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What's changing?
Corporate investment in social issues is no longer limited to traditional philanthropy, staff payroll giving or employee volunteering. Rather, companies are seeking to enhance business performance through engaging with social sustainability in new ways, such as:
• Embedding social impact assessments into corporate decision making
• Developing social partnerships that work on multiple levels
• Engaging with more than one social project / partner at a time, in order to achieve more ambitious objectives
• Facilitating dialogue with staff and community partners
• Recognising that corporate social engagement is about building relationships, and sharing skills and knowledge, as well as financial sponsorship
Social initiatives can also be beneficial to an organisation's international operations. This is especially true in developing countries, where earning a social license is "critical to operations being carried out successfully". "Providing healthcare to your employees and their families in developing communities can ensure better employee retention, less sick days, higher productivity and less staff turnover." Companies looking to address their social impacts, especially in developing countries, can also seek support from organisations such as UNICEF. Perhaps controversially, the mining industry was given as an example of best practice, with companies such as Rio Tinto and Anglo American taking a leadership position in addressing their social impact.
Overcoming challenges
Getting started - this can be particularly problematic for SMEs as they often lack dedicated resources and are more likely to require external help. It is also difficult for smaller NGOs and community groups to attract business support.
Something that can help is the Business in the Community community mark which is a UK-centred standard that publicly recognises excellence in community investment. Meeting the principles of this standard can help companies of all sizes to build their community investment strategy.
An increased focus on collaboration and knowledge-sharing between businesses and their non-corporate / community partners is helping to build sustainable communities – for example by creating jobs and training opportunities.
Balancing local and global activities - corporate social engagement has often evolved into global partnerships and worldwide initiatives, with a knock-on impact on the quality and extent of local engagement and community support. Companies may not allocate resources to working with the communities in which they directly operate, and where there is the greatest potential for them to enhance their social impact.
Engaging business leaders - getting business leaders to understand the commercial value of social initiatives can be challenging. Seeing the results first hand can help, and initiatives where senior leaders have visited community schemes have proved successful. The positive impacts to their business in terms of increased staff motivation and productivity and greater customer loyalty can also illustrate the business benefit of social initiatives.
Aligning need - there could be an opportunity for external brokers to help match partners for corporate social initiatives. Smaller companies, or those with a lower profile or fewer in-house resources, stand to benefit most from such support.
A number of online community investment services exist, including: business connectors, a pilot BITC programme that involves companies seconding staff to another post in the local community; HouseMark, an impact tracking service for housing projects; Leap CR, which brings together corporate volunteers and community-based opportunities; and Views, a monitoring, evaluation and reporting platform that helps partners on corporate social initiatives to assess the value of the engagement.
Benefits of social initatives
Socially engaged workforce - while some staff benefits, for example gym passes, private healthcare and confidential coaching, are clearly limited to larger companies, there are more cost effective means of engaging your staff, such as:
• Taking inspiration from the initiatives and achievements of companies profiled in the Sunday Times' Best Small Company to Work For
• Taking advantage of government-backed initiatives, such as Cycle to Work
• Referencing online guides – such as BITC's managing emotional wellbeing
• Accessing free advice and support from the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB)
Staff social engagement can engender a far broader range of benefits than those which are directly linked to programmes. Through working together, corporate employees and their local and community partners stand to gain new skills and knowledge and develop greater mutual understanding. This can help towards longer term positive change. An examples is Barclays' local staff engagement initiative in Egypt which teaches financial literacy skills to vulnerable young people in rural areas. Not only does this benefit the young people themselves, it also gives employees a hands-on opportunity to contribute to improving their local economy.
Measuring and evaluating - measuring the business return of staff engagement in community initiatives is important to proving the business case. John Lewis and Barclays were mentioned as examples of companies taking this seriously. The importance of measuring progress on social initiatives is increasing in line with stakeholder expectations that companies report on a range of sustainability targets, although no replicable measurement model exists at present.
Combatting social inequality - UK based companies and community groups could play a more active role in encouraging young people to think about the impact of their actions, specifically in relation to social, ethical and financial issues. An examples is UNICEF and Barclays secondary school teaching pack, Just Living.
In terms of social inequality in developing countries, women should be a sustained focus of corporate social initiatives, as they are more likely to need support in order to receive more equal opportunities and to combat ingrained gender discrimination.
What does the future look like?
Approaches to managing social impact lag behind approaches to managing environmental impacts by around thirty years.
A "major step change in business engagement with the local" is required. This means that companies need to engage more with local businesses, as well as with community and voluntary organisations and individuals. The recent UK riots should act as a wake-up call for a cultural step change among businesses.
Businesess also need to make better connections between their social and environmental engagement, especially in the case of climate change which "will determine future sustainability in every sense. As the climate becomes less stable and we see more global shocks…the most resilient and flexible companies will be the most successful."
Changes in institutional guidelines and regulation are forcing companies to address their social impacts head on. Examples include the Global Reporting Initiative, FTSE4Good and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, as well as new guidelines from international bodies such as the UN. Looking further ahead, "we will see clearer frameworks emerging on social impact, tighter global goals, and companies naming and tackling their social impacts."
Resources
• Danone's "building a better world" programme
• Nestle's Creating Shared Value programme
• SABMiller's sustainable development work — especially in relation to HIV/Aids
• P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water programme
• Unilever's sustainable living plan
• GE's Ecomagination and Healthymagination initiatives
• Coca-Cola's micro distribution centres (MDC), located to support the local economies of hard-to-reach areas
• Kraft Foods (Cadbury) and the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership (CCP), working with CARE International UK and cocoa farmers
The panel was made up of:
• Alison Braybrooks - managing director of Impact abc • Matt Cooke - social and economic investment campaign director, Business in the Community
• Klara Kozlov - senior advisory manager, Charities Aid Foundation
• Lucy Stone - climate change manager, UNICEF UK
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