Catching the young through CSR

A panel discussion titled ‘CSR in Action 2013: CSR and Employee Engagement’ was held in the city recently to deliberate on leveraging corporate citizenship for employee engagement.
Catching the young through CSR

A panel discussion titled ‘CSR in Action 2013: CSR and Employee Engagement’ was held in the city recently to deliberate on leveraging corporate citizenship for employee engagement. The discussion had a wide range of panelists who provided insights into how their organisations have increased employee engagement through corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the best practices adopted by them.

Sudhansh Panigrahi, Centre Head, Bangalore, UST Global emphasised on how the meaning of CSR has evolved in India over the years and thereby, set stage for the other panelists to take over the discussion. Sandeep Sharma, MD, South Asia, NICE narrated how they started small and how they have managed to come so far by thinking global but acting super-local. He said he would like the APR Trust to become a model for responsible community living.

Rajeev Mehtani, Ex-Senior Vice President of Cypress Semiconductor and a senior member of ACT wanted to know whether the younger generation of employees really want to be involved in social impact programmes.

Sharing his thoughts on the topic, Arun Narayanan, Chief Operating Officer, UST Global, said “Our role is to sow the seed of entrepreneurship among employees and inspire them to engage in CSR activities and build a genuine interest in contributing back to the global world. The management should set the right tone for CSR activities to provide more clarity for its employees.”

Further, highlighting on the Colors program at UST Global which he said is a framework that allows any employee with the vision of both giving and achieving to tap their potential to contribute to their company and give back to the communities, he said, “The best part of the program is that ideas take shape at the grassroots level and get implemented to perfection without constant intervention by the management team. This shows that if given the right mix of inspiration and a light framework to guide their actions, young employees will jump in of their own accord and start doing work that creates an impact. It is a collective effort and is all about leading and being led. Sometime the leaders must be willing to be led.” 

The discussion was hosted by UST Global, an information technology solutions and services company for Global 1000 enterprises in association with the APR Charitable Trust.

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