Socially Responsible

We’ve written before about the importance of finding ways to engage your valued employees.

According to the Human Capital Institute (HCI), “making engagement a key component of corporate success leads to greater employee happiness, productivity, retention, better customer service, and better business outcomes.”

Many organizations learned that, during the pandemic, keeping employees engaged as they juggled home and work priorities, was even more difficult than before. We also learned that having engaged employees isn’t just a “nice to have” corporate value, it is really a necessity. Engaged employees are more productive and tend to stay with your organization longer.  

Doesn’t it make sense to look for creative ways to keep them engaged not only in their work, but in your organization’s mission and culture?

Here’s one of those win-win situations we all seek—use corporate social responsibility to engage and connect employees—even remote staff. Corporate social responsibility can take many forms—philanthropy, volunteerism, activism. Any of these actions can change an organization’s values from words on a page to action. These actions can bring your people together in amazing ways.

Take volunteering, for example, which has tons of benefits. What if your organization adopted a local charity and you put teams together to work with the charity? People get to know co-workers they may never have come in contact before as they work to build a house for Habitat for Humanity or plant trees in a local park. Your employees also can learn new and valuable skills as they volunteer for local non-profits. They can also contribute their own technical skills, such as designing a website for a small non-profit, and that’s just one example of something that can be accomplished remotely, if necessary.

Volunteering nor only offers chances for employees to engage in the community, it makes them proud of your organization. When they are proud and passionate about what they are doing, they will tell others. There is another win for your organization—positive publicity. 

Research shows that prospective employees search out organizations that are good corporate citizens.  So, another benefit of corporate social responsibility may be that volunteerism positively impacts your recruitment process. That’s not bad either.