Companies must do more to encourage their employees to regularly volunteer with philanthropic organisations a leading businessman said yesterday.

Newly appointed Chairman for the Centre on Philanthropy Brian Duperreault told Hamilton Rotarians said residents wish they could get more involved in volunteer work but do not have enough time off from their jobs.

Mr. Duperreault encouraged companies to develop a strategy to help their employees consistently making contributions to volunteer causes.

After a random telephone poll found that nearly half of the adult population living in Bermuda is involved in volunteer work, Mr. Duperreault said as chairman of ACE Limited, he was also trying to find a way to encourage volunteerism.

?As employers who care about our community we must establish corporate policies and programmes that help our employers volunteer. We?ve been struggling with this for quite a while at ACE.

?We have just under 10,000 employees worldwide with almost 300 of them working in Bermuda. We have written volunteerism into our Code of Conduct but we haven?t found a consistent way to institutionalise this behaviour,? said Mr. Duperreault.

The random telephone poll was conducted by a US based organisation ? Maio & Company and a Bermuda based research company Profiles of Bermuda and will help guide the work of the Centre on Philanthropy.

Mr. Duperreault also spoke on the hope of establishing a ?third sector? in the community meaning that by nurturing philanthropic activity Bermuda would be able to unite and work on projects which Government or the private sector were not doing.

Under the leadership of the former Chairman Cummings Zuill, the centre published a directory of charities, establishes a web site and offers lectures and workshops to help charities, donors, and volunteers.

As it plans to expand and heighten its profile in the community, Mr. Duperreault said the logical way to begin was to survey those who were volunteers to find out their opinions on volunteer work.

?We wanted to know everything there is to know about Bermuda?s volunteers because they are the lifeblood of any charity,? said Mr. Duperreault.

During the speech Mr. Duperreault said the centre was looking for an Executive Director to develop a business plan within three months of being hired. The Board will also adopt mixed revenue funding similar to structures used by BIBA and the Chamber of Commerce.

New board members for the Centre on Philanthropy include BELCO President Gary Madeiros, Bermuda Homes for People?s Aideen Ratteray-Price, Renaissance Reinsurance?s Peter Durhager, and First Church of God Bishop Vernon Lambe.

Mr. Duperreault said a business plan would also guide the work of the centre as they seek to increase the number of residents who volunteer and the number of hours they give each year.

The business sector was invited to join in the plan to bring more Bermudians together for the greater good.

?I see a wonderful opportunity in this research to increase the hours committed to the Island?s charities by the employees in the ACE companies in Bermuda ? and in this regard, and wearing that particular hat I throw down the gauntlet to my colleagues in the local and international business sector,? he said.

The poll revealed that over 15,000 people on the Island currently volunteer. The same percentage of Bermudians and non-Bermudians volunteer their time. People with a high school education or less are more likely to volunteer their time than those with higher education.

There is no racial difference between those who volunteer, however, the most popular volunteer organisation for people to join are religious groups with almost 40 percent of people giving their time to religious organisations.

Every year, according to the poll, 2.7 million hours are volunteered, representing a total of four percent of total working hours. The dollar value of volunteering also reveals it is $68.4 million, or four percent of Bermuda?s gross domestic product.

Mr. Duperreault said what is also impressive about these figures is that the total capacity for volunteering is 7.4 million hours per year. People in the community who wish they could volunteer said they need more time off from their job.