Corporate Social Responsibility – often referred to as CSR – has been around for as long as I can remember but since the pandemic I feel that particularly the younger generation are insisting on giving back to society through their behaviour rather than their wallet.
In the process employers can communicate or draw attention to their brand purpose. That’s great for the community that we live in, but also – if done correctly and authentically, can boost your employer brand.
Many consumers, especially younger generations, want brands to take a stand on social and environmental issues. People are happy to break into a sweat and get their hands dirty for the sake of an initiative that they believe in. 20 years ago this was limited to putting together a team for the marathon, but things have moved on and this is a great opportunity, particularly for smaller players in a crowded recruitment market where finding talent can be limited by less appealing salaries.
Whilst CSR activity clearly should never be an excuse not to pay a decent salary, for a lower than market average salary, where the corporate commitment to social responsibility is genuine and in line with your own values that can, for an employee be the deciding factor with all other factors being equal. Corporate Social Responsibility really can move the needle on your employer brand, whether that’s in LinkedIn, Glassdoor or any other social media, networking events or in the press.
Authentic, transparent CSR communication as opposed to green or pink washing for instance where women and environmental topics are clung onto in social media for more reach when values are not necessarily a reflection of that campaign, is important but rare.
Yet CSR can be a team building no-brainer, which can encourage people to make that arduous time consuming commute into the office or indeed another location. Being together though is the name of the game – not just for the sake of it, or for controlling purposes but a common goal. That’s also a great way to watch your top talent in action on various CSR initiatives. This employee engagement is dynamite and will spill over into your own goals and values and will almost certainly help HR in their talent acquisition efforts – it helps differentiate you from other companies competing for the same millenials in a crowded market.Let me share an example with you.
Example of a local SME here in Berlin/Brandenburg,Germany: SIK Holz GmbH & BKK was the name of the health insurance company.
You see the whole issue of Corporate Social Responsibility is a bit of a double edged sword, isn’t it?
On the one hand when organisations do something to give something back to society it is often greeted with a certain degree of cynicism but on the other hand if they do nothing for the community and focus purely on profit then that’s not acceptable either – so either which way companies face critisism, so to my mind, owners and directors need to think about their own values first – what is it that you as an organisation want to focus on. Ultimately you cannot be doing good in all areas – when it comes to making an impact it is wise to focus on one source of responsibility and zone in on that, ideally not just with — but engagement.
