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How Pledging 1% can improve your team’s morale

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How Pledging 1% can improve your team’s morale
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How Pledging 1% can improve your team’s morale

ITSM expert Phill Fox discusses his Pledge 1% work

Back in 2015, Adaptavist signed up to the Pledge 1% movement. The goal is simple, pledge 1% of your company's time, profits, or product, to make community initiatives one of your business's key stakeholders so they can share in the corporate success.

Adaptavist pledge to dedicate 1% of our time and product to community programmes, one way we do this is by supporting a local hockey team. This is the story of our Senior Consultant Phill Fox and his border collie Breeze, who pledged a little time to make a big difference.

Phill uses his Pledge 1% days to train with Breeze as a Search and Rescue dog with the National Search and Rescue Dog Association in Anglia. When Breeze has passed her assessment, she will be an air scenting rescue dog, meaning she’ll help emergency services track down missing people by following their scent through the air. Phill also assists in live search and rescues in and around East Anglia.

Search and rescue dogs play an important role in helping emergency services teams locate missing people. They are mostly known for the work they do to locate missing people in the UK’s mountainous regions, but many dogs, including Breeze, are trained to search lowlands, rural, and urban areas.

He decided to start training with Breeze as a way of giving back to the local community. “It’s a way that everyone in the community can contribute. We work with all sorts of volunteer organisations as well as the local rescue services,” says Phill.

Breeze close up 2

The teamwork aspect of the training is one of the skills he has developed through the volunteering that has benefitted his career.

“Working with Breeze and the team of volunteers has improved my communication with clients as well as my ability to give instructions in a clear and concise manner to my team.”

His work with Breeze has also had an important impact on his overall well being, which he also tries to nurture in the office.

“A lot of the people we’re searching for haven’t just got lost, they’re suffering from some kind of mental health issue. As a part of our training we have to do mental health first aid and it’s made me a lot more aware of what to look out for. I try to encourage everyone in the office to look out for each other and it certainly boosts everyone’s mood when I bring Breeze in to visit,” says Phill.

Breeze jumps to action

His advice to anyone looking to get involved with the Pledge 1%, is to talk to your HR representative as soon as possible to get the ball rolling.

“Don’t wait, get started on something today. There are lots of opportunities [of what to do with your pledge], and you can always change once you've started. But you often find that people don't want to change, they just want to get involved with more projects.”

Read more about the 
NSARDA Anglia 
National Search and Rescue Dogs, or learn more about the Pledge 1% project.

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