Cause @ Concentrix
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Cause @ Concentrix
The impact of Christopher's voice can be felt around the world.
Christopher is a Senior Professional on our Community and Culture team at Concentrix. He now leads our global volunteerism program Concentrix Connects, which was born out of his passion to make a huge impact across the planet. Christopher is proof positive that our business has an incredible opportunity to use our scale and reach as a force for good. That’s the power of one. And when it’s amplified across our entire family of 290,000+ staff, our clients, our suppliers, and our partners, it translates into a world-sized impact.
Christopher was in the right place. Because we’re always looking for our people to flex their impact-making, difference-defining skills. So, in 2020, he made a change and moved from his role as an Operations leader to the Community & Culture team to focus on growing our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.
At the time, the environment was changing, not only within Concentrix but around the world, and topics like social equity, the culture of inclusion, and justice commanded increasing attention. While we have long focused on those issues as a business, we knew we had room for growth. So, we began to ask ourselves how we could do more to positively impact the world around us.
As a new member of the DEI team, Christopher had a front-row seat for many initiatives — renewing our focus on our staff experience; expanding our offerings in DEI and wellness; and improving our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts.
Christopher reflected, “I did see a progression. And I've seen us move closer every day to address some of these issues and remove these barriers that prevent us from getting to a better place.”
He didn’t just sit back and watch though. In true Concentrix style, Christopher hit the ground running. One of the first projects that came across his desk was a new staff resource group, and he successfully launched the Black Professionals Network (BPN). After that, he helped manage the whole portfolio of Concentrix staff resource groups, including Network of Women (NOW), PRIDE (LGBTQ+), and ABILITY (Persons with Disabilities).
All of this ladders up to our “Doing Right DNA.” And you don’t have to look under a microscope to see it. We’ve always been big believers in community caring and neighborhood nurturing.
Up until this point, there had never been an overarching structure to how our people collectively gave back as a business. So, Christopher turned his attention to an emerging volunteer program and readied the spotlight.
“We wanted to inspire staff to participate in our communities so that we all could make an impact. At the same time, we hoped it would create a sense of belonging and wellbeing within our organization,” said Christopher.
He and his team have been a little busy over the past year developing the worldwide program from scratch. They’ve built a portal to capture volunteer opportunities for staff and log their hours. They also needed to socialize the new program and educate team members. And then there was the small matter of getting everyone to join in. You know … just a couple of things to check off the to-do list.
Of course, creating a company-wide volunteer program didn’t exactly come with an instruction manual, so it involved a lot of research. And trial and error.
“I learned from my mistakes,” said Christopher. “We had put on global initiatives with all these great opportunities and nobody was responding to them. So, I asked myself, ‘What do we need to do differently?’ And I came to the conclusion that regional leaders were key.”
Currently, our One Concentrix community includes 40+ countries. While we all share the same belief in doing right, what that means and looks like for each country and region is different. Christopher recognized the need to align the program with the unique needs of each of our global communities and give local leadership the chance to run the program on their level, infusing it with their perspectives. That process and organized structure paid off. In June of 2022, global staff had only logged 50k volunteer hours on Concentrix Connects towards a 250k end-of-year goal. By early December, we had reached 250k hours with one month to go.
“We talk about Concentrix Connects in terms of global consistency with local intimacy,” said Christopher. “The consistency piece is making sure that we have the volunteerism program in place, along with our approach. When it comes to local intimacy, we look at each country and each region, and each city. The Philippines knows what the Philippines needs, so we want to empower regions, countries, and cities to be able to look at the activities that will benefit their communities.”
Volunteer Ambassadors have contributed a lot toward the success of the program. They are the volunteers of the volunteers, highlighting opportunities that matter most to their community. When they see a need, they can add it to the portal, encourage participation, and cheer on their fellow Concentrix family. Go team!
Of course, this isn’t your average, everyday volunteer program. Reflecting on the broader scope, Christopher also wanted everyone to see volunteerism in a different way — beyond the usual beach cleanups, tree plantings, and other traditional activities.
“Volunteerism is any act that you do for someone else that you don't have to. Working at the local Boys and Girls Club. Being a Scout leader. Joining a PTA. Or going over to a neighbor's house and cutting their lawn because he just got out of the hospital or he's elderly. These are all acts that we do outside of ourselves for someone else,” said Christopher.
That’s the beauty of the program. Staff around the world can participate in doing right and share the spirit of helping others in the ways that are most needed in their countries and communities. Together, those individual ripples add to our collective global wave of positive change, which all ties back to our goal of using our scale and reach as a force for good.
Our people were already giving back, but Concentrix Connects pulls everyone together and gives them goals to benchmark. That’s the power of #OneConcentrix for the win.
“People want to work for a company that cares about them as a person, and where they feel that sense of belonging,” said Christopher. “So, when we think about Concentrix Connects, this is our opportunity to connect with the community, to engage with the community, and to address the needs of the community. And it allows our staff to get involved. As an organization, it puts our ‘Doing Right DNA’ and our culture statements into action.”
Christopher is a great example of using your voice to make an impact and turning your career into one with a cause to make a real difference across the planet. That’s what #LifeAtConcentrix is all about.
