Give more to get more

Since the economy dipped and employee engagement became a hot topic, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has been pushed as an important factor in UK business. So, why not give more to get more?

The business case for CSR is ever growing with very little left by way of negativity as it has been proven to not only increase employee engagement, but the corporate brand image and stakeholder trust. All this combined increases profits as employees are more productive, prouder of their company, less likely to leave and investors are happier to invest.

In fact, LeapCR published a survey of 1007 employees’ opinions on CSR;

–          57% of employees want their company to do more towards CSR and charitable giving

–          63% of employees believe that having paid time off during working hours to commit to charitable causes would significantly increase employee engagement

–          49% of employees are more likely to stay with an employer that encourages charitable giving during working hours

The CEO of LeapCR summed it up nicely when stated as saying, ‘How can our company engage our people in ways that matter to them, not us?’The surprisingly truth is that the answer to increasing profits is engaging employees in a purpose beyond simply profit’.

Giving your employees the chance to get fit and healthy is one of the top engagement tools around so combining physical activity with charitable giving is the best of both worlds. Simply see 2013’s Britain’s Healthiest Company awards page for some great UK case studies.

Further great case studies of CSR and charitable giving by UK businesses have been highlighted at the 2013 Business Charity Awards. 9 awards were given in total with the most acclaimed going to British Gas – Business of the year and Telecity Group for Business Charity Champion of the year. One further notable charitable company is Dairy Crest who’s milkmen have raised over £3m since 2007 in charitable activities.

All three companies support local community initiatives and encourage their employees to participate in charitable events which are focussed towards the company’s ethics.

Similarly, Morrissons, the supermarket chain has taken the charitable bug straight to their employee engagement strategy and it has worked amazingly. By setting their employees a target to raise £1m for charity in a year, the workforce has far surpassed it and raised over £4m so far. The key to this has been the employees own personal motivations: The staff were able to democratically choose the charity they raised money for.

Given that over half of UK adults (28.4 million adults) gave to charity in 2012, the enthusiasm is already there.

If you’re unsure of how you can start your company on the path to a great CSR track record and charitable giving, the Charitable Aid Foundation (CAF) has some great online advice for how your company can get started and A Very Good Company is a business that specialises in linking businesses with charitable causes around the UK. Lastly, if you don’t know where to start when choosing a charity, the CAF has published a list of the top 1000 (out of the 160,000 UK charities) outlining their incomes – so why not choose to support the smaller charities?

Managing absence can be used as a great business case for the take up or continuation of employee engagement tools, so get in touch with us to find out how we can help.