CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility
Working for a socially responsible company says a lot about how companies care for their employees and what that could mean for your career.
Say, if a company allows you to give back to your community on their paid time to share with your coworkers, that may mean they will listen to more during a meeting or when you go to negotiate your next salary boost.
A recent study by Cone Communications shows that 76 percent of millennials look for employers based on their CSR efforts. Giving back to the community and your employee has officially turned out to be a key trait that top talents look for when searching for a job. Not only can these opportunities give you the comfortability to move up at a company, but they also can give you more opportunities to network internally, and so much more.
It turns out, companies and their employees can reap the benefits of giving back to their communities. Keep reading to see how you and your team can get involved to grow your business while giving back to everyone involved sustainably.
Let’s start with the proper definition of CSR.
What does Corporate Social Responsibility mean?
The simpler definition of Corporate Social Responsibility would be, the programs, actions, and benefits companies put in place to encourage employees to connect and help give back to their community, during their company time.
This could be in the form of donations to help those that are struggling, setting up events for their employees to lend a helping hand in jobs that need to get done around the community, and even benefits supporting a healthy working environment.
Successful businesses like Starbucks, LinkedIn, and Deloitte have been leading their team with bonuses like giving back to their community. They have focused their efforts on paving the way with excellent labor policies, donating to charity, increasing fair trade, and even more.
The positive impacts of corporate social responsibility on your business
Not only does CSR practices give back to the community, but it can also help you scale your business to another level. As younger generations are focusing more and more on companies that have positive impacts on the world, there is an increasing demand for sustainable growth for the business. Whether you’re a product or service business, you can see a spike in sales as well as talent being attracted to your organization.
With social media taking the world by storm, your business’s reputation and brand recognition are one of the most important elements when scaling. Not to mention, if you’re marketing your positive social impacts for the world to see. Businesses that have started their own CSR programs have seen a remarkable difference in various aspects of their company. For instance, a recent report by inc.com states that companies are able to increase sales by 20 percent, increase productivity by 13%, cut employee turnover by 50%, and increase company shares by 4%.
Even though those are amazing positives for your business, there are a couple more pros when practicing CSR with your team.
Reduce your operating costs
There are various ways you could go about CSR when it comes to your business model. Some companies are able to cut down on their paper usage, electricity, and enforce more recycling throughout the office. While this cuts down on your overall maintenance costs, this can help save you and your company a little more cash.
Depending on your business and where your waste may come from, brainstorm different ways to cut down on it. Different ways of doing that are; pollution prevention strategies, foster better innovation for wasteful products produced, or increase disclosure practices that lead to greater visibility among stakeholders and other partners.
Upgrade your social media risk management
When implementing company CSR initiatives, show them off to your followers!
That way, your brand will be seen by those that may not have seen your material otherwise. Sharing your CSR efforts can increase consumer loyalty and trust, inform your followers about ways to give back to your community, and encourage others to do the same. By doing that, your consumers feel inspired and as if they are giving back to their community every purchase they make.
While you’re doing this, always be transparent with your audience. The more authentic and true you are over social media, it shows your followers your honest reasons for wanting to give back to your community rather than your wallet.
Along with that, be honest with your employees to foster the same results and loyalty.
Build stronger business relationships
Investors and stockholders want to invest in companies that are loyal, give back to the community, and show a promising ROI.
When implementing CSR practices across your team, that proves exactly that. Consumers will resonate with your mission and values while giving back to your community and employees. This will foster a loyal audience that will provide the evidence of a strong standing and successful business model to land you the right investors and talent.
By showing your authentic business practices, you will be able to attract strong talent to help lead your team to the right investors and other supporters. It’s a true win-win situation!
Establish a loyal customer and employee base
As we discussed in the previous sections, being authentic, transparent, and supportive of your community and team, you grow a strong customer base that can increase your businesses ROI. Along with that, you attract strong talent that believes in your business practices, mission, and values. This can in-turn, build engagement, decrease employee turnover, and grow successful talent that’ll help grow your business day by day.
If you’re ready to start implementing corporate social responsibility practices in your business, here are a few ways you can do just that.
How to get your business involved in corporate social responsibility
As there are many different ways to get involved in CSR practices across your business, some of them can cost more money and time than others. When getting started, you may be wanting to test the waters on a couple of different smaller strategies to see who may be the most interested and how this can benefit your team, community, and business.
We’ve compiled our top three CSR practices that you can try out and see which works best for you and your team.
1. Get involved in your community
When starting out small, see what events are already happening around.
Many different organizations run throughout different communities. Ask around to see which events you’d like you and your team to take part in. Once you have nailed down a few, add it to your calendar and send out invites to see who would like to take part.
If you and your team are able to, offer this community time as a form of paid time off. That way, your team will be more inclined to take time out of their workday to add value to their community alongside you. While this benefits your team’s wallet, it can also boost productivity and overall employee morale. When your team has a little extra time to take a break and communicate with teams they normally wouldn’t have, they may feel more inspired heading back into the office.
2. Create your own community events
If you have the time and resources to host your own event, do it!
Test out the waters by having an evening or weekend to give back to your community. Offer to give food to those that are struggling or volunteer at an animal shelter to walk dogs that are eager to get out on the weekends.
Have your team meet you there and offer small bonuses or free food to encourage them to show up with their loved ones.
3. Set aside a portion of your profits
An easy way to give back without taking time out of you or your team’s day is through donations.
You could raise money for those in need by taking a portion of your profits, sponsoring events, or even donating certain supplies to shelters in need. For instance, if you’re a product-based company that makes shoes, offer to donate a certain amount of your product to homeless shelters that may not have the resources to purchase their own.
While doing so, your employees and consumers will know they are giving back to their community every time they make a purchase through your company.
On a final note…
See what corporate social responsibility mean for your career and top 9 companies that have CSR benefits in Mint’s insightful infographic below.
The infographic
Kayla Montgomery is a digital content marketer who helps Mint create helpful and compelling stories worth sharing. Her background in digital marketing and creative writing has led her to cover unique topics ranging from business to lifestyle. In her spare time, she enjoys working out, writing for her own blog, traveling, and exploring all the in’s and out’s Austin, TX has to offer.
Featured image by Perry Grone on Unsplash