If you are looking to become involved, we recommend you consider the following:
- What are you already doing in terms of CSR? Which of your key stakeholders - staff, customers, community, shareholders, suppliers, peers - do you want to influence?
- Take a look at your HR policies to see if they are up to date and that the way your business operates is ethically sound.
- Could you reduce your environmental impact by recycling or cutting energy consumption? A business is able to get free health checks to asses these impacts and see where money can be saved.
- Take a look at your local community’s issues and contact relevant community groups to understand their activities and how you could build a mutually beneficial relationship.
- Talk to your staff and see what is important to them and who they are already supporting; this is a great way of supporting what they care about.
- Look at your business resources and assess how you could use them to benefit the community. Could the staff get involved in volunteering challenges which can be fun and great team builders? Is the company able to give cash donations, gifts in kind or match staff fundraising efforts, get involved in sponsorship, cause-related marketing, campaigning or pro bono work?
In reality, many companies are already involved in CSR and have been for years. They perhaps do not realise it is the same thing and they certainly have not been reporting on their activities to reap the benefits.
