Much goes into the planning of a successful business venture. Both established business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs have spent countless hours in preparations to produce the perfect business plan. Business descriptions, sales and marketing plans, cash flow projections have all been analyzed to the most minute of details.
But what many of these gifted business minds fail to incorporate into their business plans is a Corporate Social Responsibility Program. The integration of a social mission into company business plans can pay dividends in a variety of ways.
Connect With Consumers By Promoting Goodwill In The Community
Presenting customers with quality purchasing options is many times not enough to assure the success of a company. The facts indicate that for many consumers it is just as important that a company demonstrates a commitment to aiding communities in their respective fights against social ills. Companies are obviously paying attention to these facts.
More and more companies are offering perks such as paid time off to workers that volunteer for charitable causes. This has played a role in increasing the numbers of corporate employees that regularly volunteer their time.
Customer attitude and response has been well documented. The insurance company Aflac has observed in a recent study that 66% of millennials show preference to companies with respected CSR programs. Millennials have made it quite clear to all that company ethics are paramount to their individual purchasing decisions.
It is important to note that disingenuous efforts at charitable efforts on the part of companies are unlikely to fool consumers. Savvy consumers will often check the authenticity of a company's stand on social issues. This is especially true for millennials.
Workable provides an excellent example of a well thought out Corporate Social Responsibility plan for employers to follow.
Social Media Exposure
Company participation in charitable pursuits is perfect for sharing on social media networks. And sharing these efforts can go a long way in establishing social media presence that is both positive and effective at shaping consumer perception about a company. Do not be shy about reporting to the world your company’s endeavors whenever your CSR program demonstrates its effectiveness at affective tangible positive community impact.
Businesses should take care to focus their social media posts on the cause area they are focused on as well as the collaborative efforts undertaken with non-profits that champion the same causes. This will raise awareness and support for the cause while alerting the community to company efforts to aid in the cause. This is also a great way to build contacts that a good email marketing agency can communicate with later.
Strengthen Company Culture
Employees, like consumers, appreciate being aligned with a company that sharer their own core value system. The creation of a strong company culture can be extremely challenging.
Company culture will strongly benefit from the happiness and sense of fulfillment employees will experience while being employed by a company with a strong commitment to community involvement. Employees that participate in volunteer work sponsored by employers tend to express more pride in working for that employer.
The implementation of an effective CSR must include employee engagement.
Motivation
The life of an entrepreneur can sometimes seem to be filled with insurmountable obstacles. But when fighting social ills like homelessness, illnesses, or other concerns part of a company business plan the company is much more likely to stay the course through hard times. When faced with the possibility of failure the company will find the motivation to make changes necessary to succeed because, in addition to investors and employees, the community itself has an invested interest in the company's success.
In Conclusion
The development of a well thought out Corporate Social Responsibility Program for a company can be vital to potential success. The benefits to companies that effectively execute a CSR are many and have been well-chronicled. Business owners and entrepreneurs who are serious about achieving company success would be well advised to carefully plan and execute a company CSR.
This guest post is courtesy of Robert Cordray.
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