Corporate social responsibility (CSR) – a company's responsibility towards wellbeing, society and the environment – is an increasingly important part of business culture. In fact, according to Deloitte research, 87% of millennials believe a company's value can't just be measured in financial terms. Likewise, Regus studies show that over half of Indian and South African employees consider it important that their company carries out CSR initiatives. In Brazil, the figure reaches 86%. Worldwide, 40% of workers believe their sector should still do more for CSR.
For large, global companies, it's difficult to make all employees feel like they're contributing to a CSR goal – on-the-ground social initiatives might not resonate with staff several time zones away in another country. The best way to approach this is to find company-wide initiatives that everyone can participate in.
One simple place to start is the environment – being green is a priority whether you're based in London, Mumbai or San Francisco and initiatives can be rolled out company-wide. Not only that, but cutting back on energy consumption can also make savings for your business, giving you a win-win situation.
Commuting
There are over 1.2 billion cars on the road today. That's a lot of environmentally hazardous emissions – and the number's set to increase to two billion by 2035. What can you do?
- Offer carpool incentives or salary sacrifice schemes for bicycles or rail passes to encourage employees to give up individual transport.
- Consider who really needs to work in the office. If someone rarely has physical meetings and works largely online, promote co-working spaces closer to residential areas to cut down the commute – also allowing you to reduce underused, expensive desk space.
Working practices
Instead of asking employees where they waste the most, as this depends on perception, use overheads to find the biggest areas of consumption – and target them for cutbacks.
- The average US worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year, yet 45% of printed sheets are thrown away within 24 hours. Paperless meetings and printer credits, which allow people to see how much they print, are both simple ways of reducing paper usage.
Encourage staff to turn off monitors when they’re not in use, even if that’s just over lunch break or when they're in a meeting. Statistics show it can reduce computer energy usage by 70%.