My leadership team and I are committed to making Symantec a company that gives employees challenging and interesting work, invests in their growth, and provides them with opportunities to build long-term careers. One way we can do this is through our work in Corporate Responsibility (CR) -- an effort that not only impacts the world in which we live, but has been proven to help employee morale, enhance the brand, help attract top tier talent, and deepen the connection with our customers. I see our Corporate Responsibility program as an investment in our employees, building a diverse and inclusive workplace, reducing our environmental impact, and supporting philanthropic projects around the globe.
I’ve heard countless stories from employees about how we’re weaving our passion for corporate responsibility into the fabric of Symantec. From reading Postcards from Peru, where our employees shared their experiences working on the ground with non-profits in Arequipa, to watching the Symantec Cyber Career Connection announcement on stage with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, our CR efforts are changing lives and contributing to making the world a better place.
Here’s a link to our newly released FY14 Corporate Responsibility Report, Transforming to Protect the Future. I’d also like to highlight our new five-year corporate responsibility performance goals:
- Our People—In FY14, we made strong progress in our commitment to diversity and inclusion by adding two highly qualified leaders who are women to the board of directors, bringing our board composition to 30 percent female. We want to build on this momentum, increasing the diversity of our overall workforce by 15 percent by 2020 (using FY14 as a baseline), by accessing a more diverse talent pool and prioritizing talent development.
We continue to increase the number of employee volunteer hours and set an aggressive goal of 84,000 employee volunteer hours by 2020—an average of four hours per employee per year.
- Your Information—The Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3) program will generate life-changing career opportunities for underserved young adults while helping to alleviate our industry’s chronic talent shortage. And by 2020, we hope to excite, engage, and educate one million students in STEM education through global nonprofit partnerships—with an emphasis on computer science and cybersecurity—an investment of US$20 million.
- Our World—This past year, we added new environmental certifications, solar panels which will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and became a member of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, a global partnership of leading companies allied to create better social, economic, and environmental outcomes for everyone in the IT industry.
By the end of 2015, we plan to have 100 percent of our hardware products certified as Energy Star.
As we embrace the future and our long-term strategy, I am personally committed to ensuring that we continue to operate with integrity and strive to create a better future for everyone we serve.
Mike
Michael A. Brown is Symantec's President & CEO