This week marks National Volunteer Week in the United States, an opportunity to focus attention on the impact and power of volunteerism and service as an integral aspect of civic leadership. Today, CEO Steve Bennett discusses Symantec's progress against the goal of creating a more empowered volunteer culture at Symantec.
We spend a lot of time talking about our company goals, offerings, marketing and sales, and the Symantec 4.0 transition. As a global company with employees in more than 50 countries, we have the unique ability to address some of society's biggest challenges as part of our business goals... we also have a bigger responsibility to make our world better.
Over the past several months, I’ve talked about corporate responsibility a lot internally – we’re striving for corporate responsibility leadership. But right now, I'd like to focus on one aspect of corporate responsibility and talk about what our employees are doing to contribute to our local communities. Last fiscal year, we set a goal to raise our employee volunteering hours by 20 percent.
Research has shown that high levels of employee engagement are directly related to organizational performance. Additional research has shown that there is a powerful link between participating in workplace volunteer activities and several measures of employee engagement and perception of corporate culture.
In times of change and uncertainty, some people find it really difficult to focus their energies on other people. But not Team Symantec.
Our employees not only gave freely of their time within our local communities around the world ... we increased our efforts by an amazing 40 percent! We're going to take a look at how we can make it easier for our employees to be active in their communities, just as we're going to do even better in contributing to making the world a better place.
I've met a lot of great people in my travels around the world so I'm not surprised by this result, but I'm incredibly proud. Thanks to every employee who participated and contributed to make this great result happen!
Steve Bennett is Symantec's President and CEO.