Community, Mine and Roq's Shared Passion

One of Roq’s core Values is ‘Passionate’, and I can definitely say one of my main passions is to support charities. I’m also very lucky to work for a company who very much shares this passion and enables and supports me in my charity and community ambitions. Roq’s support comes in many guises, and one of the most important for me is my title of ‘Community Ambassador’.

Community Ambassadors

For some time now, we’ve had a dedicated and diverse team of Community Ambassadors from all across the business. From Joe in our Marketing team, Ashley from the People Team; to myself and many others in our Delivery function, we're all committed to representing the wider Roq team and the charities and community initiatives we're passionate about. Roq recently published a fantastic podcast talking about some of the things we get up to as Ambassadors, you can listen to that on our website.

Our group of Community Ambassadors meets on the first Wednesday of every month to discuss new ideas and progress the planning and implementation of upcoming events. We hold these as an open forum where all potential ideas can be pitched and we discuss whether it’s feasible to carry out these plans and if so, how we will do it.

Fundraising

One of our most successful ideas has been Roq's 24-Hour Gaming Marathon “Power Up” which we have run since 2018 (even partaking remotely during the lost covid years), and regularly proves popular at Roq, with a number of our colleagues taking part time and time again, and raising thousands for various nominated charities over the years. Other highlights of my time as a Community Ambassador include holding a charity music bingo night which raised a fantastic £797 for the mental health charity CALM, as well as our Roq Summer Splash which funded the construction of a well in Africa, and a charity BBQ where we welcomed companies from across our business and technology park to enjoy a burger and/or hotdog and cake - all for a good cause, of course...

Community Days

I imagine some would cynically believe a Quality Engineering consultancy would care for profits over everything else, however at Roq, it’s just not the case. Our ‘Community Day’ initiative allows each employee of Roq a day away from client delivery in favour of volunteering in the community. In the past these Community Days have ranged from dog walking and cleaning at Manchester Dogs Home, to painting walls and building beds at Alder Hey Ronald McDonald House and we continue to reach out to other potential causes to schedule more of these Community Days for the Roq team to offer their time in support of the community.

Charity Matching

Besides these opportunities to allow our team to plan and take part in charitable activities, Roq doesn’t shy away from contributing to support these causes financially. In fact, when our team take part in these charitable activities and raise money, Roq matches all donations received, which increases the fundraising potential even further, and makes the team’s efforts even more impressive and rewarding. Through charity matching our regular activities such as Power Up routinely exceed the donation goals we set.

Protecting the Environment

Protection of the world we live and operate in may be standard business practice, but to me, and to Roq, it means more. We’re fortunate to not really be in an industry that has a high environmental impact, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go that bit further to do our bit. This comes in the form of taking a remote-first approach to work so that we reduce our carbon footprint from the outset, keeping waste to a minimum, encouraging recycling and the use of reusable containers where possible, and using local and recycled materials when we can too. On top of this, in the wake of any of our regular office meet-ups and company events (which do require travel), we offset the environmental impact by planting saplings through the National Trust. In addition to these fantastic initiatives, we’re committed to including environmentally conscious charities in our ongoing community initiatives I mentioned earlier in the article.

A Shared Passion

Though there are numerous reasons why I love working at Roq, my role as a Community Ambassador has always been one of the most significant. Helping those who are struggling whether that be with physical or mental conditions, as well as supporting the community in general has always been a passion of mine, and one that I take very seriously. Therefore, working for a company that not only supports this passion but shares it, encourages it and facilitates different ways to make a positive impact makes Roq all the more rewarding to work for.

If you’d like to work with Roq on any of your ongoing charitable activities, please do reach out to me on LinkedIn or via email – steven.nattrass@roq.co.uk

Alternatively if you’d like to learn more about a career at Roq, contact the team - careers@roq.co.uk