As part of our series of interviews with Corporate Social Responsibility professionals at our business partner companies, we find out about the latest developments in CSR and why supporting local communities is important to Nomura, as told by Katie Horn, Nomura Community Affairs Analyst.

Tell us about your current role and any other related experience that you have
My role at Nomura is to support the Head of Community Affairs to run the firm’s charitable foundation, matched funding and employee engagement initiatives. The main part of my role is managing employee engagement activities, benefiting both our employees and our charity partners. A typical day may be organising or helping to facilitate mentoring schemes, one-off workshops, school schemes or development opportunities whilst also coming up with exciting ways to inspire employees to get involved in Community Affairs activities at Nomura.

Before working in CSR, I worked in Corporate Partnerships at Cancer Research UK, where I worked in a team supporting, establishing, managing and innovating corporate partnerships across the UK.

I am also currently completing my MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, something that adds great benefit and insight to my role and importantly keeping me up to date in trends in CSR. 

Why is CSR important to your organisation?
CSR is important on so many levels at Nomura. Not only does it allow for employees to feel like they are giving back in terms of time, money and expertise, but also by investing in young people we are supporting our future generations to be the best they can be. Nomura’s focus is supporting social mobility, educational attainment and raising aspirations.

Caring about wider social issues through the culmination of employee volunteering, employee engagement and community investment leads to a positive culture at Nomura, which in turn raises morale, supports the retention of staff and upskills employees.

Which topics, themes or initiatives are your organisation currently focused on?
Nomura’s Community Affairs programme aims to support disadvantaged young people in the local communities in which we operate. By recognising the importance of our future generations and with the support from all levels of Nomura, by embedding activities throughout the business, we have created a range of initiatives which are changing the lives of thousands of young people in our neighbouring communities. We provide financial contributions, resources and our time to have a significant impact on those most in need of our support.

Currently, micro volunteering opportunities are proving extremely popular at Nomura, with over 100 employees getting involved in this type of volunteering. By tailoring opportunities to fit around busy work schedules, employees can feel involved in volunteering without sacrificing large chunks of their time. We currently have volunteers participating in a pen pal scheme with a local school. This is a programme that encourages literacy and letter writing. A second example is the CV surgery workshop facilitated by ELBA, which is a great opportunity for employees to use their experience in the working world to critique and support University students in their job hunts through their CV’s.

We are working increasingly closely with HR, to provide not only meaningful, but beneficial development opportunities for employees with the support of our charity partners. Leadership, teamwork and communication are common and vital skills gained through volunteering and charitable involvement that can have a great impact on work performance.

What is the best part of your job?
I feel very lucky to have this job, to help Nomura support its local communities in the most effective way it can. Seeing first-hand the impact that Nomura makes on society is by far the best part about this job. Highlights include; being part of the journey that meant hundreds of primary school children received books as gifts kindly donated by staff, being involved in a young person’s journey at a career Insight Day at Nomura and talking to a young person about what they have learnt about themselves and what they want their future to look like after a three month mentoring programming.