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A Different Kind of Santa

Piramal Foundation
February 20, 2019

Piramal Foundation’s Employee Social Impact (ESI) initiative is aimed at engaging Piramal Group employees in a variety of social programs that benefit the community at large. Over the years numerous employee volunteering activities supporting worthwhile causes have been conducted.

In the need to pursue a deeper engagement within the organisation and create an in-house sustainable volunteering program, five years ago ESI launched the ‘Be a Santa’ program.

Be a Santa is a unique initiative as employees reach out to the organisation’s support staff (housekeeping, security, peons, drivers, canteen workers, cooks etc.) appreciating and acknowledging their dedication and efforts towards their duties.

Employees contribute monetarily towards purchasing gifts for the support staff and distribute the same at a Christmas celebration expressing gratitude towards each support staff member.

Over 3 lakh rupees was raised to support this initiative!

This year, taking a step forward, learning sessions were conducted for the unsung heroes of our organisation – our Support Staff.

Volunteers independently and actively participated and coached the support staff members about digital platforms helping them become digitally literate! Sessions were conducted on using smartphones and computers to access online banking, youtube, gmail, google maps, search engines and so on. A subject manual was put together to serve as a teaching aid for the volunteers encouraging knowledge sharing in a creative way. Over 150 volunteers across plants and office locations Pan India contributed to this activity!

This program gave the volunteer an opportunity of service to the community on a short-term basis, focusing on the learning experience and contributing to his/her personal development.

Our support staff members were excited to develop new skills and participated with great enthusiasm. This program created new opportunities for them to learn and grow while at service.