KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 30): CIMB Group’s staff will now be able to take up to a whole month’s paid leave in a year to support any of the bank’s charity projects with no impact to their existing tenure, benefits, and annual leave.

Under a new corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy called Flex4CSR by the firm’s non-profit charity arm, CIMB Foundation, employees of CIMB Group are also entitled to a half-day leave for every 10 hours spent volunteering in the foundation’s various charity projects.

“Flex4CSR, together with CIMB’s other CSR-related policies reflect our effort to further institutionalise the spirit of giving back to society and to truly bring to life the notion of corporate citizenship,” CIMB Foundation chief executive officer Datuk Hamidah Naziaddin told a press conference today.

Hamidah said the pilot programme will target employees in middle management with a minimum two years of working with CIMB, which constitute about 30% of the bank’s workforce, or about 5,000 employees.

“What we notice is that most of our staff are already doing charity initiatives outside the firm and we are saying that they don’t have to look elsewhere because we also have a CSR arm within CIMB. Now there’s an opportunity for them to go out and give back to society within their capacity in the company,” she said, adding that Gen Y employees are usually more passionate about social engagement and contributing to society.

The new CSR policy was announced in commemoration of the foundation’s 10th anniversary today, together with the unveiling of a refreshed CIMB Foundation logo and tagline, “Empowering Communities, Changing Lives.” The foundation is focused on creating sustainable and long-lasting impact based on three pillars — community development, education and sports.

Some RM37 million has been spent on the sports pillar, in which the foundation-supported athletes went on to win six gold medals in squash, one silver medal in wheelchair basketball and one bronze medal in blind football in the 2017 SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games.

“So much has been achieved in the past 10 years and we certainly want to do more to empower communities in Asean and impact lives regardless of race, creed, age, gender and physical ability,” Hamidah said.