Business doing good: why it’s about more than just a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy
Gifted Women Trustee Richard Greaves shares some insight on the role of business in community:
Most businesses and organisations recognise the importance of having a Corporate Social Responsibility policy. The focus of such policies is usually the environment and ensuring the business is playing its part by conserving energy, reducing consumption, and reducing waste. Sustainability may also feature, however this is often interpreted to refer to the same things. Some policies may specifically mention support for a named charity, or group of charities, whilst others will support the local community.
Having a local community focus helps businesses to become more sustainable, in the longer term. The people who live in the supported community recognise the business and that it supports them – their reputation benefits. This support can be through tangible and visible activities such as providing children’s playground equipment, sponsoring social events such as a community fete, or even a litter-pick at a local beauty spot. Supporting individuals, or groups, with very specific needs can help turn lives around.
Gifted Women helps women who have suffered multiple disadvantage to prosper through employability and work experience, in turn enabling them to contribute to society. Our programme enables women to improve their self-esteem and find meaningful work and reach financial security. And with this comes a reduced likelihood they will reoffend, become homeless, or relapse back into addiction. As well as helping women change their lives for the better, many employers find that by supporting Gifted Women they are able to widen their impact and presence in the local community. Existing employees will naturally talk to their family and friends about how their employer offers work experience placements to women overcoming hardship, and often employees report that their own job role became more meaningful as they were given the opportunity to use their skills and qualities support someone into the workplace. Research shows that having a variety of voices and lived experiences within a colleague group makes for an enriched, more fulfilled and more diverse workforce.
A sense of belonging and being part of a community works both ways and when someone, or a business, is part of a community and actively supports it, then the community will tend to support them, or the business, when needed.
How would your business benefit from greater involvement with your local community if you were to offer a voluntary work placement role to one of the Gifted Women on our employability programme? We would love to hear from you - you can use our employer contact form to get in touch with us here.
Richard Greaves (Trustee & Treasurer)
Richard brings experience as a senior executive in the commercial services sector, as a general manager, consultant, employer, and programme manager. His skills include identifying and focussing on the key things that need to change bringing effective lasting benefits to organisations. He uses these skills as a mentor, offering advice and guidance to individuals who wish to improve their career prospects, as they strive to secure a much-needed job, or climb their career ladder.