What did you do this summer?
For most people, summer is their favorite season of the year. And why not – it means long sun-filled days, barbeques and picnics in the park, and holiday time. This summer, Symantec employees from the Green Park office in the UK spent some of their summer time using their skills for charity. The Sales team exercised their savvy business skills in a friendly charity competition in support of Naomi House, a well-known children’s hospice in the UK. Business in the Community (BITC) also organized a successful Mock Interview Day for high school students and several Symantec employees drew on their experience in the professional world to mentor students on the do’s and don’ts for that important initial first step to getting a job – interviewing. Both of the fun-filled events allowed Symantec employees to play on their strengths while also giving back.
Naomi House ‘Store Wars’ Challenge
Over the past three years, Naomi House has held a charity competition to raise money for their work. Naomi House and Jacksplace are hospices in the UK that care for almost 300 children and young adults that face life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. Any family living in southern central England can use Naomi House free of charge. They have charity shops throughout the UK where the proceeds help support the hospices. Each year, the Store Wars competition challenges corporate teams to take over one of the shops for the day and to raise the most money. The teams are scored both on their shop revenue and outside fundraising. Over the course of the day, the teams must lure people into the store to buy items and they’re encouraged to be as ingenious as possible to bring in revenue to the shop. On July 10th, the day of the challenge, twelve Symantec employees from the Green Park office took over the Basingstoke Naomi House store for the full day. It was one of the hottest days of the summer. There are a few essential ingredients for a traditional British summer: Wimbledon, a pitcher of Pimm’s, and a Wimbledon favorite – strawberries and cream (British tennis fans have been enjoying strawberries with cream ever since Wimbledon began in the 1800s). Wimbledon had just wrapped up the Sunday before and the team played off of the summertime favorite by setting up a table of free strawberries and cream to draw people into the store.
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The strawberries and cream worked. The team raised £1,927.61 via the Just Giving Page with an additional £438.15 for Gift Aid totaling £2,365.76. They also raised over £1,000 in the Basingstoke Naomi House store! Cheers to the Symantec volunteers and all their hard work!
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Congratulations to the Symantec volunteers in raising much needed funds for Naomi House!
Mock Interviews at Piggot School
Business in the Community (BITC), a UK business-led charity, engages businesses in corporate social responsibility by organizing programs and events to support the community and to create a fairer and more sustainable future. Symantec has worked with BITC on various employee volunteering events in the UK including the Seeing is Believing event in Ireland and in delivering online safety classes to students.
Over three days in mid-July, during the final week of the summer term, twenty-eight Symantec employees joined other corporate volunteers and led mock interviews with 150 students. The three days entailed one-on-one interviews, group workshops, CV reviews, and feedback on performance, techniques, and dress code. For many of the students, it was their first interview experience. Each student received written feedback to help them in future job applications. The event was a two-way learning experience. The students had a chance to receive constructive feedback on the interview process and the volunteers had the opportunity to practice interviewing.
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Symantec employees, Jimmy Bhathena to the left and Cheryl Christie to the right, interviewing students.
Symantec will be expanding our volunteer efforts with schools in the UK. We already have events in the works – we will be joining forces with a local secondary school on mentoring and a primary school on reading, as well as continuing with the internet safety workshops.
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Symantec’s Michael Wong in his one-on-one interview.
Take 5!
This Quarter, we’re encouraging each employee to ‘Take 5’ – volunteer five hours of their time to a charity or cause of their choice. We believe that volunteering is a wonderful way to give back and also helps build happier, more connected employees.
For more information on Symantec’s corporate social responsibility opportunities in the UK, or to get involved, email UK_Charity_Committee@symantec.com.
Our FY15 Corporate Responsibility Report is out! Read it and take the stakeholder feedback survey to vote for a charity that will get a $10,000 grant from Symantec!