A Chance to Be Great Everyday

Yesterday as the world celebrated the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the only American federal holiday dedicated to service, many of us were likely left pondering one of his most famous quotes “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve”.

At Symantec, giving back and serving our communities is core to our culture and a way we provide opportunities for our employees to grow both personally and professionally. We have set a goal to reach an average of four volunteer hours per employee by 2020, and by donating time, expertise, cyber security technology and money we continue to make a positive impact and difference in our world. We build relationships with nonprofit charitable organizations, public policy and education partners to address issues ranging from diversity in the technology sector to the presence of conflict minerals in supply chains to scaling progress on climate change.

Today, in honor of Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and so many others that have dedicated their lives to helping others, we celebrate all that our employees are doing every day to strengthen and support our communities. Here we highlight some of our recent community engagement events in Q3.  

Japan holds first corporate responsibility event with Hour of Code

Hour of Code, a part of Computer Science Education Week, is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. The movement reaches tens of millions of students with diverse backgrounds in more than 180 countries.

The Symantec Tokyo office held its first official corporate responsibility event with a group of seven volunteers taking part in Hour of Code and Japan’s Computer Science Education Week. The office partnered with Code for Everyone to inform and excited students in computer science by offering an hour of code experience for elementary students across the country. Additionally, Norton Security Manager Hiroshi Furuya led a seminar on net security for over 70 parents.

Our second annual Global Service Week helps make the world a better, safer place

At Symantec, the activism, advocacy, and passion of employees on the ground is what transforms our corporate responsibility strategy into tangible, real-world results.

Our Global Service Week is one example; a full week of service during which employees are encouraged to commit to at least 30 minutes (and up to eight hours) of community service with a charitable project of their choice.

Starting October 9, 1,500 employees across the globe donated their time and talents to make Symantec’s second annual Global Service week a smashing success. With more than 70 events in 11 countries resulting in 6,280 hours with nonprofits and charities—we achieved a 57 percent increase from 2016 efforts. From Saudi Arabia to Reading, Johannesburg to Warsaw, Sydney to Phoenix, employees worked together to make a difference in their communities.

Read the full article here and see our infographic below on Global Service Week impacts.

A #GivingTuesday Success  

Giving Tuesday, a day that kicks off the holiday giving season every year, was again celebrated by many at Symantec as a chance to donate to their favorite causes. We featured a blog post on “How to Make Your Place of Work a Place to Give” highlighting the many ways your job and personal commitment to giving can support each other. This year the global giving movement itself generated 2.4 million gifts across 150 countries translating to $274 million USD dollars. At Symantec on Giving Tuesday we saw:

• A 3.8% participation rate of employees
• Employee donations of just over $300K USD with an average of $614 USD per donation (vs nearly $200K USD in 2016)
• $500,000 USD in Symantec matching donations (vs nearly $365K USD in 2016)

A Day in the Life - Symantec Hosts Tomorrows Technology Professionals

Technology students from Symantec C3 partner NPower had the chance to visit our corporate headquarters in Mountain View. The trip provided a real-world look at a career with a leading technology company and allowed us to further support one of our long-term community partners.

These only scratch the surface of what took place in just one quarter – three months – at Symantec. From Dublin’s food drive for the homeless and recognition from the Mayor of Fingal county for Global Service Week achievements to our Middle East region raising over $2K USD for children with special needs, our employees continued to collaborate and make a positive impact and difference in the world.