Learn how to integrate corporate social responsibility into the daily routine of office life to give you and your colleagues a sense of achievement…
Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, can feel like an overwhelming task to complete when you’re already busy in the office. How can you organise big charity drives or help out in the local community when you’ve got so much going on?
It doesn’t have to be difficult, though. With these simple ideas, you can include CSR into daily office life and feel accomplished in helping others.
Set up an easy, ongoing activity
One way to up your CSR contribution is to begin a continual activity that’s simple for everyone to get on board with. For example, if you support a particular charity with your business, you can have a regular or ongoing charity collection for unwanted clothing, tinned food, useful household items or more.
This is a simple way to get yourself and others regularly participating in a CSR activity, that’s low effort and doesn’t require a lot of time – perfect for those who have little time, but feel bad about not being able to contribute.
Organise regular events
Corporate social responsibility can be something businesses consider a box they have to tick, so engagement is relegated to only certain parts of the year. One way to keep things going year-round is to organise simple daily or weekly events that people can drop in and out of, without having to commit fixed slots to.
For example, this could be volunteering in a position at a local soup kitchen over lunch periods, or organising a “donate your skills” coffee session to help other businesses or other colleagues progress. You could even reward colleagues for flagging up CSR initiatives on social media every day, which helps spread the word and raise awareness.
Integrate CSR into activities the company already does
Incorporating corporate social responsibility initiatives into working life doesn’t have to be difficult, or require anything particularly new to work well. For example, if there’s already a bike-to-work scheme that employees use, why not organise something like a charity bike ride?
Or for even more daily feel, why not create a sponsored miles-ridden scheme – the more cycling milestones someone achieves, the more the company donates to a charity of their choice?
Communicate and reward
The best way to get everyone to engage with CSR on a daily basis is to communicate effectively. Once employees know about the ways in which they can help the wider community, they can engage with the initiatives that mean the most to them.
For example, you can send out a regular email to either highlight CSR initiatives on offer, or to praise people for CSR activities they complete daily. You can put up posters in the office, or do a shout-out on company social media to reward company activity. Even more simply, you can highlight the efforts of individual members on the company intranet and let everyone know about future activities they can participate in.
Images courtesy of Press Association
