This month’s CSR profile feature recognises the brilliant work of Ellen Shaddock, Corporate Social Responsibility Coordinator at AXA XL. Ellen worked with ELBA in 2018 to deliver ‘Women in the Workplace’, a powerful series of workshops designed to motivate, inspire and support young women to create successful futures, as well as organising a variety of range of community interventions with the aim of developing resilient communities . We caught up with Ellen to find out about AXA XL’s strategy and what inspired her to get involved in CSR activity.

1) Tell us about your current role and any other related experience that you have
I joined AXA XL in November 2017 in the role of CSR Coordinator. Although I’m based in London, I work on a variety of global CSR programmes. For example, I manage our Matching Gifts programme where we match funds raised or donations by colleagues and our Global Day of Giving which is a day we run annually offering colleagues the chance to volunteer with non-profit organisations local to them. I will also be working on some of our new strategy targets like reducing our carbon footprint, launching a new water and sanitation programme and communicating our contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Before working in CSR, I worked for an Office Design & Build company as a Project Administrator. This role gave me great insight in to managing projects, understanding business and working independently, all skills that are important to my job at AXA XL.

2) Why is CSR important to your organisation?
AXA XL believes that acting responsibly is central to moving the world forward. From driving our people and products to help build more resilient communities, to advancing understanding and responding to climate change, our approach to Corporate Responsibility is the same as our approach to business; constantly seeking to provide innovative solutions to the world’s most complex problems.

3) Which topics, themes or initiatives are your organisation currently focused on?
This year, we launched a new CSR strategy that focuses on three pillars: developing resilient communities, responding to climate change and delivering sustainable insurance solutions. The strategy is based on challenges and opportunities that are material to our business, which means we can be confident that what we deliver will be valuable to both society and the company. I’m excited to have the opportunity to work on programmes under each pillar and develop a broad understanding of what CSR looks like to our organisation.

We will also continue to provide great opportunities for colleagues to have an impact on their communities through our global network of Charity Committees, which give grants to nonprofits or through our Volunteering Leave programme which allows colleagues to donate their time to nonprofit organisations. We will also be encouraging engagement with nonprofits through volunteering, as part of our Global Day of Giving.

4) What is the best part of your job?
The best part of my job is getting to work on such a variety of projects, no two days are the same. I also love to see the impact colleagues across the organisation have on their local communities.

I am particularly proud of the work I did last year on a project we developed with ELBA, called Women in the Workplace. The programme delivered employability sessions to female secondary school students across East London. It was great to see the students get excited at the thought they could work in the City in the future and the volunteers realise how valuable it was to share their experiences with the students. Following on from the programme, I developed a pack of resources to allow colleagues in other locations to run similar employability events. I am looking forward to hearing from colleagues in our Hartford, Connecticut office, who will be running an event using the resources on International Women’s Day in March.