Each year, the EMEA LPA team gets together for an annual meeting to discuss business-related topics from sales strategy to internal practices. In those meetings, there is always an element of team building – exploring how we can continue to work together as a team, building trust and improving our communications. Last year at our Dublin meeting, we included for the first time a CR event, which incorporated the best of the CR objectives. We were working on a project for Barnado’s, a children’s charity, and team building.
Following that success, we wanted to continue this great work at our meeting this year, which was held in Reading where the Symantec EMEA headquarters are located. We wanted to engage our colleagues in Symantec’s Take Five initiative, where each employee is encouraged to volunteer at least five hours in FY16. It was a fabulous opportunity for us to come together as a wider team and give back to our local community. The forty strong team arrived at Readifood Food Bank raring to go with a number of tasks lined up such as preparing, sorting and delivering food parcels to families in need. ReadiFood currently delivers around 150 Emergency Food Parcels every week across Reading in the UK and they also run a mobile soup kitchen in the evening for homeless people in the community. We spent several hours in the warehouse working in four separate teams –collectively volunteering 160 hours of employee time!
As a team we are extremely supportive of our CR business goals and the Take 5 campaign has enabled us to continue to work together through volunteering. We hope this encourages a really positive message around the business inspiring other teams and individuals to Take 5! Readibank is situated just ten minutes away from the Green Park office, and participating in volunteer activities, particularly right in our backyard, reminds us that we don’t work in isolation to the community around us. There is so much happening in the business currently and the Take 5 campaign allows all of us to look outside the workplace to transfer our skills to see how we can all make a positive contribution to the community in which we live and work.
The LPA annual meeting presents a packed business agenda, and including a Take 5 initiative provided added enthusiasm and a real buzz amongst the team. The results speak for themselves with 82% of the team responding in a post event survey feeling that the time required to participate as a volunteer was rewarded by the benefits of the experience. “Collecting and then organising the donated foods was rewarding as you appreciate how important it is to give back to the community,” a volunteer commented in the survey.
Additionally, 100% of the team indicated that Symantec not only supports, but also creates initiatives and opportunities for employees to give back to the community.
Readifood is a local charity for Symantec employees in the Reading office and there are always opportunities to volunteer. The LPA team will continue to support Readifood in the run up to the festive season enabling the team to continue with their Take 5 initiative.
Thanks to all that participated. It was a wonderful experience and we look forward to future volunteering amongst the team.
Gerard Chan is Symantec's VP, EMEA & APJ Legal