If you're in the business of developing software, you've probably heard of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). But what is it, and why is it important? Let’s learn more about its benefits, the criteria for CSR, and the tools available to help you get started. Then, decide whether CSR is a good fit for your company. Hopefully, you'll feel more confident about your company's future, too!
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You’ve likely heard about corporate social responsibility (CSR) in one form or another. Initiatives like Starbucks pledging to donate 50 million meals by the year 2020 or Toms one-for-one mission where a pair of shoes is donated for every pair bought are well-known examples of social responsibility in action.
Over the past decade, CSR has become more important than ever before. Consumers believe that when they use a product or service of a socially responsible company, they are doing their part. The more socially responsible the company, the more supportive the community and consumers become. But CSR isn’t just important for brand awareness or driving consumers. How a business conducts itself, ethically speaking, can change the trajectory of success — including its ability to attract top talent.
If fact, it’s a crucial component of attracting Millennials, with 86% of the generation considering it a priority to work for a business that conducts itself ethically and responsibly. Not to mention, most are willing to take a considerable pay cut to work for such a business. This may just be one generation but think about this. By 2025, roughly 75% of the global workforce will be Millennials. The corporate cultures of most large organizations will be directly shaped by this generation’s habits and expectations
Hence, the value of social responsibility.
Of course, if you’re a startup you’re probably facing financial challenges that come with getting off the ground. In this case, it’s easy to view socially responsible initiatives as a daunting task or even a luxury reserved for larger corporations — after all, there are so many elaborate and wonderful initiatives out there. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
With startups in mind, Embroker, put together this comprehensive guide that outlines how to integrate business ethics and social responsibility at the startup stage. It covers topics like how to prioritize social responsibility, how to give back when you’re a startup on a budget and examples of companies who’ve done it best.
For example, they outline six ways to give back on a startup budget:
1. Start with making internal changes.
Sometimes the easiest way to execute social responsibility is making changes within your company/organization. Can you make changes to your internal startup culture by implementing flexible hours, catered lunches, or other non-traditional perks for your employees? In which people have flexible hours, healthy catered lunches, permission to bring their dogs to work, and a wide variety of perks that fall outside traditional workspace norms.
This may be stereotypical of a startup culture or young workplace but, but what this does is cultivate a strong culture where empathy and awareness of social impacts are top of mind. This can be a powerful tool for building a commitment to other aspects of social responsibility later on down the line.
2. Look at what your immediate community needs
Sometimes, just figuring out where to even get started can feel overwhelming, especially when there are endless ways to get involved in social responsibility.
Try taking this on at a small scale by helping out where your community needs assistance. Maybe it’s volunteering at a local shelter or organizing a beach cleanup. These types of small scale opportunities are a great way to be socially responsible and only cost your time.
3. Start small and ask for help
In other words, lean on the larger community to execute socially responsible initiatives. Maybe you want to organize an event to raise money for charity, but you don’t have the resources. Try asking a local venue to donate their space, a local restaurant to donate food and people from your business to help with logistics. Again, all that takes is time.
4. Lay the groundwork for a sustainable supply chain
If you're a product-based business that deals with manufacturing, this one is for you. Make ethical choices in your supply chain: consider where materials are sourced from, how they’re made and manufactured.
5. Get your board of directors on board with your initiatives
If you’re a startup that’s acquired VC funding, then it will be important to get your investors and board of directors on board with your initiatives. This may seem like a daunting task since these individuals holding the purse strings want to understand the business impacts of CSR initiatives. But if you can build a case as to why this supports your company and it’s the bottom line, and it’s their job to be laser-focused on returns, you might just get their blessing — and maybe even a budget.
6. Give volunteered time off (VTO)
Again, being socially responsible doesn’t have to cost money. Maybe you don’t have a budget or board of investors, but you can offer uptime volunteering.
VTO works just like paid time off. You give employees paid days off to provide volunteer services of their choice. This could even grow into a company-wide effort where you collectively choose an organization and take a company-wide VTO day.
To learn more about ways to apply socially responsible initiatives at the startup stage, check out their complete ethics and social responsibility guide.
The world is changing. Business is changing. And the people with whom you do business are changing. In today’s digitally-enabled world, your customers and clients (whether you operate in the B2C or B2B space) know that they can afford to be fickle. They understand that a plethora of choices is only a Google search away. And if you can’t ably demonstrate that you can meet their needs, you will lose business to your competitors. Sure, SEO plays a part too. But most consumers, especially younger consumers are willing to do their homework to find brands whose ideals and priorities align with theirs.
And a big part of this is showing that you are committed not just to turning a profit, but to turning a profit ethically. Studies show that almost ¾ of millennial consumers would rather pay more to use a business that has a strong ethical focus rather than use one that doesn’t. And if you aren’t catering to these upwardly mobile, cash-rich consumers, you’re missing out on a highly viable target market.
50 shades of ethics
There are many business owners who have found great success by providing ethically conscious consumers with options which help them to live a lower-impact and more sustainable life. Indeed, an ethical focus is no longer a novelty these days, it’s imperative.
Society and business are (thankfully) moving away from the ‘greed is a virtue’ models that have permeated since the late ‘70s and begun putting more focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The great thing about CSR is that it affords businesses a multitude of ways in which it can find more ethical ways of doing business while also helping them stay accountable to the clientele that uses them. Although treating and paying your employees well and ensuring that your customers have a direct means of holding you accountable are both vitally important, it’s also key to be able to demonstrate your eco-cred.
In these increasingly environmentally aware times, you need to be able to show that your operations are considerate of the planet we share and the finite resources that are quickly running out.
Here are some ways to do just that:
Eschew animal products
More and more consumers are going vegan (or at least trying to eat less meat) and eschewing products such as cosmetics which are tested on animals or contain materials derived from animals.
There are many ways in which you can eschew animal products from buying fewer dairy milk and using more plant milk in the break room to ensuring that none of the raw materials that go into the products you make come from animals.
Find a sustainable way to deal with your plastics
Plastic has been a ubiquitous part of modern living since the ‘50s… and our over-reliance upon it for pretty much everything we do has proven disastrous for our planet and particularly our oceans. Marine experts like Dame Ellen MacArthur predict that there will be more plastics than fish in our oceans by 2050 and documentaries like A Plastic Ocean have shown in uncompromising terms just how damaging our plastic fixation has proven to marine plant, bird and animal life.
As such, it’s vital that you deal with your plastic waste in a sustainable way, ensuring that they are duly separated and recycled by a reliable service provider. Nonetheless, recycling is still less efficient than not producing plastic waste at all.
Many businesses are investing heavily in plant-based or biodegradable alternatives to plastics in all aspects of their operations from packaging to products which bring us to...
By all means, use branded goods… but choose ethical promo items
Finally, promotional branded products are a wonderful way to create positive associations with your brand by giving people what we all want… something for nothing.
But the disposable (and unsustainable) nature of many of these products, especially those made from plastic, is no longer appealing to ethically focused consumers. Indeed, it can even put them off your brand.
The good news, however, is that no matter what you want to give away to prospective customers at trade shows and other events, there’s a more eco-friendly way to do it. Just take a look at these cool eco-alternatives which give all the value to new prospects but at none of the ecological cost. From biodegradable tote bags to reusable bamboo cups and even eco-friendly USB sticks made from sustainable bamboo, there are a wealth of ways in which you can demonstrate your ethical focus through your freebies.
Please note, this article contains affiliate links.
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