Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives contribute to the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of a business, ultimately benefiting all relevant stakeholders. Companies can integrate CSR practices and benefit from them in a number of ways. Here are three ways in which small and medium-sized companies can practice CSR and engage their employees.
1. Volunteerism
The first way to integrate corporate social responsibility (CSR) into your business is to offer employees the opportunity to take paid time off to volunteer at a nonprofit organization. Demonstrating to employees that they are valued and show a commitment to positively impacting the community during the time between working and volunteering. Ways to integrate volunteerism into your company are as follows.
Co-work with local non-profits：Company can partner with a nonprofit organization that aligns with your company's values to provide skills-based volunteerism. Skills-based volunteering gives employees the opportunity to use their skills and develop professional and leadership skills while providing much-needed help to the community.
Business Resource Group or Committee: One way to maximize the impact of your volunteers is to create a staff-led business resource group or a committee specifically designed to gather like-minded staff who want to give back to the community by volunteering their time and skills. Employee Business Resource Groups are employee-led and help create an inclusive workplace that aligns with your company's values.
Designated Paid Leave: Giving employees the opportunity to volunteer at a nonprofit organization during regular work hours is a good first step. However, employees will not use their paid time off (PTO) or forfeited wages to do so. Depending on your company's size and budget, you may be able to set aside 8 to 40 hours of paid time for volunteer service.
Volunteerism allows employees to feel that they are actively participating in a CSR strategy that meets the basic needs of group members and provides the opportunity to work toward collective goals with like-minded individuals and build employee branding. In addition, volunteerism provides employees with the opportunity to use what they know to make a positive impact on the community and to learn new skills outside of their duty. Read more: 10 key statistics about your employees' job satisfaction (temperately available in Chines)
2. Community Engagement
Small businesses can practice corporate social responsibility through community engagement. This helps to build bonding with the community and ultimately creates a pipeline for customers. Such ways are as follows.
Community Outreach: Community outreach involves connecting with local community members and becoming more involved in community services. This not only allows your company to have a positive impact on the community it serves, but also raises your company's profile and attract new clients.
Direct Services：Addressing a specific needs of the community or target beneficiaries can create synergy and positive impacts, including in-kind donations or fund-raising campaigns.
Fund-raising/Sponsorship: Partnering with schools to raise funds or providing fundraising opportunities for local nonprofit organizations is a great way to get involved in your community. For example, donate a small percentage of sales from one night to a fundraising event for a local organization.
By building relationships with the community, businesses can gain community support for any future business venture, while partnering with a nonprofit organization provides an opportunity for businesses to give back to the community through volunteerism or by providing value-added services. Both of these strategies help build a customer base and ultimately increase company's reputation and profits.
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3. Reduce Negative Environmental Impacts
A business will not only be helping the environment and operating in a socially responsible manner, but will also attract environmentally conscious employees and customers. There are many ways to green your business and become more environmentally friendly in terms of CSR strategy. Some simple ways to reduce any environmental impact are as follow.
Green Purchasing: Using sustainably sourced products. This includes purchasing environmentally friendly products and services, as well as choosing to work with companies that operate in the same way.
Work with a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) contractor: For any construction or demolition, your company can work exclusively with LEED-certified contractors and businesses. The benefits of working with LEED contractors include reduced energy and water use, improved air quality, and lower operating costs.
Reduce waste: By limiting the amount of water and electricity used - such as recycling and reducing packaging, and going paperless where feasible.
Conclusion
There are many ways that companies can incorporate CSR practices that will have a positive impact on your business and help your employees get involved. From volunteering and building relationships through community involvement to reduce negative environmental impacts, small and medium-sized businesses can take simple yet impactful steps to fulfill CSR. In addition to the above three approaches, Momenday can also help your brand practice CSR by planning a variety of CSR-focused events for your brand.
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Momenday provides you with unique and professional event planning service with a variety of events with CSR and SDGs features, from environmental, social and governance aspects, we help your company to fulfill CSR and make efforts for yourself, the environment and society. Momenday helps you achieve your sustainability and business goals one step at a time.
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