Get everyone involved - including the managing director, says Jane Kennelly, founder and managing director of Frog Recruitment and chair of Workchoice Trust.
Having a corporate social responsibility policy is something which small businesses believe is a luxury of the larger companies. But the fact is small businesses are often much more engaged with local communities at the grass roots than large multinationals.
What practical things can we do to improve our record for corporate social responsibility?
In the 17 years with the Workchoice Trust, I believe the secret to a successful CSR programme boils down to one thing - buy-in from the top down. Buy-in has to be authentic as there's no bigger disappointment than a managing director failing to turn up to an event marking an organisation's CSR involvement. A successful CSR programme has to be more than just a thinly veiled PR campaign. There has to be an internal champion appointed to keep the involvement consistent and vibrant. Many smaller organisations don't get involved in CSR because they assume it's going to be just too daunting and burdensome. Nothing could be further from the truth.
How can we tell our stakeholders about our CSR activities?
Be seen to be involved. Undertake a simple "internal marketing" exercise to educate all employees of your involvement. Use your website, newsletters and even office stationery to brand and inform stakeholders about the cause and your involvement. If your involvement is genuine it makes sense to be identified as a supporter. Many customers and prospective employees base buying/joining decisions on this kind of knowledge. And use social media as a key communications avenue.
We are a small business, with all the staff living locally. How can we include the local community more?
For small organisations, supporting a local cause is a wonderful opportunity. Local community support is vital to the continuing existence of the Workchoice Trust. For example, in Hamilton, local mechanic Wilkinson's teaches students how to overhead weld. These students have identified mechanics as a future vocation. At McAuley High in Otahuhu, following Workchoice Day, students still visit the local rest home to visit and assist the elderly. The same rest home helps with a primary school remedial reading programme. Start by posing internally the question: "As a company what CSR causes do you suggest we support and why?"
How do we leverage what we do in CSR to help our corporate profile?
In the US and Europe, a company's CSR involvement is now treated as an integral part of a company's overall brand strategy. If you have a genuine, long-term belief in a CSR programme, why not include it in your corporate profiling to prospective employees and clients as well as current clients. One reason for getting involved in a CSR programme is to support and promote that programme - so use your channels to do this and along the way educate your stakeholders about the cause you support.
A small business is too small to have its own CSR officer. Who, typically, is in charge of making sure the company is always acting responsibly?
Every CSR plan needs to identify an internal champion to get things moving. This champion has to have a willingness to learn about the CSR programme concerned. It's imperative that the champion isn't sponsorship-marketing people. It has to sit with someone who utterly supports what's involved and it's the responsibility of management to identify this champion.
In the Workchoice Trust we have internal champions who are genuinely interested in helping young people gain knowledge to assist their future work decisions.
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