Impact Sourcing Leaders Recognized at OWS19

By: Sandy Frinton, Editor, PULSE Magazine

IMPACT SOURCING LEADERS RECOGNIZED AT OWS19

For the second year, IAOP, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, will present the Global Impact Sourcing Award (GISA) during the OWS19 luncheon to organizations for their leadership in driving awareness of Impact Sourcing across the BPO industry.

From the applications submitted, the judging panel selected 11 finalists that were narrowed down to the four winners.

Global Impact Sourcing Award Judges: Jon Browning, CEO, Strategic Sourcing Advisors; Sara Enright, Director, Global Impact Sourcing Coalition; Mary Lewis, Director of Sourcing, Sprint; Chitra Rajeshwari, Executive Director, Avasant Foundation; Kimberly Smith, Group Procurement Manager, Microsoft; Mauricio Odovaine, Head of Outsourcing, Facebook; and Natalia Grekova, CSR Global Manager, Luxoft.

Last year’s winners – Digital Divide Data (DDD), Teleperformance, Microsoft and the Avasant Foundation – also were recertified for their excellence in creating jobs in underserved communities.

Impact Sourcing in a Purchasing Organization: Intuit

Intuit has created 800-plus jobs in underserved communities struggling with high unemployment. Through its Mission Hope initiative, it opened sites with Sykes Enterprise in an old coal mining town in Virginia in 2016 and with Convergys in a former steel manufacturing town in Pennsylvania in 2017. Intuit and its customer care partners has taken a community approach, engaging with local economic development agencies, Chamber of Commerce, colleges and universities as well as workforce development leaders. It has identified new markets that have suffered economic downturns to expand Mission Hope.

Impact Sourcing in a Provider Organization: Samasource (tie)

Samasource’s mission is to train and hire low-income and marginalized people to work in the digital economy, partnering with companies like Microsoft and Google, as well as smaller startups. Since 2008, it has trained and hired 10,000-plus women and youth in Kenya, India, and Uganda, supporting over 46,000 people through their salaries. Currently, Samasource has more than 2,000 employees and provides equal pay for women, ongoing training and subsidized nutritious meals. On average, 50 percent of its East African workforce is female. Additionally, the company is striving to include a biophilic design that integrates nature into all of its offices and delivery centers.

Impact Sourcing in a Provider Organization: RuralShores (tie)

Founded in 2008, RuralShores has brought transformational changes by training and employing rural women, youth, and people with disabilities by offering them sustainable employment opportunities in the BPO sector. RuralShores BPOs are set up in remote districts of India, where employment opportunities are almost non-existent and seasonal agricultural income is the only source of livelihood. These communities have been severely challenged due to recent climate changes leading to immense hardships. The company has employed 3,000-plus impact sourcing workers, impacting more than 900 villages in India and training over 26,000 young workers for their first career job.

Impact Sourcing Influencer: Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Harambee, meaning “all pull together” in Swahili, is a non-profit social enterprise that connects employers with the entry-level talent of South African youth. Over the past two years, it has strategically partnered with the BPO industry body, Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA), and the government arm responsible for the BPO sector, The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Harambee has played a meaningful role in reshaping South Africa’s BPO strategy and how it embraces impact sourcing at scale and has prepared the country for significant growth into the future. Through these partnerships, it has targeted the creation of 10,000 new impact sourcing jobs over the next five years.

About the Author: Sandy Frinton is the Editor-in-Chief of PULSE Magazine.



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