When Volunteering Moves to the Virtual Sphere

Many aspects of our life – routine or off-the-cuff – are now virtual, which is a diametrical shift in how things used to run before COVID-19. The pandemic has affected the way we work and live in ways that couldn’t have been imagined. Organizations across the board have had to adapt and have redesigned their business models accordingly. As to be expected, adapting CSR priorities to this new normal has been of equal prominence for many responsible corporate citizens. At HGS, keeping with our core business activities that are now operating virtually in remote environs, it was but natural that our employee volunteering program, Work to Give, followed suit.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and volunteering have been integral to the One HGS culture and way of life. More than 20,000 of our employee volunteers have actively participated on ground to make a positive impact in the communities where we operate, since the time we launched the Work to Give program. With technology being a key enabler in the shift in our operating model, we leveraged it similarly for our volunteering program. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we were quick to respond to the needs of the community in a manner that didn’t compromise on the safety and wellbeing of our people. We have continued to engage with our NGO partners to ensure continuity in our social outreach in innovative ways that have met the need of the hour. Given the importance of on-ground intervention especially in a health crisis such as this, our support through our corporate programs has been sustained.

At HGS, volunteering has always been a great tool for employee engagement. It supports raising employee morale because of the associated sense of purpose and pride, and is a great source of motivation. Making the effort virtual has helped us strike the balance between social outreach and employee safety. Virtual volunteering transcends geographical barriers to do good, and it has helped us engage our people even in their remote environments. For many of us, volunteering has been a welcome change in our new routines, effectively helping us divert attention positively in these difficult times. When we started with virtual volunteering initiatives, there was a lot of skepticism about whether people would participate in these circumstances. It has been heartening to see many new volunteers sign up for our causes, likely because they are now able to contribute in their capacities right from their homes.

Since March 2020, we have had more than 3,000 employee volunteers contributing their time and effort across our CSR focus areas of COVID-19 support, education, skilling for employable youth, enabling access for persons with disabilities (PwD), and the environment. HGS has been supporting two COVID-19 helplines for the State, with our employee volunteers contributing to their operations. While some of them support the helplines remotely, volunteers on premises ensure all social distancing and safety norms are practiced. Apart from beneficiary engagement, our volunteers have also taken up eco-friendly practices in their homes, to do their bit for the environment.

Across initiatives, employee volunteers are using a wide variety of mediums and formats; phone and video calls, instruction videos, audio recordings of textbooks for visually impaired students, documented learning resources for children and much more. We have been interacting with diverse beneficiaries, ranging from children, employable underserved youth to persons with disabilities. Among the activities, our employee volunteers have reached out to children through recorded learning resources – on topics across education, art, and craft – particularly during the lockdown period to engage them at home. Our volunteers have consistently mentored underserved youth on employability and interview skills. Some of our volunteers have also been recording audio books to help persons with visual impairment with their studies.

An example of videos recorded by HGS volunteers for children who were at home during the lockdown:

At a time when conversations are focused on the permanence of the remote way of life, volunteering through virtual channels may also be here to stay.