At the heart of Micro Focus INSPIRE, our corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, is a dedicated team of 50 CSR Ambassadors – employees who volunteer their time to drive the program locally, and who collectively help engage more than 12,000 Micro Focus employees in 49 countries worldwide.
In this interview series, we put the spotlight on those people – our CSR Ambassadors – who bring the program to life in their locations and empower employees to get involved and make a difference, while championing our commitment as a socially responsible company.
Hadas Dolev leads the Micro Focus INSPIRE program in Israel, which in the last year had hundreds of employee volunteers support a variety of programmes aligned to our social purpose of helping to equip communities with the right skills to be successful in their digital lives.
Hadas: Being a CSR Ambassador is an opportunity to make big impacts through volunteering by giving back and doing good – these are the things I feel very much connected to. It is fantastic to see a child's smile or an adult's expression of gratitude, thanks to the good deeds and generous hearts of our employees. This role gives me a great sense of satisfaction.
Hadas: Employees in Israel like to volunteer. Some employees volunteer regularly and take part in long-term projects, often investing an hour once a week or every second week. There are one-time volunteers, who take part in projects alone, in pairs or in groups.
Most of our volunteering is connected to driving technology education, empowering women and helping underprivileged people improve their situations.
The focus of our INSPIRE programme in Israel is important to our employees. It is around helping children and teenagers advance in their studies, especially in English, mathematics and IT – and to inspire them to consider future studies and careers in technology.
In 2021 we will continue to align to this focus area – the only difference is that our full programme this year is 100% virtual. We have eight virtual projects and our employees will volunteer to support them all from home.
Hadas: The transition to virtual volunteering has been challenging. One of the things we enjoy about volunteering is the face-to-face meetings because we can immediately see and experience the positive responses.
When we switched to virtual volunteering, I was worried our employees would not want to volunteer because they wouldn’t have the personal interaction and intimacy. But, I was happy to discover that despite all the changes our employees continue to volunteer and understand the importance of volunteering, even in a virtual way.
I understand the difficulty today – our employees are at home, many of them are with their kids and don’t always have the time and energy to volunteer. Therefore, it was important to me to offer a wide variety of volunteering projects so that everyone could find a project they're able to fully connect with.
Research shows that volunteering contributes to our overall wellbeing, and with COVID-19 volunteering became more important as we aimed to support our employees' wellbeing. During isolation, it was important for colleagues to take a break to do good, while also making new social connections online.
Hadas: Because we all have the capacity to help others – to bring happiness and sometimes even change their lives. Micro Focus supports and encourages us to volunteer, giving us four volunteering days a year.
With the knowledge we have, together we can positively influence children, students and adults – while also gaining the great personal satisfaction that comes from giving.
