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Corporate Social Responsibility

Connect with an account specialist today to review examples of successful corporate social responsibility initiatives in a live session or learn methodology and gain insights.
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Corporate Social Responsibility Insights

LocalMasters offers a platform and provides strategic insights for your success. Connect with us today for a free personal consultation or if you are interested in implementing corporate social responsibility initiatives into your workplace. If you need more information first, below are some frequently asked questions about CSR in the workplace so you have a better understanding of what it is and how it can benefit your work environment.

Fundamentals

Objectives

Implementation

Tracking

Management

Reference

Methodology
For Success

Step 1

Defining Corporate Social Responsibility

Step 2

Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility

Step 3

Implementing Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Step 4

Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility Improvements

Step 5

Sustaining Corporate Social Responsibility Efforts

Fundamentals

Fundamentals

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate social responsibility is a type of international private business self-regulation that aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethically-oriented practices.  Corporate social responsibility is a way of describing how companies measure and control their impact on society. This includes a company’s contributions – both negative and positive – to the economy, environment and greater community.

Evolve and Adapt

There’s no particular standard or set rules when it comes to putting CSR into practice.  As the world steadily strives toward being more socially and environmentally conscious, corporate initiatives that focus on improving these aspects are becoming more and more prevalent and important.  Organizations are learning, sometimes the hard way, that in order to thrive in the marketplace and maintain their brand image, that they must continue to adapt and adjust their commitment to CSR.  As consumers continue to become more conscious and aware, they are choosing more carefully what entities they decide to commit to, financially.

The Goal

What do companies ultimately want to do?  They want to be able to sell a product or service, whatever it is, and they want to be able to sell it for a long, long time.  Over the last century, and specifically, the last few decades in the US, it is so much more important for a company to be authentically supporting the communities they have set up shop in. It’s the right thing to do, and that is what modern customers are expecting more of, so that is what companies are going to do. Companies that choose to ignore the aspects of corporate social responsibility will stagnate growth, close themselves off to new customers, and experience ongoing branding and public relations challenges.

Objectives

Objectives

Environmental Sustainability

Environmental sustainability is a hot topic right now. If we take an example of a shipping company through the lens of CSR, we are going to think about sustainability with the recycling of boxes, ethically using vehicles to decrease the CO2 footprint.  How much packaging is being used?  Is the packaging recycled? Is the company saving trees, are they involved in a tree planting or tree replacement initiative?  Is water being saved?  Is the company going to be recycling microchips?  All of these aspects can be a big, big conversation inside any organization. Companies respond to stakeholders, employees, and customers.  So if the employee base, the stakeholders, and the customer base raise their hand and say “we want to be more environmentally friendly, here’s a solution:  We are only going to use chairs made out of recycled plasticware.” It’s important, to the company, that the employees are happy and want to move in that direction because then the employees will stay if there’s a match between the corporate and employee ethics.

Philanthropic Responsibility

Philanthropy can be defined as a charitable act carried out for the good of society, its defining characteristic is its voluntary nature. The philanthropic impact of your engagement goes beyond your company meeting their CSR goals. According to the Independent Sector: As of April 2021, the value of a volunteer hour is $28 and fifty cents. Having corporate partners donate hundreds of hours of sweat equity over the course of a weekend could save a nonprofit a few thousand dollars. Companies can have a dramatic positive impact on the community. Employees are helping build capacity for the nonprofit’s programmatic work, and helping the nonprofit avoid additional costs for labor. Another benefit that is derived from workplace philanthropy: a sense of strengthened company culture. New hires can make friends, learn about the company values, network with other departments, and get face time with management they would otherwise not meet. It’s a win, win. 

Managing Relationships

A company’s CSR program will only go as far as it’s employees are willing to take it. Whenever an employee engages with CSR, they will always be building or protecting relationships with internal or external partners. The three main partners you will most often engage with are your colleagues, nonprofit partners, and external stakeholders. The first group is other employees – your colleagues. The unique benefit here is you can work with colleagues you may never collaborate with otherwise. Great opportunities for team building and creating workplace culture are derived from a robust CSR program. 

In addition to working cross collaboratively with new colleagues, you will likely also team up with other managers.  The second group you will likely build relationships with are nonprofits. No matter where the company is located, chances are if you are wearing the company’s logo, anyone may take it upon themselves to talk to you about sponsorships, donations or volunteerism. A good tip here is to work with your CSR professional or Community Affairs rep to understand the rules and regulations for speaking on behalf of the company. Finally, the last group the company might engage with regarding CSR is the community itself. With this type of engagement, employees are the eyes and ears for the company. Many unique issues arise in local communities, and they are ever-changing. With the community’s help, companies can respectfully and responsibly address social and practical needs.

Volunteering

Volunteerism is integral to philanthropic giving. A good CSR program will approach volunteering through three aspects. Giving time, giving talent, or giving gifts. Employees who volunteer are taking time out of your day. Specific activities will require expertise and call for “skill-based volunteerism”, the talent of the employee. Each hour an employee volunteers is worth $28, providing financial relief to a nonprofit. The most important part of volunteerism through the lens of a company’s perspective, is employee engagement and retention. The most important piece about volunteerism from an employee’s perspective might be fun time off from the drag of a regular work day. The most important part of volunteerism from a nonprofit perspective is capacity building and free labor. Companies who advocate for a robust CSR initiative understand the value it brings: employees receive opportunities to take action for the betterment of your community. In return, they feel that great sense of accomplishment and pride that comes with helping others in need. 

Implementation

Implementation

What are the Necessary Skill Sets?

Companies need to consider the resources and skills they have available to commit to their CSR program. What projects correlate best with the type of expertise and skills your staff bring to the table? Finding the right match that works best can be a pivotal component to a successful volunteering campaign. Oftentimes, non-profits require specific skills from their volunteers. If you aren’t careful, saying yes right away without researching and analyzing what’s a good fit for your organization can put you in a precarious position: you may not be able to deliver the service or skills you agreed to help with.

The Right Projects at the Right Time?

So you have the greenlight at work to plan a project, but when and what should you choose? Think of the employee culture. Meet them where they are and consider what they would enjoy doing. What are their department’s skills: IT, Engineering, Finance, Marketing? It’s hard to get away from the work grind during busy seasons, and the last thing managers want to do is distract from important deadlines. Communicating with department heads and management is critical for any successful CSR project. Time management will also play a key factor – make sure you participants are clear on when and where they need to be, and that they understand ahead of time what they are signing up for. 

Decide on a Reasonable Pace?

If your company is new to CSR, consider taking small steps first. Another common roadblock that occurs with CSR initiatives is they are grand in design and ambitious, but when the time comes for the event the organizers are overwhelmed. Remember, any action that is taken, no matter how small, is helpful to the community and individuals who need help. Start with small goals, then, as your company gains more experience and momentum the program can be ramped up for bigger and bigger goals.

What are the Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility?

  • Relevance – Corporate Social Responsibility continues to be one of the most critical initiatives businesses implement. Why? When companies support a social or environmental cause, it acts as a force multiplier for the benefits CSR provides. Companies positively impact their local communities, society, and their revenue generation. They also build their brand reputation and increase customer loyalty and word of mouth from customers. 

 

  • Build Consumer Confidence – With the advent of instant news and consumers that have access to smartphones in greater numbers than ever before, companies can lose trust, customers can create doubt and leave brands in a very short timeframe. While CSR isn’t a catch all to solve all problems, it will go a long way in the eyes of consumers. CSR is a great way to build trust with customers. Poll after poll shows that customers will spend more on companies that have good values. A recent study conducted by EVERFI showed that 76 percent of consumers stated engagement in the broader community is important to brand reputation and nearly half of consumers say companies have an obligation to take action to improve societal issues. If customers think highly of you, they are going to choose you for their goods and services. That will impact the bottom line, every time. 

 

  • Sharing Your Progress – Consumers appreciate transparency. What better way to showcase your company’s progress toward impacting social and environmental positive change than by sharing metrics? By providing data for your customers on the companies’ CSR initiatives, it gives them an alternate perspective into how your business is impacting the community. How can you measure the effectiveness of your CSR program? Companies that figure this out can leverage this data to assist the direction and purpose of their CSR goals.  

 

  • Retention and PR – If your company has a dynamite CSR program, you are going to reap its many benefits. Your company will be an attractive opportunity for top talent. People will want to work for you. Recruiting time and effort will reduce, while better candidates will naturally be driven toward you. Your online presence and visibility will increase and trend in a positive direction, improving your reputation and brand image.

Tracking

Tracking

How do you know a Corporate Social Responsibility Program is Working?

 

In order to analyze the overall mental health of a workforce, you need data. Measuring something like mental health can be a challenging task to take on, but the ongoing global pandemic has caused organizations to take more action and develop new methods for tracking and measuring it. There are several key areas that CSR departments and leadership look at to determine the program’s effectiveness. Below are some examples of the tools organizations use to measure and track CSR initiatives.

What Tools Are Used to Track Corporate Social Responsibility?

  • Revenue Metrics – the real impact of any department is to enhance and support the organization’s goals. For business, the obvious target is positively impacting the bottom line. CSR initiatives can have an enormous financial impact on revenue generation. However, it’s not observed through traditional ROI metrics that departments like Sales have at their disposal. Instead, CSR managers need to look at metrics that focus on cost savings, generating new customers and retention of current ones. Data from every single department in the company can be funneled into CSR metrics, making it a vitally important aspect to any organization. 

 

  • Reputation and Awareness – you’ve probably been on the receiving end of a company’s philanthropic giving, volunteerism or donations of time, talent and treasure in your community. How did you feel about that company’s efforts or contributions? How did it make you feel? Would you be more willing to spend money on their products because of the generous and beneficial assistance they offer to the local community? Companies can also be the beneficiaries of community organizing awards which drive positive social media footprint metrics and boost your company’s image and reputation.  

 

  • Talent Retention and Recruiting – because of that great work your CSR program is doing for environmental sustainability, philanthropy and volunteering, your company should see a dramatic rise in employees staying. Many HR metrics such as retention tie directly into CSR initiatives. It’s important that CSR leadership has a good relationship with Human Resources, as these departments are mutually beneficial to one another. 

 

  • Partnership Data – just how many relationships are made through CSR events and initiatives? How much positive networking occurs, which helps spread word of mouth, awareness and visibility for the company? Business owners in the company’s vicinity can impact CSR initiatives as well as vendors and existing partnerships. All of this data can be tracked, metrics can be designed to demonstrate how partners have been influenced by your company’s CSR program. A few examples are the number of partners who participated in a campaign or event, contract renewal rates versus those who have not. These metrics can be used in press releases, social media campaigns and internal communications to help strengthen company culture.

Management

Management

What’s the Key to a Sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility Program?

Although the field of corporate social responsibility is constantly changing and evolving, it’s helpful to identify some current examples. Reducing carbon footprints to mitigate climate change, improving labor policies, participating in fairtrade, charitable global giving, community and virtual volunteering, corporate policies that benefit the environment and socially and environmentally conscious investments. Ensure your employees are aware of what CSR is, so it’s on their radar. They need to be informed that they play a key role in the initiative, they all have an opportunity to participate in bettering their community, the environment and others all while helping the company as well.

Make CSR a Part of Company Culture

As consumers continue to speak with their wallets, it’s becoming more and more clear to companies that they have the power, influence and resources to create positive change with global and local social problems. Companies must advocate and believe in their ability to impact change, from the top down. Leadership must buy in, so the employees buy in. That means that leadership must be involved in CSR activities, and not just leave the bulk of activities and events on the plates of the employees. Companies should examine and create a purpose as to why they are taking action in the field of CSR. If you want everyone to buy into a successful CSR program, there must be relevancy and urgency on why you are undertaking the initiative. When this occurs, leadership and staff alike can look upon these values and feel supported in their efforts. 

Can Your CSR Program Respond?

One key aspect of corporate social responsibility is that it requires leadership to change, adapt and be flexible. Sustainability requires flexibility, whether that looks like adjusting budgets, modifying time investments from employees, to tweaking needs and resources for nonprofits. As the world changes, so must your CSR initiatives. Social responsibility evolves as culture and current events do, so ensure you have the right leadership in place to stay current and ready for change.

Reference

Reference

Corporate Social Responsibility Trends Gaining Attention in 2022

The world has gone through a major change in the past two years. From the COVID-19 pandemic, to global lockdown, remote working, economic recession, all these factors will continue to have an impact on the future of the sales industry, and what CSR programs will look like in 2022 and coming years. 

Here are a few trends that companies should pay attention to while rethinking, updating, and developing their CSR strategies and initiatives:

  1. Online Community Initiatives – CSR doesn’t just have to be done in person in order to have an impact. Virtual community engagement will continue to be one of the hottest emerging trends in the field of CSR for some time to come. Driven by the interest of public health and the ongoing global pandemic, companies are looking for ways on how they can donate their time, talent and treasure through virtual platforms such as video conferencing software, social media networks, and more. 

 

  1. Current Events – companies who are bold and take stances on current issues impacting social change are going to continue to push the envelope for making a difference, thus impacting their company’s brand and image in a positive way. When consumers see that a company actually cares, instead of just offering platitudes and messaging – when action is taken – that is what really connects with the public.  

 

  1. More Intimate Community Connections – food drives and clothing donation events are a tried and true classic when it comes to corporate giving. However, companies that find ways to be more creative and even more impactful to directly help their local communities are going to get the greatest results and benefits from their CSR programs. 

Exemplary Corporate Social Responsibility Programs

  • LEGO – the LEGO corporation has routinely been awarded top honors for their CSR program. They have events called RE:CODE where LEGO education products to “host hundreds of children who participate in activities that deepen learning on real-world themes while helping to boost 21st century skills.” The events involve STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) based activities that promote learning while having fun – and also sustainability lessons. 

 

  • The Lavazza Group, makers of coffee products, have gained notoriety for their sustainability efforts. One of their initiatives called the Farmer Field School is located in Vietnam which helps improve irrigation, lowers emissions, and assists climate change management. 

 

  • The Juntos shoe company has a great CSR initiative that helps unrepresented youth. For every pair of shoes sold, Juntos provides a backpack filled with school supplies to a child in Ecuador. Every backpack contains a year’s worth of supplies. The company chose Ecuador because they sell a specific shoe design found in that country, and wanted to give back to the place that inspired their company. 

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