From climate change to cyber security to employee diversity, corporate responsibility (CR) and sustainability touches every aspect of Symantec’s business. We’ve defined our strategy and are continually working towards our goals to operate as a responsible global citizen. In addition to our dedicated global corporate responsibility team, every day Symantec employees across the world are helping us deliver on this, creating value for both our business and our stakeholders.
We are happy to introduce an ongoing feature of the CR in Action blog – the Sustainability Spotlight - that will profile employees and their contribution to Symantec’s CR and sustainability efforts. Some are members of our CR team, others contribute through our Green Teams or volunteering, some have seen an opportunity and developed programs in their function or region -- all are making a difference.
Today we hear from Raj Singapori, Senior Solution Architect, about his volunteer efforts as a STEM Ambassador.
Symantec has taken major steps towards supporting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational initiatives on a global scale. This includes grant contributions to key non-profits that Symantec supports worldwide. These global initiatives can sometimes feel distant to our everyday lives, but Symantec also contributes to local communities both through volunteer time and cash grants. This gives employees the opportunity to contribute to and address the needs of their local communities.
As an EMEA consultant for Symantec, I work from home, flexing my hours to accommodate my customers and the Symantec global teams I work with. For me, being a homeworker, I have very limited access to being part of any formal CSR initiatives. However, volunteering my time as a STEM Ambassador has opened up the opportunity for me to contribute to Symantec’s philanthropic efforts.
I have been a STEM Ambassador for almost two years and have had the pleasure to contribute in many ways. One particular event that I really enjoyed was with the Suffolk Education Business Partnership (EBP). EBP approached me about Symantec’s work with schools; Symantec was delivering online safety training and it fit in with what EBP was looking to achieve. Symantec was able to provide some funding for the charity, and I was able to get involved as a volunteer. A lot of Symantec UK’s CSR events tend to be run out of our Reading office, so this local request became an opportunity for me to get involved with a CSR activity.
Staff from EBP and I put together a discussion framework within a matter of weeks. The organization managed to corral three schools together at short notice, and over a period of two days we presented four sessions on online safety to the students. It was an interactive presentation where we discussed several themes. We would ask the students questions about, for example, their online presence, and then give them feedback on how to navigate intelligently. We covered topics like how to make their passwords stronger and how to protect against third-party software. After our talk, we asked the students to get together to make posters and to present them to the class, showing the lessons they learned and to inform other students. We made it into a little competition and the posters were put around the school.
One of the other topics we covered during the online safety discussions was to broaden the children’s understanding of employment, and to not simply view companies like Symantec as an IT company - it has roles in legal services, HR, customer support, accounting, marketing, PR, etc. Also, because it’s STEM related, we wanted the children to understand that jobs come in different forms. We introduced them to my role, which might fit outside their definition of what a job is – working from 9 to 5 and in an office.
This was a wonderful opportunity for me to contribute and get involved in representing Symantec with a local initiative. As a STEM ambassador, I have taken on some other initiatives this year. I participated in mock interviews at local schools to help students prepare for their job search, acting as an interviewer for a well-known barista. I provided feedback verbally to the students and in written form to the teaching staff. I also attended a local school’s management meeting to discuss how to introduce the government’s new guidelines on teaching IT in this year’s curriculum; discussing how to introduce the broad range of software development activities, such as software design, implementation, debugging, testing, and project management, into the curriculum using programmable robots.
The above opportunity was very enjoyable for me, and I feel we achieved a positive outcome. A big take away is that Symantec employees can get involved with CSR no matter where they are or whether they are based out of a corporate office. Symantec supports employees on their individual volunteer efforts; they can find out what is going on locally and match Symantec’s CSR initiatives with local needs.
The winning posters for the online safety discussions at the Suffolk schools.
Raj Singapori is Symantec's EMEA Senior Solution Architect