As part of its Corporate Responsibility program, EY GDS recently collaborated with Goodera, the global volunteering platform, to curate a wide array of volunteering initiatives – both virtual and in-person to enable employees to find a deeper purpose in their work. The purpose of this annual volunteering festival was to build a culture of conscious volunteering and create a meaningful impact through the contribution made by EY GDS employees. The event was a massive success, with employees and senior management across the six countries- India, Argentina, China, UK, Poland, and Philippines where EY GDS operates, coming together and creating a ripple of change.
For this year’s annual volunteering festival, EY GDS developed three specific themes to kickstart the initiative – Connect to Educate, Connect for Climate Action, and Connect to Enable. After clearly outlining each theme’s particular purposes and goals, Goodera then set forth to segregate their suite of volunteering events that fit into each segment. Each of the themes had a bunch of exciting events, collated by Goodera for EY GDS employees to choose and participate in. The events were centered around mentoring, coaching, educating and accelerating environmental sustainability, among others.
The events based around each theme included a mix of virtual and physical events like transforming schools, creating tactile cards, storytelling sessions with kids, becoming a language interpreter, creating edutainment videos, recording audiobooks, cleaning up beaches and lakes, making paper bags, recycling notebooks, upcycling plastics and so much more.
With a wide range of events to choose from, volunteers participated with great enthusiasm and eagerness, ensuring the festival was a colossal success.
India completed close to 40 volunteering activities, and the five other international locations completed 25 virtual and in-person events indicating the new, transformed and socially conscious corporate employee psyche.
Mukul Pachisia, Global Operations Leader, EY GDS, said, “Today we are no longer just responsible for our performance within the corporate walls but also responsible for the community and beyond. There are opportunities for us to take that step toward building an inclusive community, where people care about what’s happening – not just to their fellow human beings but also to the environment around us. I personally enjoyed participating in a few volunteering activities, it has been a fulfilling experience to see how every small action made such a significant difference to the end beneficiaries. When people come together to focus on the social and environmental good, it turns into a remarkable opportunity – an opportunity to create social impact together.”
Sharing his thoughts, Rumi Mallick Mitra, Director, EY GDS Corporate Responsibility, said, “With the changing times, we are consciously striving to bridge the gap and have inclusive growth for society as an organization. As a part of EY GDS corporate responsibility agenda, we are striving to not only make a difference in the society but also aim to give meaningful experience for our people through volunteering.
Employees today are also more socially conscious and expect their companies to be driven by a higher purpose: giving back to the community.”
The innovative volunteering opportunity designed by Goodera gave the volunteers an opportunity to contribute their skills and valuable time and make a real difference to a diverse group of beneficiaries through relevant events at the local, national and international levels.
Speaking about the association with Goodera, Rumi Mallick Mitra added, “Partnership with Goodera enabled us to provide a host of virtual and in-person opportunities for our people to contribute. It was overwhelming to see the response of our people wanting to volunteer! This goes to say our people value and want to contribute to EY purpose of building a better working world!”
Abhishek Humbad, Goodera’s Founder said, “With companies worldwide initiating back-to-work programs, they must be conscious of the changed psyches of employees, who are more empathetic and socially conscious than before. Corporates are also accelerating their efforts to create meaningful opportunities for employees to give back to society and the environment. In that regard, EY GDS has set the tone through the volunteering festival, encouraging and enabling over 6000 employees to participate and drive social change through our volunteering platform.”
More on the Themes of EY GDS annual volunteering festival 2022:
Connect to Educate
Connect to Educate was centrally themed around engaging students to improve the quality of their learning, evoking their natural curiosity and improving learning outcomes, and making learning more inclusive for students with special needs.
Connect for Climate Action
With climate change being one of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, the “Connect for Climate Action” theme had events centered around creating awareness, taking proactive action and improving environmental consciousness. This theme resonated deeply with a majority of the EY GDS volunteers.
Connect to Enable
The Connect to Enable theme was formed to create a nurturing environment for the less privileged sections of society through teaching and learning aid development. The Corporate Responsibility team selected the events to provide that extra push through mentoring and motivational sessions for the next generation.
