Innovative Employee Development 
Corporate Case Studies: Adobe and PureStorage
Nicole Johnson, Executive Director, Pure Good Foundation of PureStorage, noted that from the initial days of the Foundation, PureStorage employees were interested in serving communities in authentic ways. Nicole’s team knew from research that immersive service-learning would be a great way to achieve this goal, as well as keep employees at all levels across the company engaged and retained in their work at PureStorage. Nicole shared a video highlighting one PureStorage team’s experience on the ground with a school in Alaska, and offered several employee views on their experiences over the years, including one employee who highlighted that their service-learning project with Team4Tech “was surely (a) life-changing experience.”
Kim Kerry-Tyerman, Senior Manager, Sustainability & Social Impact at Adobe, shared information about Adobe’s pro bono programs designed to both enable employees to develop leadership capabilities the company has identified as key to their professional development as well as address real-world needs around the world. Their immersive service-learning program, one of three pro bono programs at the company, aligns well with Adobe’s customer-driven focus given the nature of immersive service learning’s human-centered design approach to working with non-profit clients. Kim shared the experience of a Team4Tech Fellow at Adobe, who reported that from his experience on a Team4Tech project, he learned to look at technology in new ways, saw products as life-altering, and was able to translate those learnings back on the job.
In the Q&A session, all three speakers, as well as Dave Zimmerman from Betterworks, offered insights into the power of different learning environments, specific ways to initiate and evaluate pro bono programs, and how to engage employees in service-learning to both develop professional skills and make a significant social impact.
Learn more by viewing the Innovative Employee Development webinar.
