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Volunteering at Intel - you decide how far you want to go!

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If you conduct a search for “volunteering” on our Intel website, you’ll find this: “At Intel, we never stop looking for bold ideas in technology, business, manufacturing, and corporate responsibility. We strive to ignite imaginations and enable positive change, making people’s lives better and more interesting.“ You may say,”Ha, another corporation that delivers polished words around volunteering and Corporate Social Responsibility.”

Yes, they are bold and polished, but on the other hand, we know that it is very important for interested candidates to understand the company´s corporate social responsibility and their activities. With this blog post I would like to share you my experiences, how important volunteering is to me, but also give you some tangible examples on how far you can go with it.

For Intel employees it is not an obligation to volunteer, but you can determine how far you want to get involved in serving the community. Take me, for example, I can share my thoughts as program manager for volunteering in Germany, as a people manager and being a volunteer myself.

As part of the volunteering program, I lead our volunteer efforts in Germany with two other colleagues and. we are constantly looking for new ideas! Ideas that reach new ways of volunteering by skill-based support, hands-on support or donations. Ideas that make volunteering easier, more enjoyable, more impactful for our colleagues. Ideas that allow us to look out for more non-profit organizations that need our help. Ideas on how we can improve the communication and the attraction of internal volunteers. As a part of the team that leads the program, I value the teamwork that runs the program and view the program as a lot of fun, a good development opportunity and a great experience for all of us.

As a team manager with colleagues being located across Europe, I also encourage my employees to volunteer. Intel’s volunteering programs are global programs. Recently, we ran an effort across Human Resources where all HR Employees gave a day of service. In my managerial role, I enabled and encouraged my team to attend this effort. (Though there was no encouragement needed, believe me. All of them couldn’t wait to do something good for the community!) Regardless of whether there was a designated day of service, it would still be part of my role to regularly encourage my team to volunteer.

Third, I am a volunteer myself. I have a real deep desire to support the community. So, along with colleagues in Germany, I lead and attend a wide array of privately driven activities such as biotope work with nature preservation organizations, waste collections in our community and applications training with teenagers in a youth organization, to name a few.

Whereas some companies would stop here, Intel definitely goes beyond. Intel supports its employees who serve in the community on their own. For instance, I am a member of a local fishing club. There is a lot of environmental work at the ponds, rivers or with the youngsters to be done on the weekends, such as cutting hedges, mowing lawns, trimming bushes, collecting waste, education young fishers, releasing fish into rivers, etc. Intel allows me to count these hours and record them towards our corporate giving. As part of the Intel Involved Matching Grant Program, Intel matches hourly contributions employees make with a monetary contribution. This is the first year I am doing this and I hope there will be a nice donation for my local club, which we then can use to build a new hut for our equipment, and improve the ponds and rivers.What I’m trying to say here is that each Intel employee decides how far she or he wants to go in making a difference in the community. It is up to you how often or how much you want to get involved. I have definitely found my level of involvement and I can only say that I am very grateful to Intel for supporting the employee efforts in the community and allowing me to run the program.