Corporate Social Responsibly (CSR) is not a new concept, there are countless blog posts on the subject, so you may ask yourself, why we’ve written another one?
Well, on my internet travels I have been reading some CSR policies from various companies and wondering how these plans take practice. It seems to me that the over-arching principle is that for a CSR program to be successful it should run through every process, department and individual in a business. CSR should not just be a policy that you pull out when updating the website or show to new employees.
This means that your CSR targets need to be incorporated into your business’ culture, this shouldn’t appear forced or contrived, but instead be developed naturally. Making these changes to your company can be a daunting task, but necessary in today’s climate.
It is this challenge that has led me to investigate CRS further and share my take on this issue.
It seems to me that the most productive way to involve all staff in CSR, and demonstrate its importance, would be to take them out of the office. Instead of presenting to your organisation why CSR is important, you can show them!
Schemes should be developed to engage employees in CSR, while benefiting team communication in the process, and MUST be tailored to pre-decided CSR policies and targets. Some examples are:
If you are looking to support a sustainable supplier network your team could take a ‘Supplier Road Trip’. Experiencing how your suppliers work, the environments that they are in, and helping to develop their communities.
If your businesses CSR includes a local element, you could visit the organisations you would be benefiting your community while building your teams' engagement.
You could hold a CSR workshop, with many small activities engaging employees in targets.
A construction company could take a team to develop and teach in smaller communities either locally or around the world.
A technology company could donate their old equipment to a community they work with who would benefit from their expertise, helping to set up and train them upon arrival.
The key to these schemes, is to make the most out of an organisations CSR activities or budget by involving employees in a policy which before was all paperwork and no experience, allowing them to feel engaged and part of a larger picture.
To bring your CSR targets to the forefront of your company culture by developing an events scheme can be the key to a successful implementation. Without this application of the policy, the good intentions can fall through, becoming a marketing tool as appose to having the desired effect.
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