Corporate Social Responsibility
Notwithstanding our business ambitions, we firmly believe
that our long-term success is inextricably linked to being a good business
citizen. As a successful company, we recognise our obligations and
responsibilities, and from the highest levels of the Group, we are committed to
fulfilling them.
As
a growing company, we are always conscious of making sure that we are doing
business responsibly. We like to
acknowledge the significant contribution of the Joe Duffy team in every part of
our Group as we work together to meet the needs of all our stakeholders. Our responsible business activity in 2020 captures the range of responsible business activities being undertaken by the
Group.
Charity Support
Joe Duffy Group believes that it has a responsibility to ensure that it conducts its business with the highest degree of business ethics and integrity. Its values are deeply embedded in its culture and it strives to consistently conduct its business in an honest and transparent manner that underpins the reputation and continued success of the Group. Each year, we invite our employees to nominate a charity that is close to their heart or one that we may be involved in. We support many local and diverse charities and allow our employees time off to volunteer when required.
Giving back to the community during the Covid19 Crisis
Joe Duffy Group - Supporting our front-line community Heroes
As a small gesture of our appreciation, we are going to donate €10,000 split equally between the two charities Pieta House and Alone.
Sadly, suicide affects most people in our communities and our teams. Our friends and families all know of someone who has been impacted in some way by the devastation it leaves behind. We have been a long-term and proud supporter of Pieta House.
The corona virus is also having a profound effect on our elders in our communities, who due to cocooning are unable to leave their home.Many are experiencing loneliness or feeling isolated in their community. There has never been a bigger demand on the fantastic work of the charity Alone to look after the precious and much loved over 70’s in our communities’.
Like many charitable organisations during the crisis, they have both experienced a huge increase in demand for help and at the same time due to the economic environment, have had a decline in donations. This is an incredibly challenging time for all of us, but particularly older people and for those who live alone, feel vulnerable or are suffering with mental health problems.
We want to thank Pieta House and Alone and every other great Irish Charity for playing such a crucial part in supporting those suffering the most during this crisis.
Teamwork. Best people. Ambition. Drive. Respect. Fun & Enjoyment
Breast Cancer Ireland
Our partnership with Breast Cancer Ireland began four years ago when we agreed to sponsor one of their key events - Battle of the Stars, that takes place annually in April. This event is a Gala Ball, with a strictly come dancing styled entertainment piece, where survivors and supporters are taught how to dance and perform on the night.
As a company, we wanted to do more than just invest financially, so some of our team were asked to participate in this event with the Breast Cancer Ireland patient ambassadors and other supporters.
With a strong male profile, we wanted to show support to all the women in our lives, our mums, sisters, wives, partners and friends as the incidence of breast cancer statistically is 1 in 9 women will develop this disease in their lifetime. Unfortunately, everyone knows someone who has been affected and this was an opportunity for us to show our support. Through our sponsorship to date, Breast Cancer Ireland has been able to continue funding the specialist breast cancer research nurse initiative in each of the eight designated cancer centres in Ireland. These nurses play an essential role in that they are collecting and collating all patient tissue and blood samples into one sizeable centralised biobank – allowing Clinicians and Scientists nationally to avail of the full complement of annual cases – currently standing at 3100, which in turn is significantly speeding up research output and discovery.
Joe Duffy Volkswagen Navan Presents St Mary’s Special School with a donation from the Group
Our employees hearts, Kevin Craven & David Donal presented a donation to St Mary’s Special School in Navan. Kevin and David were given a tour of the school and introduced to every child. Asking Kevin, how did the visit go, he reported:
“It was like something from a movie the way the welcomed us the children all had lovely songs for us. My heart melted away to say the least .This will be a day in my life I will remember. I was so proud to hand over the cheque on behalf of the Joe Duffy Group”
The team at Joe Duffy Volkswagen are hoping to build a long term relationship with the school and some of the team will begin volunteering.
Pieta House
As continued supporters, 2020 will see us introduce some workshops delivered by the outreach team at Pieta House to our team and will cover the myths & facts around suicide and self harm, risk factors, sign-posting, and self-care. Please see below their helpline which is available 24 hours a day and operates a freephone service.
- €250k donated to over 30 charity and community organisations, led by employees, with 300 volunteer hours donated in 2019.
- 100 business partners supported in their fundraising endeavours by donations & volunteering support.
- 20 local businesses, sports and community groups participated in some community activity supported financially by us.
- Collectively over 45% of employees took part in one of our employee wellbeing initiatives’ – Operation Transformation, Bootcamp, Couch to 5 Mile, Clontarf Half Marathon and 10,000 steps a day challenge.Over 30 transition year students were taken in across the Group for work experience.
- We want to deliver returns for everyone, in a way that is sustainable and responsible, being conscious of our relationships with, and responsibilities to, other stakeholders. These are realistic objectives requiring that we meet the needs of our customers in an empathetic, efficient, professional and sustainable way, as well as being visible in and supportive of the communities where our dealerships operate.
When our customers and communities do well, so too do we. As Ireland’s largest motor group, we firmly believe that the relationships we nurture are relationships that will last and stand the test of time. Therefore, responsible business is part of what we must continue to do if we are to remain a successful and sustainable business.
Diversity
Driving our organisational goals is our people. Today, we have 510 employees from a diverse range of backgrounds, nationalities and cultures. This difference adds significantly to the energy, innovation and atmosphere and impacts in a positive way with the mix of personalities’, perspectives and knowledge, gained from these different backgrounds.
Internal Communications & Employee Engagement
•Our dedicated employee intranet, MyJoeDuffy.ie is available to all employees and everyone is encouraged to submit articles and photographs. This communication tool enables everyone in the Group to access information and keep everybody engaged and informed of our developments and achievements. With 21 dealerships located across Dublin, Cork, Athlone, Drogheda,Limerick and Navan, MyJoeDuffy is a way of everyone getting to know their colleagues and keeping up to date with group-wide news.
•Dealership meetings across all departments take place weekly, and the information is disseminated to everyone, either by email or in team meetings.
•We host an annual leadership conference for our senior management team and communication evenings in all dealerships, to convey details of our strategy and how we are doing as a business.
•Regular and timely communications aim to keep everyone in the loop regarding company information, whether it be business related or social. We have a culture of celebrating success and embracing innovation and new ideas from everyone.
•Transparency is an essential feature of our management culture, and we operate an open door policy where everybody can access everyone in the Group. This instils confidence and trust that can be evidenced within a short while of joining the Group.
•Our HR department offers a self-service online system. This allows everyone to access their HR information and ensure that we remain compliant.
Two Way Communication – Annual Employee Survey
We do not believe in top-down communication only and actively encourage employee engagement by encouraging a culture of feedback and two-way communications. Every year we conduct a series of employee focus groups and feedback surveys. This ensures that we have our finger on the pulse and continue to listen to our employees. This feedback is critical to the Group and to date has led to many new initiatives’ being implemented. We value every employee’s feedback and take the results seriously. We devise an immediate action plan and endeavor to implement as many changes as possible.
Health & Safety
Customer & Employee safety is of paramount importance to us. Not only from a regulatory point of view but because we believe that it is our duty of care to ensure that everybody knows that the Joe Duffy Group is a safe place. We also encourage a healthy lifestyle where possible, as we value all our employees and encourage active participation in exercise and healthy eating. We have an employee well being programme with new initiatives being launched every quarter, to ensure that we all look after each other’s health – both body and mind. We also offer a free Employee Assistance Programme which is a free counselling service available 24 hours a day to all employees and their families.
Customer safety is synonymous with the Joe Duffy Brand, and we offer a complimentary vehicle health check to every customer. This operates on a traffic light system and informs the customers of existing and future safety areas that may need work. We promote tyre and break safety on a continuous basis, and our technical and service teams are experts in the field of customer protection.We operate a zero tolerance policy in this area of our business.
Training & Development
Every employee at the Joe Duffy Group has a personal development plan that is reviewed during the year at key appraisal and review times, with their line manager. On average, across the Group, every employee will be allocated relevant days training this year! With over 126,000 training hours conducted in 2019, we are looking to invest further to this in 2020.
A lot done, more to do – our focus for 2020
Having achieved our benchmarks for 2019, 2020 will see us further improve our CSR activities. Breast Cancer Ireland is one of our 2020 charity partners and we are very proud to support them for the past three years.In addition to our existing community, workplace and marketplace initiatives’, we will focus further efforts on enhancing employee engagement with further internal communications, internal marketing and Human Resources programmes, including the further development of our Group Intranet as a key engagement portal.