A NEWCASTLE teenager has helped to shape the corporate social responsibility programme of international software company Genesys.

Aoife Norton, a sixth former at Dame Allan’s Schools, spent part of last summer in New York doing work experience with Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories. The company provides customer service software and telecoms services to over 2,000 customers worldwide, including four of the five largest airlines in the world.

Her task was to research information about the corporate social responsibility activities of Genesys’s competitors and benchmark the results against leaders in other industry sectors. She set about this by investigating company websites and carrying out telephone interviews, as well as speaking to Genesys staff in the New York office.

After analysing her results, she decided to recommend the company should adopt a formula based on ‘one per cent’: employees should be able to volunteer one per cent of their company time, Genesys should give one per cent of their products to schools and charities and the company should donate one per cent of their profits.

Her final task was to prepare a presentation for the chief executive officer and the chief financial officer to persuade them of the merits of her recommendations. And she was successful. At the end of last year she heard that they had approved a $150,000 CSR programme for the company for 2013.

“I’m thrilled that the directors have agreed to my suggestions. The people I spoke to within Genesys all wanted to do something and were very encouraging. It did feel a big responsibility, but I’m glad I my presentation played a part in convincing the CEO and CFO to adopt the CSR programme,” she said.