Amy Smith, learning and development consultant at Marks & Spencer, writers about their partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and the opportunities this presents.

When looking for ways to attract the best and brightest, and boost the engagement and commitment of employees, many companies have found that charity partnerships are becoming a vital part of the business. Motivating our team and putting this passion to work is one of the reasons why we wear our charitable commitments on our sleeves.

For the past seven years, we at Marks & Spencer have partnered with Macmillan Cancer Support, providing our employees with a huge number of opportunities to get involved in raising funds for a fantastic cause. Our team have climbed mountains, run marathons, shaved their heads, not to mention all the baking, boiling and brûlée-ing that has been done as part of World’s Biggest Coffee Morning; so far, M&S staff and customers have raised over £6 million since the partnership began to help people affected by cancer.

Last week, we had the opportunity to work alongside Macmillan on a brand-new venture, and once again, we jumped at the chance. On Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 November, graduate employees from, PizzaExpress, npower, Telent, Fujitsu and Nestle as well as three of Marks & Spencer’s best and brightest came together for a ‘Graduate Ideathon’ where they were introduced to the fantastic work done by Macmillan and challenged to come up with creative fundraising ideas and innovative solutions to a number of live business challenges. 

Organised and co-ordinated by Macmillan, but taking place at our head office in Paddington, the two-day event required the graduates to work collaboratively to solve problems, manage a project and deal with conflict. They were also provided with incredible networking opportunities; meeting peers from sectors that they had perhaps not had the opportunity to speak with before.

The event was a fantastic success with some really creative ideas bouncing around. Kelsey Flint, our clothing and home operations manager, and one of our graduates in attendance said, “It was really interesting to learn about the work Macmillan are doing and to understand the growing challenges they face. The activities were well thought through and encouraged me think in a different way. Overall it felt rewarding that as a collective group we could add value to future fundraising opportunities for Macmillan.”

We always relish the opportunity to find new and innovative ways to get involved with Macmillan. For us, having three of our graduates taking part in the event was even more of an opportunity to make that link back to the partnership, and show them how important our charity partnerships are to us as a brand. Hopefully they have all left with an increased knowledge of Macmillan’s work, an expanded creative thinking skill set and boosted confidence in collaboration and networking.