Finally the time has come when CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives are not longer a ‘nice to have’ but an absolute must. As the current economic conditionshave caused numerous companies to layoff, the market sentiment is no longer about adoring their innovative product lines, rapid rise to fame, or their impressive quarterly profit growth (this is pre-Q4 2008). Suddenly they have numerous ‘not so happy’ laid off employees and increasingly skeptical consumers, judging their actions on a daily basis. Now, companies never promised to be philanthropic, and therefore their layoffs are a painful but sometimes necessary reaction to today’s challenging market conditions. Yes, I too give pause when writing that (my liberal side combats my pragmatic side), but it simply is the way business is done. In this current reality, it has never been more important to reach out to the community and give back, showing a human and compassionate side to their companies. I understand, in the prevailing mindset of cost-cutting, CSR is potentially one of the first to go, but this would be self-defeating. Now is the time, when companies must become more creative in how they contribute back to society, and economically efficient in their approaches. Some of those ideas include:
Giving employees 2 days off in their contract to work with already established social programs. When business is slow, it is of less impact to allow this time off. organize food and clothing collection on their company premises take on 1 major pro-bono project for a chosen social cause look into negotiating lower nursery fees or gym fees, on behalf of your employees donate part of executive bonuses (5%) to a scholarship program for any current or ex-employees family members
Programs such as these can be debated and picked apart, but instead of analyzing them, let’s just do them and show the human side of companies. And yes, in the true marketing sense, talk about them, but not in a self-important way, rather in a way that shows the company cares and raises the bar for other companies to follow suit.
Comments