We reach out to the most marginalised and vulnerable sections of society: Shilpa Sinha Harsh of HGS

By Rusen Kumar

Corporates would require re-building and re-inventing their operations, where viewing social change from a single-organisations’ perspective will be insufficient

At this moment, we are perhaps witnessing a crisis like none other in history – a pandemic that brought countries and businesses to a halt and radically changed human behaviour. It is somewhat inspiring to witness how corporations across the world are stepping up and leveraging their existing resources to make a difference and bring levity, relief and aid in various ways. As we move ahead to a post-pandemic world, philanthropy must be called into action, but perhaps on a different scale than ever before. Corporates would require re-building and re-inventing their operations, where viewing social change from a single-organisations’ perspective will be insufficient

In a conversation with Shilpa Sinha Harsh, Senior Vice President – Global Corporate Communications, CSR and D&I, HGS– Hinduja Global Solutions, we dwelled deeper into how as the world coming to terms with the uncertainties of the COVID Pandemic, HGS has revamped its initiatives to meet the growing needs in a virtual set up to make our society future-ready for adversities.

How, according to you, have the corporations changed their approach to CSR during Covid?

The COVID-19 pandemic made us relook all our strategies for everything and even the way we live. The corporates had to re-strategize their CSR focus areas. Most corporate programs that receive CSR funding had to come to a halt during the pandemic. Corporates have had to assess the impact of redesigning such programs and show flexibility and acceptance in many cases. Additionally, concerns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, like, unemployment, food insecurity, education gap for underprivileged children, vaccination awareness and access, etc. took precedence in CSR undertakings. 

How has HGS revamped their CSR initiatives to meet the growing needs in a virtual setup?

HGS revamped its employee volunteering platform, ‘Work to Give’ to a virtual setup to continue to provide our people the opportunity to give back to society from the safety of their homes. 

Since the initial phase of the lockdown in April 2020, HGS has engaged over 19,000 volunteers out of which over 10,500 (56% of total volunteer count) volunteers participated remotely. This was achieved with over 65 virtual or remote events conducted across the US, Canada, Jamaica, Philippines, and India. Our volunteers have made an impact in the lives of the beneficiaries through education, skill development, environment, fight against COVID and community care. Our volunteers contributed through activities such as:

Supporting education through online sessions, telephonic conversations, audio & video recordings.

On-call mentoring and resume preparation for the underprivileged youth

• Upcycling initiatives – switching to an eco-friendlier life 
• COVID-19 prevention and awareness initiatives

What are the key focus areas for HGS in terms of CSR and Philanthropy?

Through our CSR programs we reach out to the most marginalized and vulnerable sections of society and also contribute to environmental development. We support people and communities by focusing on the following areas – Education, Healthcare, Water and Skill development. 

How have you inculcated the motto of “Work to give for a better tomorrow”, among your employees?

Employees are at the center of everything we do at HGS. This includes our CSR and community welfare programs. We directly engage our employees with community welfare through our employee volunteering program – ‘Work to Give’. Employees contribute their time, skills and effort to support the various social causes. Here are some measures we took to ensure the success of the program – 

Goals for giving back

The active involvement of the top leadership resulted in an annual volunteering target for each business unit and corporate functions. This helped elevate the status of employee volunteering from a ‘good to have into a responsibility. To build a sustainable volunteering model and foster the culture of volunteering, HGS started with a target of 10% employee engagement in FY2017. This target has been incremented every year, and our annual target for FY22 has been to engage 30% or more of our workforce. 

Technology for a Cause

We also use the ‘Work to Give’ portal – a technology platform that helps govern volunteering events across locations with ease. It is a one-stop shop for hosting volunteering opportunities, allowing employee registration, providing event details and assigning responsibilities to employee and NGO points of contacts. It also allows volunteers to share feedback and upload pictures. 

Celebrating volunteers 

A big part of how we encourage employees to volunteer is through ongoing and interesting communications. We share snippets of our outreach initiatives, and applaud key volunteers and social events through emailers, monthly newsletters, and updates on the Intranet. To further celebrate the contributions of our volunteers, the ‘Work to Give Awards’ was inaugurated in the year 2019. Through this, volunteers from global HGS locations are recognized for their passion and spirit of generosity. 

What kind of support for society have you witnessed from your employees, during these uncertain times?

During the pandemic, supporting the communities without compromising safety became a key goal. To achieve this goal HGS employee volunteering programs have been happening remotely. Our employees have supported the communities on various fronts. Our volunteers provided online classes to the government school children, created audiobooks, raised funds for students and ran book donation drives in the education space.

The volunteers also did on-call mentoring for underprivileged youth who were beneficiaries of our NGO partners to conduct a survey on their employment status and identify immediate needs. Through phone conversations and online sessions, our volunteers helped underserved job seekers make their first resumes.

According to you, how has Employee Volunteering risen in times of COVID and will the same sustain in a post-pandemic set-up?

Ensuring the safety of the employees and the communities was the topmost priority during the pandemic. This gave a massive boost to remote volunteering. We’ve witnessed a significant increase in employee volunteering during the pandemic than we have seen before. There was a lot of willingness amongst the employees to help the communities in all possible manners. This kind of volunteering effort is likely to continue even when COVID is over.

How do you think corporations can accelerate their community outreach for a higher impact?

There are several activities however, let me discuss a few.

• Reaching beneficiaries from remote regions that were not accessible before and as much as possible at the same time
• Access to online resources that can be easily shared with the beneficiaries
• Partnering with expert groups (local, interstate and overseas) with ease to solve a problem at hand quickly and more efficiently
• Making provision for employees to contribute from their desks (at home or office). This saves travel time and ensures volunteer comfort. This further encourages employees to volunteer more frequently, and undertake long-term contribution projects

What could be a few new focus areas of Philanthropy for organizations in the post-pandemic setup?

The pandemic has exposed a wide gap in digital literacy, and access to internet and technology essentials in rural India and among underserved communities. This needs to be a new focus area for post-pandemic philanthropy if we want to fully utilize the power of the virtual world and create a better tomorrow for all. 

Another pressing concern that needs to be addressed is job security and adequate compensation/benefits in the unorganized sector. We need to identify ways to prioritize labor force wellbeing. 

(India CSR)