Sonae : welcomes new collaborators with corporate responsibility actions

Onboarding Day opens Sonae's doors to new collaborators

Integration of new collaborators includes cleaning four beaches in Foz do Douro and recovering the garden and painting Portuguese Red Cross's Valbom Childcare Centre

Over the past few months, Sonae has reinforced its teams with new collaborators, who have accomplished a new stage of their integration in the company by attending an Onboarding Day, an initiative that seeks to strengthen the understanding of Sonae and its strategy, stimulate internal networking and elaborate on the group's Culture and Values.

This initiative allowed the new collaborators to put Sonae's values into practice by participating in corporate responsibility actions as part of the Sonae Activshare Program, namely cleaning four Foz do Douro beaches and recovering the garden and some common areas of Portuguese Red Cross's Valbom Childcare Centre.

Catarina Oliveira Fernandes, head of Communication, Brand and Corporate Responsibility at Sonae, states: 'corporate responsibility is one of the cornerstones of our culture, thus it is very important that new collaborators are aware of this reality since their first day at Sonae. Our mission of creating economic and social value and taking the benefits of progress and innovation to a growing number of people is reflected in all of our fields of work, corporate responsibility being one the ways to achieve it. It is essential for new collaborators to absorve this culture, Onboarding Day meaning an opportunity to stress this distinct way of doing things, fostering exchange, knowledge and networking between collaborators and teams. Moreover, they are given the opportunity to get to know first hand Sonae Activshare, the internal volunteering program.'

During the cleaning action on the beaches of Foz do Douro, approximately 50 bags of rubbish and waste were collected, namely bottles and plastic, nets and fishing utensils, as well as different solid residues. This action, performed during bathing season, fundamentally aims at raising environmental awareness and making people conscious of our actions to mantain sustainability and preserve our natural heritage.

In the action we carried out at Portuguese Red Cross's Childcare Centre in Valbom, the garden was cleaned up and three of the institution's common areas were painted, which will allow the children to use the space for their daily games.

This type of actions not only contributes to our support of the community, as it raises awareness on environmental issues, at the same time as it allows volunteers to exchange experiences and strengthen their code of values', Catarina Oliveira Fernandes concludes.