Corporate Responsibility at Ashurst
Ashurst is committed to being a sustainable global law firm which delivers positive impacts for its employees, clients, profession, environment and the communities in which it is based.
Ashurst’s Corporate Responsibility (CR) programme focuses on supporting local communities most in need through meaningful volunteering programmes. The firm recognises the role its staff can play in supporting these communities and actively encourages everyone to get involved, wherever possible.
The Challenge for Ashurst’s Corporate Responsibility team
The problem encountered by Ashurst’s Corporate Responsibility team however, was how to track and report on the impact this volunteering activity is having. To understand both the hours invested and impact behind the hours was critical. This includes collecting compelling statistics and personal stories that can mobilize staff at Ashurst to do more.
The Requirement
The firm wanted to understand the difference that its investment was making, both to its staff as well as the local communities it benefited. However, as the CR team sits centrally in London but activity takes place across offices, tracking all the volunteering activity and following up with volunteers to understand their real impact was proving challenging. Furthermore, even when information was eventually collated into spreadsheets, reporting for management meetings and annual reports was cumbersome.
The Solution
In order to improve data capture, uncover the impact of its investment and to minimize the time senior staff members spent on administrative tasks, Ashurst has adopted Thrive software. One key reason for choosing Thrive was its simplicity for users, as well as its adaptability to suit the CR’s team individual requirements.
Thrive volunteeting software allows Ashurst’s Corporate Responsibility team to quickly and easily log volunteering hours and contributions and the Thrive ‘feedback’ module automatically follow ups with volunteers to maximize the feedback, and data captured.
All of this information feeds automatically into a central dashboard where it can be viewed and managed by the CR team. Finally, at reporting time, Thrive’s tailored reports effortlessly present the volunteering data in the format required by the team, minimizing hassle and eliminating spreadsheets.
Ella Blakesley, Ashurst’s Corporate Responsibility Manager for EME & US says:
“By using the Thrive system we will be able to save a huge amount of administration time and get better data on all our volunteering activity across our UK offices. The fact that we can get detailed volunteering feedback, show critical impact and generate detailed reports effortlessly is unlike anything we have had before.”
