team challenge at the National Trust's Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. This involved clearing a disused quarry of shrubs and trees.
  
  "The entire team found the day really rewarding and we all came back with a sense of having achieved something. It was great to get out of the office and get our hands dirty, but more importantly, to actually feel like we'd made a difference"
  - Nick Dixon, Discovery and Deployment Analyst, E.ON

Business expertise

We encourage our employees to use their special skills in community projects.

One of these is Partners in Maths, in which our volunteers help primary school pupils improve their numeracy skills. The finance department was particularly involved in this programme in 2005.

Another project is Information Systems (IS) Mentoring, which we piloted with Retail IS this year. They helped pupils at Morven Park Primary School, Kirkby in Ashfield to develop pupils' IT skills and learning. The IS volunteering programme is now being repeated at Limbrick Wood in Coventry with volunteers from Energy Wholesale IS and other business skills programmes will be launched throughout 2006.

"It has been fantastic! All the teachers were really pleased with the extra support the volunteers offered. We agreed to allocate Monday and Thursdays for the visits and the volunteers are fitting in well with the teachers and the pupils and many are coming back for additional sessions."
- Aliza Rabbitt, Morven Park's communication officer

Matched funding

Matched funding is a great way for employees to raise money for those charities that are important to them. We match employees' fund-raising efforts pound for pound up to the value of £500. During 2005 we gave over £144,480 to more than 400 charities as a result. Examples of match funding are:

• Rebecca Truman of HR Operations took part in a sponsored slim for the victims of the Asian Tsunami. She lost 15lb, and earned over £400 for a great cause.
• Red Nose Day raised £20,000 for Comic Relief in March.
• 'Fruity Friday', an event staged by Business Services to raise awareness of the link between a healthy diet and reduced risk of cancer risk, raised £350 for the World Cancer Research Fund.
• Teams from across E.ON took part in Race for Life at many different venues across the UK and raised over £17,000.
• 'Wear it Pink Day' at Westwood raised over £1,600 for breast cancer charities.
• Laura Carroll of Business Services ran the Dublin Marathon, raising over £1,000 for the Meningitis Trust and Asthma UK.
• A Christmas raffle at Westwood raised £3,217 for the Myton Hamlet Hospice, and another at Sherwood Park raised £1,080 for Cancer Research UK.

Matched time

Matched time allows us to recognise the contribution our employees make to the community in their own time. If a colleague volunteers for 80 hours a year or more they can claim up to £250 that can be used to benefit their charity or group. In 2005 we gave over £24,175 through matched time, which benefited over 106 community groups.

Long-term volunteering

Some E.ON UK employees volunteer by acting as mentors and by helping pupils prepare for the world of work. Others use our e-mentoring scheme to support pupils via email.

"The enthusiasm of E.ON UK's e-mentors has been fantastic and greatly appreciated by the students with whom they have been corresponding. It has been great working with E.ON who are totally committed to ensuring the success of this project in partnership with Nottingham Education Business alliance and the schools with whom they work."
- Brenda Thomas, Nottingham Education Business Alliance

The Business Dynamics programme offers young people the chance to experience the world of work. Our volunteers visit secondary schools to give short informal presentations to the pupils about their personal experiences and the work they do.

Other employees work with younger children on their reading. Our 'Right to Read' programme has been designed to help primary schoolchildren develop their numeracy and literacy skills, and has proved to advance a child's reading age by six months in just 12 weeks. Many E.ON staff take part in this project, including Claire Jones of Business Services:

"I am a volunteer in the Right to Read project. This involves going to a local primary school and listening to children read on a one-to-one basis. Not only do I help them with their reading skills, but I ask them questions about the story to ensure they understand what they have read and encourage and improve their communication skills… Over the months you do build a relationship with the children and it's great to see the improvement in their reading"

"We are delighted with the support our school has received from E.ON UK volunteers. Our SAT results for last year show that many children who have taken part in the Right to Read scheme have increased their reading age, some by as much as three years"
- Dilys Cranstone, Headteacher, Cantrell Primary School, Bulwell, Nottingham

E.ON employees on both the Pathway management development programme and the internal graduate scheme take on a community project during their course.

This year those on the Pathway scheme worked with Rosehill School in St Ann's, Nottingham. This is a school for children with autism and the E.ON team worked with staff and pupils to create a sensory garden. This was the second phase of the project started by people who were on the Pathway scheme in 2004.

"The volunteers have got stuck in and the amount of hard work they have put in has been great. They are really committed and passionate about making a difference. I am really pleased I know we will achieve a lot more than we had even planned."
- Jonathan Dix, St Ann's Allotments