Summary: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly important to employees and consumer. It may be time to create a plan to promote your CSR activities internally.
CSR has been at the forefront of many company business plans at an extraordinarily increasing rate over the past 5-10 years. According to SCORE, the number of companies publishing a CSR report has skyrocketed since 2011:
- 2011: 20%
- 2012: 53%
- 2013: 72%
- 2014: 75%
- 2015: 81%
It’s been proven at this point that not only does CSR promote well-being to those served by it, but it has a growing ROI for companies engaging in those activities. At the same time, the workforce is seeking out organizations who have a strong policy towards helping others, the environment, or any way that some revenues are directed towards helping those in need. 56% of companies polled noticed a greater ability to attract and retain employees after implementing a corporate social responsibility policy.
With that being said, here are a few ways that you should be setting up your intranet to communicate CSR activities & events to employees.
Showcase Activities
Make sure to publish news stories related to annual events to raise awareness for what your company is doing. Use your calendars as well or even create a separate calendar specific to this type of event. Oftentimes the rest of the world may know your core values, but it becomes lesser known or observed by employees, so use your intranet as a vehicle to tell your story internally and remind employees what your organization truly values.
Media
Post all media related items to your intranet. Visual content resonates with people much more strongly than simply text itself, so add videos, images, and social widgets to your intranet to help the rest of the company relive the experience!
Team Sites
You should consider creating an entire site dedicated to corporate social responsibility events. You can copy over any applications that make sense for a social wellness site, including photo albums, fundraising/CSR news, and calendars to register for events.
Generate Ideas
Many apps exist to bring the cumulative knowledge and creativity of your entire company together! Create discussion boards or idea shares to combine ideas and help create the most optimal CSR plan in sync with your corporate culture, vision, and mission.
If you want to create a culture that attracts and retains strong employees, make sure to not only engage in some social responsibility activities but show your workforce what you’re doing. They’ll feel more connected to an organization that cares about the well being of the environment and the people who live in it.
If you have other ways to promote corporate social responsibility internally, let me know in the comments!
