LOOK: How Marina Bay Sands' CSR initiative creates real business value

Marina Bay Sands has found several ways to tap into employees’ expertise to carry out corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

At the recently-concluded annual CSR programme, Sands for Singapore Charity Festival, Marina Bay Sands held two career workshops for secondary school students, conducted by the HR and banquet operations departments, and the sustainability and legal departments.

The career workshops are just one way the employer leverages on skills of its 9,500-strong workforce to give back to the community, and the photos here provide further insight into the activities undertaken.

We also spoke to Chan YitFoon, senior vice president HR, Marina Bay Sands to find out how to get employees involved and the benefits such activities can bring to their engagement.

Q. What is the business need behind CSR initiatives such as this?

At Marina Bay Sands, our business needs go beyond our contribution towards Singapore’s economic and tourism goals. As a large corporation that has anchored our roots in Singapore, it is equally important for us to benefit the society at large, through serving underprivileged communities for example.

Our CSR programme, Sands for Singapore, is therefore an integral pillar of our business. It allows us to shape and frame our belief in contributing back to Singapore, to better the lives of our youth and the less fortunate.

The Sands for Singapore Charity Festival is the annual highlight of our CSR programme. We started this yearly festival in 2013 to inspire our employees and members of the public to join us in giving back to the community. It helps us to engage both our internal and external stakeholders for a common charitable objective, in a fun and engaging manner.

Sustainability and Career Talk

Q. With employees spending time on such initiatives, what do you do in case their manager is not comfortable with devoting time away from the core job?

At Marina Bay Sands, more than half of our employees work on a shift basis. This means that whenever our team members volunteer, it is always outside of their working schedule and they make time to give back to the community.

We also see managers and employees coming together to volunteer as a department. These volunteerism activities also serve as great team bonding opportunities for our team members — not just intra-department, but inter-department as well.

Just last week, we had several departments head down to Food from the Heart and Willing Hearts to prepare and pack food for the underprivileged community. All these initiatives work on a voluntary basis, hence our team members do not have to participate at the expense of their core job.

All images: Provided by Marina Bay Sands