The Giving Season

The holidays are in full swing. The halls have been decked, and people around the world are joining together to celebrate the joys of the season. This time each year also presents an opportunity to give back to our communities and to those in need.

At Applied, we work in an industry that is built on the idea of safeguarding and protecting what matters most in people’s lives. It’s about people helping people, and often, people being there in the most critical times of need. We at Applied take that very seriously. We come alongside our communities near and far with Team Applied members giving their time back to their communities as well.

So we wanted to take time this month to spotlight how Team Applied gives back to our communities near and far. Joining me to give us the latest is Paul Ramsey, head of HR for Applied.

Applied Communications: What are some of the exciting things team Applied has done to impact our communities over the past year?

Paul Ramsey: I am proud to say that there are a number of items. There's certainly the financial side of the equation, which we've had a long history of participating with and that comes from our relationship with the International Red Cross. For many years now, including last year, whenever there is a significant natural disaster we do a quick call out to our employees and ask for donations. And typically our employees are extremely generous in contributing their own money through payroll deduction, which we as a company match dollar for dollar. Last year alone, $35,000 was donated to the Red Cross in support of emergencies like hurricane relief, fires and tornadoes.

In addition to those disaster-based efforts, every year at this time we also participate in holiday donation drives, like Toys for Tots and Dreams Come True.

Applied Communications: That is great!  And we know that while giving is often more top of mind in the holiday season, making an impact in our communities is actually a continuous effort. Applied Cares is a special program that helps us sponsor involvement in communities year-round.

Paul: Applied Cares is a program that allows and facilitates our employees working together out in the community, really leveraging the power and scale of this global company to help local communities. So those organizations that are identified at the local level, our offices and leaders based in that area work with the local activities team to participate in various charitable activities. We encourage our employees by giving paid time off to participate in these activities.

Last year alone, nearly 25% of our employees participated and contributed more than 1,300 hours to these organizations, which is a powerful testament about the great people of Team Applied. By the way, it's a tremendous team-building opportunity as well. So we're really having a great impact, and we can’t wait to do even more in 2020.

Inside Applied, 2019