BPO company big on corporate social responsibility
WHETHER LARGE or small, companies continue to impact the communities within which they operate. In fact in Jamaica, micro, small and medium-sized companies contribute to over 80 per cent of employment in the economy.
It is for this reason that itelbpo founder and executive chairman, Yoni Epstein, is convinced that regardless of a company’s size, every firm should have a corporate social responsibility policy.
“As we’ve grown, and even when we were a lot smaller, we ... started to do little things – as much as we could do at that time,” Epstein disclosed in an interview with industry analyst Jens Butler, director of services, customer experience and sourcing at Tech Research Asia.
The interview forms part of itelbpo’s monthly webinar series with its founder and a leading industry expert in the business processing outsourcing (BPO) sector. This month’s episode, titled ‘BPO Business as a Force of Good’, took place on Thursday, December 6, and focused on how the BPO sector can play its part as a social force for good in the nation.
As itelbpo has grown since being founded in 2012, with just one client and seven employees, so has its impact on the communities within which it operates. With that, the founder and executive chairman announced that the company will be launching its foundation in the coming year.
“We’re about to embark on launching our very own foundation, which will be called the 4Ys Foundation, borne on the back of our vision and mission ... quality, integrity, reliability and, most importantly, family,” he revealed.
Noting that “it’s a huge deal” for the company, he explained that the 4Ys Foundation will focus on the areas of environment, education, innovation, and sports.
On the matter of the environment, Epstein reasoned that while some may trivialise global warming, with some going as far as making it a non-issue, there is anecdotal evidence of its effects.
“I can see here in Jamaica just how the tides are rising year after year, the waters continue to rise,” he said.
And, therefore, it is still within the remit of the private sector to protect the environment in an effort to secure a better future for the country’s children, he reasoned.
With this, Epstein segued to discuss 4Ys Foundation’s focus on education, noting that itelbpo has consistently invested in this area. “We truly feel that the next generation’s leaders are the ones that are in the elementary and preparatory schools at this stage in the communities where we operate, and we need to ensure that they are given the right fuel in order to grow their minds — grow themselves to become future leaders of tomorrow,” the chairman shared.
Itelbpo provides scholarships for students regardless of whether the company is a direct beneficiary of that investment. itelbpo also hires part-time students pursuing associate degrees and provides further training through the itel Smart Academy.
He cited an example of an opportunity he took to sponsor a student athlete, through the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, to compete in Canada. The student returned to the island with thirteen (13) medals – six gold, five silver, and two bronze medals.
STRIVING YOUTH
“To me, the value in that is more to see a young individual have the passion to go after what they love and actually succeed at it,” the itelbpo founder stated, adding that the results far exceed a value that money can buy.
Asked by Butler how the 4YS Foundation will make the initiative’s more far-reaching and long-lasting, Epstein indicated that the company has already begun eliminating single-use water bottles from its sites, including discontinuing their sale in vending machines through the company’s ‘No Plastic is Fantastic’ campaign. Instead, the company has installed water coolers throughout its locations and have issued itelbpo-branded bottles to employees to catch and store water. The aim is eventually eliminate all single-use plastic.
Epstein also noted that sports is a big part of itelbpo’s mantra, and commended Minister of Health Christopher Tufton’s Jamaica Moves programme. “I really feel that our current minister of health here in Jamaica has done a tremendous job in showing the importance of moving – what exercise does for the body, and the body’s ability to protect itself against illnesses that happen naturally [and] that we can fend off by eating better and exercising more,” Epstein said.
Essentially, he made the case that developing countries suffering from high levels of unemployment and poverty, informal community structures and a widening gap between classes are fitting places to practise corporate social responsibility.
“And in the countries we operate, we feel that it is very important to give back to the communities and to give back to the team members who have made you successful, and continue to make the company successful. And it’s definitely something that companies need to do more and need to pay attention to more,” Epstein revealed.
‘We truly feel that the next generation’s leaders are the ones that are in the elementary and preparatory schools at this stage in the communities ... . ’