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Health and wellbeing in the workforce has never been more important.
3.5 min read
As the work-life balance pressure grows it is important for businesses to consider how they can adapt their activities to support staff and allow them to be happier and more productive.
The American ‘Corporate Guru’ Simon Sinek once said "When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute."
Corporate Social Responsibility activities may offer businesses a great vehicle to get that emotional investment, increase job satisfaction and staff contribution, whilst at the same time benefitting the chosen cause and making the company look good in the meantime.
Interested in how to make the most of CSR in you business?
Implementing a CSR program to your business might be the best strategic move your company ever makes to improve employee welfare and relationships, and here are our four top reasons why:
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Engagement
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Attraction
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Retention
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Productivity
1. Engaged
CSR activities are a great way to engage a work force. Having staff not only be a part of the delivery team but have them play a part in deciding which activities, causes or campaigns an organisation should be getting involved in will help them not only grab ownership of the cause but also draw them closer to the organisation. Helping them feel a part of the strategic decision-making process of the business.
The positive by-product of having staff help develop the direction of the CSR activities is many will organically become a part of the delivery process of the cause.
They will write themselves into roles and programs they develop, and it will often be aligned with what they independently feel emotionally engaged with, making their involvement more meaningful to them.
Often their involvement with the development will be the seed that starts the emotional engagement if they weren’t already involved in some way earlier.
An Oxfam employee said this of the company when they were recognised as the 6th best company to work for in 2016:
“I'm amazed at how it operated together, and how everybody felt they had a stake in the success of the organisation. From top to bottom people were really committed to doing their best for the organisation.”
2. Attract talent
Businesses that engage in CSR activities are viewed as an attractive organisation to work for.
Often talented prospective employees will have several options available to them for where they make their livelihood and practise their services.
Strong CSR values that are embedded into the business culturally can be a strong differentiator when reaching out and attracting that talent.
3. Retention
You will have built your business on the quality of your staff and with each day that passes those members of staff get more experienced, develop more skills and become more embedded in your processes.
Having to replace that talent can be a costly exercise so having an activity that keeps them engaged may play a strong role in keeping talent within your organisation’s four walls.
Pride in the company, its values and its cause, helps to encourage job satisfaction and personal identification.
Studies have proved doing good for others will have a positive physical effect on your own mental health and wellbeing. Feeling good leads to satisfaction.
4. Productivity
Research findings have indicated that organisations that work proactively with strong socially responsible footprints have a more productive work force.
Workers who believe in the mission of their company are happier and more productive, says Economist Jan-Emmanuel De Neve.
A 2011 study also concluded that firms with high levels of employee satisfaction generate superior long-horizon returns.
The paper went on to say: The results are consistent with human relations theories which argue that employee satisfaction causes stronger corporate performance through improved recruitment, retention, and motivation.
So it goes to show that a socially responsible organisation can lead to a happy and productive work force.