Protiviti
Type of Work: Community Investment
Client: Intern Day of Service
On July 11th, Protiviti interns and employees in 25 cities across the United States took part in a wide variety of service projects in support of locally chosen not-for-profit organizations as part of the firm's first-ever Intern Day of Service. By the end of the day, nearly 500 Protiviti volunteers—both interns and employees—had contributed thousands of hours of service to their communities.
In New York City, for example, 70 Protiviti volunteers helped at Citymeals-on-Wheels by delivering 448 meals to over 224 homes. And in Chicago, Protiviti's 28 volunteers donated over 70 hours of service by hosting Umoja students in the Chicago office for a college majors fair, helping the students network and explore options for majors as they prepare for college. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, 26 volunteers worked at Philabundance, packing non-perishable foods for its network of 500 food cupboards, emergency kitchens and shelters.
Scott Redfearn, Vice President of Human Resources for Protiviti, says the firm has always had a strong culture of giving back. "Our people want to give back to the community and serve others. And as a firm we want to support them," says Redfearn. "We've always had a very service-oriented culture and our people are highly empowered to find causes they care about and then enlist their colleagues and clients in those activities. We wanted our summer interns to see a panoramic view of how we demonstrate our commitment to communities."
In San Francisco, Bay Area Protiviti interns and employees worked in the grocery center and kitchen of Open Hand, sorting and bagging food, shopping for clients, and assembling meal packages for clients to pick up. In Houston, 31 Protiviti volunteers were involved in first collecting and then, on the actual Day of Service, assembling bags of snacks, gift cards, magazines and other requested items for the 82nd Airborne Division, Battalion 127th Engineers, Bravo Company.
"One of our Houston interns, who previously served four years in the U.S. Army, also shared some of his experiences with his fellow employees," says Casey Jo Robertson, Human Resources and Recruiting Specialist and the organizer of the Intern Day of Service.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, 21 Protiviti participants sorted and packed books for Books for Africa, which ships them to children of all ages in Africa, believing that a good education system can help to end poverty. In Dallas, 24 participants assisted Avance Dallas with their children's toy-making project, by cutting patterns, fabric and yarn for toys that further the concept of learning through play.
And in Fort Lauderdale, 19 Protiviti employees assisted the American Lung Association in a beach clean-up, removing 5,000 discarded cigarettes from the beach to make it a safer, cleaner environment.
"It was very energizing to the organization to have all of this happening on one day on the calendar rather than to have it spread across the year as we normally would," Redfearn says. "I do think we were able to harness some of that energy and create a stronger sense of awareness across the community and people love being part of a collective effort they believe in. We have a long history of people loving to serve. And one thing that we're finding is that the interns and this next generation of consultants come in with a real appetite to serve and are attracted to Protiviti because of our commitment to serve."
And Robertson says Protiviti plans to build on the success of this first year in 2015 and beyond. "This inaugural intern service day was a huge success on which we plan to build in future internship programs," she says. "Our interns really enjoyed this event," And they were thrilled that they had contributed to us winning this award."
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