Last month, thirty of our employees in Bangalore volunteered to be a part of the annual World 10K Bangalore Marathon, in support of our NGO Partner Enable India.

This annual event saw over 24,000 registered participants from all over the city. Bangalore participated in the high energy 5 Kms Majja Run (Fun Run) event category to support the cause of Enable India – an organization working towards empowering persons with disabilities and helping them into the mainstream corporate world. (more…)

By Rodney Joyce, Thomson Reuters

There were blisters, exhaustion and lots of greetings and curious questions from village children along the way, as 22 Thomson Reuters teams of four set out to walk 100 km (62 miles) each under the Indian sun, raising more than $26,000 for charity along the way.

Bangalore has become the 15^th home of Trailwalker, a fundraising team challenge run by Oxfam, a British NGO, which enticed 88 Thomson Reuters staff to join the second year of the Indian event. It was run on a course that, on the map, looks like a broken smile a few miles south of the city, which is home to the company’s second-largest Operations Center.

That Thomson Reuters Bangalore and Trailwalker are intertwined is no surprise. Bangalore’s Site Head, Linsey Simpson, has made a habit of walking the Trailwalker; having participated multiple times, she reformed her “Pink Ladies” franchise for the Indian edition and raced home in a top-25 finish, out of more than 160 corporate and individual team entries. (more…)

The Women @ Thomson Reuters Bangalore Chapter celebrated International Women’s Month the whole of March with various activities that catered to the interests of all employees.

The Celebrations kicked off with a Panel Discussion hosted by Bangalore Women in Technology, a special interest group of the Women’s Chapter.  The topic of discussion was “SPONSOR EFFECT ON THE CORNER OFFICE” and the panel comprised senior leaders from Yahoo, Cisco and Goldman Sachs. Aimed at the senior women employees, the discussion focused on the absence of women in senior positions and whether having a sponsor can make a difference. The panelists shared their views on the need of having structured sponsorship programs in organizations. As one of the panelists mentioned the key to success is performance but that needs to be supported with the right kind of self marketing and exposure.

In the second week, the Chapter launched Disha (Direction) an initiative aimed at empowering women employees to steer their careers in the right direction. During the launch, the Network also conducted a panel discussion on the topic ‘Challenges to career advancement and how to evolve from them’. The panel discussion was designed for women who aspire to grow in their careers but are not sure how to go about it or face challenges that deter their growth in the corporate world. Our panelists Sumana Prabhu, Nalini Krishnan and Geetha Menon shared their personal experiences and some useful insights with the audience on this topic. Communication, Networking, Setting the right priorities and focus on performance were the key messages that came out loud and clear during the discussion.

In the 3^rd week, the Chapter invited all photography enthusiasts to participate in a photography contest themed ‘Working Women’. Besides the theme the entries also needed to depict atleast one of our brand values – Agile, Human, Clear, Confident and Optimistic. We received more than 150 entries and the judges did a phenomenal job of shortlisting the top 3 entries. (more…)

It was a battle of grit and determination when 20 intrepid colleagues of ours participated in the Oxfam Trailwalker conducted on Feb 10 – 12. Five teams named – TRailblazers, Team Harbinger,Thomson Reuters BELT, Cheerful Trotters and Dead Men Walking participated.  They rose to the challenge of walking 100 kilometers from Sangam to Bidadi, battling injuries, overcoming fatigue and braving the scorching sun with their sheer grit and determination. It was for the noble cause of raising funds to fight poverty, injustice and support the girl child, that kept them going and reaching the finishing line.

Bala Devaraj, senior operations manager and one of the participants said: “This was one awesome experience of team building and coming together of individuals with diverse backgrounds. The walk taught me and my team a few lessons of life, about determination – to carry on, integrity – to make the walk true and stand by your team in the thick of times. There was a new meaning to ‘Can Do’ and ‘Self Belief’.”

Apart from the injuries, these brave hearts came back with memories to cherish, a wonderful experience, new friends and mostly the satisfaction of doing their bit for the community.

It was in August when Bangalore launched its first Community Service Volunteering Program or CSP as it is popularly known. CSP was launched with an ambitious goal of running 200 team-based projects with volunteering opportunities for over 2500 employees from September to December. These 200 projects were designed by our 25 NGO partners with a focus on education, employment and healthcare.

Three months since the program kicked off, it has shaped up successfully with over 1000 enthusiastic volunteers having participated in one of 200 projects. The program has already surpassed the 2000 mark for volunteer sign-up.

CSP is supported by our Corporate Responsibility (CR) volunteering policy that gives each of the employees one paid day off from work to give back to their community. The CR Bangalore team have ensured that the program is not just about ‘a day’s leave’ but more about sustainable giving.

The feedback from our volunteers has been very encouraging. For some of them it has been a life altering experience. For employees who had never volunteered before, this was an amazing opportunity for them to make a difference to their community.

Bhanu Singh, assistant manager in the IRC Sourcing team, who participated in a teaching project for children, said: “The project was quite a humbling experience for all of us. As much as we had a great time we also managed to learn a lot from the kids at the NGO. We all came back enriched and rearing to go again; to teach and be taught.”

Elizabeth Jones, CR Head, India, who has been spearheading the project in Bangalore added: “It has been very encouraging to see how teams have shown great enthusiasm in adopting a project and participated in it with complete sincerity. What’s been interesting is that they have taken their association with the NGO beyond their project. So much so that they have been happy to share their experience with their peers and colleagues, thus increasing the levels of engagement at the site.”

Our offices around the world marked World Food Day 2011 with a variety of events sponsored by the Volunteer Action Network (VAN). The event aims to help combat hunger and raise awareness of the 1 billion people who live in chronic hunger every day. Food banks, schools and shelters in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Buenos Aires; New York; Philadelphia; Dallas; Sydney; Rochester, N.Y.; Toronto; Washington, D.C.; Montreal; and London benefited from hundreds of pounds of food items donated by employees.

The Andover, UK, office and the Swiss Cottage office in London joined together to collect food and funds for the Andover Food Bank. Chris Elvin, vice president of operations, UKI Core Legal, volunteered to provide a tea service to raise extra money and was joined by Julian Willis, Distribution manager, and Penny Matthews, Customer Operations manager. The two offices were able to collect 800 food items for the organization.

Sixty-two pounds of food was collected by the team of eight employees in the Carlsbad, California office – providing 50 boxes of meals for needy families. The donations collected were given to the North County Food Bank.

In Eagan, for the second year, 474 employees packaged meals for Feed My Starving Children, a Minnesota-based nonprofit that dispatches dehydrated food packages to countries all over the world. Colleagues packaged 19,944 pouches, which will provide 119,664 meals for hungry children.

Employees in Bangalore collected 23,000 INR (roughly $468) for the Spastics Society of Karnataka, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the welfare of people with neuromuscular and developmental disabilities. Thirteen volunteers visited the school to help cook the children’s meals, serve food, and package gifts and sweets made by the students.

And in Manila, employees donated approximately $1,100 to support the victims of the two typhoons that recently struck the Philippines. With this money, employees purchased food to assemble for care packages that were delivered to the affected families through the help of the American Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the Corporate Network for Disaster Response.

This is the third consecutive year that the VAN has sponsored events to recognize World Food Day.