With 2022 seeing the resurgence of back-to-office practices worldwide, corporates are adding extra incentives to ease employees return to office. The two years of COVID saw the employees become more socially conscious, prompting companies to revisit their corporate giving and volunteering strategies.
Like all corporates, EY Global Delivery Services (EY GDS) saw employees return to offices across the world. This was also a good opportunity to network with peers and collaborate for something meaningful. The timing was just right, as the Corporate Responsibility team were prepping for the organizations annual volunteering festival.
In partnership with Goodera EY GDS forged a unique hybrid volunteering initiative that would drive positive change for beneficiaries across all EY GDS locations.
The volunteering engagements included the leadership team and employees.
There were three focused approach to make an impact through the skill-based volunteering. The initiatives were categorized under three themes – Connect to Educate, Connect for Climate Action, and Connect to Enable. After clearly outlining each theme’s purpose and goals, Goodera set forth to segregate their suite of volunteering events that fit into each segment. These volunteering events were centered around mentoring, coaching, educating, and accelerating environmental sustainability. The employees had exciting set of initiatives to choose and participate in:
Connect to Educate:
This theme was centered around engaging students to improve the quality of their learning, evoking their natural curiosity and improving learning outcomes, and making learning more inclusive for students with special needs.
EY GDS selected events for this theme included a mix of virtual and physical events like transforming schools, creating tactile cards, storytelling sessions with kids, becoming a language interpreter, creating edutainment videos, recording audiobooks, and more.
Connect for Climate Action:
With climate change being one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st Century, the activities were centered around creating awareness, taking proactive action, and improving environmental consciousness.
The goals for this theme were to ensure a reduction in carbon footprint, enable sustainable production and consumption, and build the necessary resources to respond to any environmental challenge.
Some of the events for this theme include cleaning up beaches and lakes, making paper bags, recycling notebooks, upcycling plastics, and knowledge workshops.
Connect to Enable:
The activities for this theme were selected for the leadership team to mentor and motivate Self-Help Group women through literacy programs; along with enabling students to be job ready through corporate mentoring program.
The initiative’s goal was realized as beneficiaries, and non-profit-organizations lauded the efforts toward driving change. The tools shared through the mentoring program gave a direction to the business ventured run by women whereas career guidance and interview training sessions helped some students secure a job.
The ultimate purpose of the volunteering festival was to give EY GDS employees an opportunity to contribute their skill, experience and time for social good. The event was a massive success, as employees enjoyed joining their colleagues back in office for work and volunteering together for meaningful contribution for the people in need.
The transformative experience had EY GDS volunteers echo a common message, they said, “The volunteering activities were not only fun and engaging but we also got to learn, network and collaborating as a team, positively impacting the children and the environment. We are looking forward to more such opportunities for us to give back to the community. Thank you to Goodera and proud to be part of the EY GDS family.”
The EY GDS volunteering festival was a great success, creating excitement while easing return to work, and ensuring the ones working from home felt included.