Key workers from a Cumbria call centre have racked up nearly £5,000 for local charities during lockdown – and the figure is still rising.
Creative staff at United Utilities’ call centre in Whitehaven have managed to keep their weekly charity challenges going despite most of them now working on their own from home because of the coronavirus restrictions.
Managers are giving their efforts a £500 a week boost, on top of what the staff raise themselves.
So far, the seven good causes to get a welcome boost are:
- £1,320 from a pyjama day to buy iPads, a coffee machine and toiletries for staff and patients at Whitehaven Hospital
- £590 from a dress down day to support the meals on wheels service run by volunteers from Mirehouse Residents’ Group
- £650 from a keepy-uppy football completion, which went to Age UK West Cumbria
- £500 towards the local ScrubHub group of volunteers making PPE for health and care home workers
- £650 in a virtual bake-off for local cancer charity Jack’s Journey
- £680 for Hospice at Home West Cumbria
- £580, plus donations of food, for North Lakes Foodbank
Performance change agent Rob Abram said: “Despite the vast majority of our 200 staff working from home, people are still getting involved.”
United Utilities’ Whitehaven centre deals with most of the company’s billing queries and staff are key workers due to the need to support customers through difficult times, offering payment breaks on bills, or signposting them to one of the company’s many assistance schemes.
