Corporate Social Responsibility: All You Need to Know
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a way of integrating social, economic and environmental benefits and imperatives into the management process of the company. It is the duty that companies fulfil in order to give back to society.
Sustainable development has to be aligned with the private enterprises to get them to work comprehensively and not base their decisions on profit alone as a factor. But for an organisation to be truly sustainable, it needs to minimise all the negative impacts on the environment and function as per the expectations of the society.
Having a sense of good social responsibility also helps the organisation to build its brand image and show people that they care. According to a survey by Cone Communications, 87% of consumers are willing to pay more for socially responsible companies. This can be routed to the fact that people want to do their bit in saving the world and a socially responsible corporation can give them an easy way to do so. Psychologically, a person would want to invest in something that is socially responsible because it gives them a reason to believe that they have helped in a way.
Corporations are now identifying the importance of CSR and are helping in building a better society and ultimately a better world for the future. According to the statistics provided by Double the Donation research, 93% of the world’s largest 250 companies are now publishing annual CSR reports. One reason for this is to improve their brand image and to let the world know what they are doing. Moreover, this also serves another purpose as it gives other organisations a means to understand the importance of CSR and adopt it consistently.
CSR can be of different types according to the beneficiaries, let us look at the four types of CSR:
Environment-Focused Corporate Social Responsibility
This type of CSR mainly focusses on reducing the negative environmental impacts that the organisation might be causing. It is the duty of sustainability towards the environment and can be implemented by reducing the company’s carbon footprint, producing less harmful by-products in the manufacturing stage and using renewable energy sources in day-to-day functioning.
Community-Based Corporate Social Responsibility
Helping the community that we live in is always an essential factor in CSR. Community-based CSR involves creating associations with organisations that are helping the community in one way or the other. These organisations are usually non-profit and require funding from corporations to support the very community they are living in positively.
Human Resource-Based Corporate Social Responsibility
Helping around in the society is an important factor but so is helping the ones inside the corporation. It is vital for organisations to focus on the wellbeing of their employees and have compassion towards them. This can be in the form of providing leaves when needed or giving financial help to employees facing a crisis.
Charity-Based Corporate Social Responsibility
Charity-based CSR is the most common type of CSR for organisations. This includes helping and improving society by giving the charitable institutions financial help either directly or through a charity partner. The charitable cause may be a Cancer Foundation or a Disaster relief fund. The corporations help in the upliftment of the causes these charitable organisations are associated with and give them the much-needed boost.
The different kinds of CSR help organisations in multiple areas. They not just assist in improving the brand image of their organisation but also in various other aspects of the overall growth of the brand.
Let us look at some advantages that come with adopting successful CSR:
Employee Satisfaction
As human psychology suggests, humans like having a sense of pride in the organisation or institution they are working with. CSR helps in building a positive image among the employees, and an employee who has a positive image for the brand is less likely to break the association with the company. People would also want to work with you if you have a successful CSR strategy and more options will ultimately lead to a better workforce.
Customer Satisfaction
According to various research conducted on this subject, a robust CSR strategy is likely to improve the customers’ attitude towards the organisation. According to a study held, 88% of consumers said they would prefer buying from a company engaging in activities to support the society.
Public Image of The Brand
CSR is very helpful in creating a positive image of the company. Adopting strong CSR strategies ensures that companies do not have to spend a lot of money on advertising and public relations. It ensures that companies get free publicity and good word-of-mouth advertising and marketing.
Cost Reductions
The typical image of CSR is that of spending money for companies, but that does not always have to be true. A good CSR plan, when implemented correctly, can save money as it helps in hiring efficient and better staff, implementing policies that save energy and money, managing potential risks with ease and investing less in traditional marketing techniques.
Creating More Associations
A CSR plan requires many associations to be formed in order to be successful. These associations can help identify new business opportunities as being associated with more entities means having more people talk about you and refer you. This also helps in maintaining a good connection with society and in turn getting all the insights faster and better.
Sustainable Future Plan
CSR does not reflect in the short-term. It is meant to be an elaborate long-term plan. We look at sustainability when we talk about CSR and having a sustainable business plan ensures that you have better future opportunities for growth and improvement.
We, at RTDS, are doing our bit of social responsibility by helping the society, the environment and the education of our country. All three of these are crucial factors for our community, and they have to be dealt with in order to create a better future. You can read all about our bit in saving the world at our Social Responsibility Page.
These organisations are acting as helping hands to so many people around. Be their helping hands. Do your part in saving the world and giving back to the society that gave you so much.