Tata Sustainability Group (TSG) hosted the fourth Regional Volunteer SPOC (Specific Point Of Contact) Meet this year and the first in Delhi on January 12, 2023, for 25 spirited volunteering leads from nine Tata companies, many of which are headquartered in Delhi. The group came together to spend an energised day immersed in reflective discussions around employee volunteering and their role as ‘Champions of Change’.
Sonia Mascarenhas from Tata Sustainability Group extended a warm welcome to all the SPOCs and highlighted that this was the first time the SPOC cadre in Delhi was coming together post the 2.5 years break due to the pandemic and that the TSG team was eagerly looking forward to listening and learning from them. Sonia facilitated a brief ice breaker game to get participants to introduce themselves to the group, acknowledge their commonalities, and celebrate diversity within the group.
After a virtual message for SPOCs from Siddharth Sharma, group chief sustainability officer, was presented to the group, Shrirang Dhavale, general manager, Community Services and Administration and Accounts, TSG, spent the morning sharing the Tata group’s legacy and commitment of serving communities through the Tata Trust, CSR, Disaster Response, and Employee Volunteering. He also shared insightful thoughts on how SPOCs could make the work they do more impactful.
Gauri Rajadhyaksha, deputy general manager, TSG, presented a group level overview of volunteering, including opportunities provided by Tata Engage – the group level platform for volunteering. She also informed the participants of the group volunteering aspiration which was the common goal towards which all the Tata companies were steering their volunteering efforts, and areas within which TSG was lending them support.
KK Suman, Hridya Dass, and Suresh Verma from Tata Power Delhi Distribution, Itika from Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Sunami Paigankar and Akshay Miglani from Vistara- Tata SIA Airlines and Divya Gupta and team from Indian Hotels Company presented their enterprise level strategies, innovative projects, campaigns, and approaches that have successfully led to better engagement with employees and movement towards the group aspiration.
The participants spent the second half of the day in breakout groups discussing opportunities and challenges around the themes of 1) Achieving the group aspiration 2) Communications 3) Quality framework and 4) Tata Engage (TVW and ProEngage) and discussing the way forward. The breakout session was facilitated by both Gauri and Shrirang. Apart from all the insights and takeaways around volunteering, what was meaningful was the opportunity for the SPOCs to connect, converse and get to know the volunteering cadre across the group.
The meet concluded with a vote of thanks from Shrirang and a fun volunteering activity where SPOCs created learning aids for hearing impaired students in Delhi in partnership with NGO Anukulan.
