Ultimate guide to Purpose-driven CSR

Ebook

The ultimate guide to purpose-driven CSR: How to drive impact & engage employees

Table of Contents What is corporate social responsibility, and why does it matter?

Purpose-driven CSR and Employee Engagement How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR Examples of CSR initiatives Launching & managing your purpose-driven CSR program Reporting on your purpose-driven CSR Your next steps in your purpose-driven CSR

Table of Contents

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What is corporate social responsibility, and why does it matter?

What is corporate social responsibility, and why does it matter?

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Corporate social responsibility: What is CSR, really?

A number of organisations have defined

Movements like the UN Sustainable

CSR, from the United Nations, the European Union, to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

In a nutshell, CSR covers companies’ practices to be a responsible corporate citizen for their shareholders, employees, customers, communities and society at large. It’s about acting

Development Goals, B Corporations, and the UN Global Compact are driving the CSR agenda forward, moving CSR to the forefront of a company’s strategy.

for profit, people, and the planet (the so-called “triple bottom line”).

In other words, companies consider not just shareholders, but all of their stakeholders in the way they operate – including economic, social and environmental aspects of their business.

Over the years, as the importance of sustainability and sustainable development have grown and these terms are sometimes used interchangeably with corporate social

While there are differences, they all embody the same principles and aim to have a positive impact on society.

Socially responsible organisations can be traced back to the mid-to-late 1800s and came hand-in-hand with philanthropy efforts and worker wellbeing in factories throughout the industrial revolution.

However, CSR really settled into its own in the early 1950s with the American economist, Howard Bowen. Bowen published Social Responsibilities of the Businessman, and businesses began to take note of how they need to look after staff, and their communities.

responsibility. The emergence of shared value creation or ESG (environmental, social & governance) also overlap with CSR, but speak to different audiences like academics, governments or investors.

What is corporate social responsibility, and why does it matter?

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Why is CSR important?

To some extent, we were all responsible

Yet, it doesn’t stop there. CSR is not

—and still are—for positively affecting the world. Although today, consumers feel the heat more than ever. The newly

only crucial for our planet and its people’s environmental sustainability, but it’s essential for our economy as

coined “eco-anxiety” is flooding social media feeds thanks to influencing characters like Greta Thunberg and Lauren Singer.

well. An efficient CSR initiative has the power to increase employee engagement. Companies with higher levels of engagement are 22% more productive and can create a 50% higher revenue per employee.

Eco-anxiety has encouraged younger generations to live more aware of their environmental impact and efforts to

Employees today want to do more than

better the world, and now they’re looking to their employers to help them

work for a company; they want to work with a company and for a larger

get there.

purpose.

What is corporate social responsibility, and why does it matter?

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Benefits of CSR Customer & employee loyalty Loyalty is hard to build today but can be highly rewarding. CSR initiatives allow people to witness your business’s kindness and consistency; two factors helping build trust and loyalty.

Bottom line financials It’s not just staff engagement and retention that adds to a more financially valuable company by using CSR. A study from 191 sample firms listed on the Korea exchange showed a positive correlation between a firm’s financials and business value alongside Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.

Local and global impact We touched on it earlier, but the global impact your business can make on the world will always be welcomed, little or large.

Partnership, external relations & press opportunities If you’re in a saturated market and are often struggling to get press traction with your product, consider ways to get positive attention via your operations.

CSR is a way to promote who you are and what you do with acts of goodness.

Unique selling points Whether it gives your employer branding a USP or your product a USP, a strong CSR strategy can help your business stand out from the competition.

Learn more about the business benefits of investing in a CSR program here

Mission & vision alignment Strategically considered CSR initiatives can radically help your business align with its mission and vision. It doesn’t always have to come from your product; a good CSR initiative can be the solution to bringing Purpose to the workplace, creating a shared initiative in line with the employer’s and employee’s values.

Purpose-driven CSR & Engagement

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Purpose-driven CSR & Employee Engagement

Purpose-driven CSR & Employee Engagement

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Purpose-driven CSR and Employee Engagement One of the greatest benefits of purpose-driven CSR is that it can have an impact on employee engagement. In this section, we’ll dive into what employee engagement really means and how your initiatives can contribute to it.

What is Employee Engagement?

When employees are more engaged, everyone wins: They do, their employers do, and customers too.

Rather than boosting engagement with sporadic events, it should be an ongoing practice within your organisation.

How do we define employee engagement?

Employee engagement is defined as the emotional commitment an employee has to the organisation and its goals.

There’s an enthusiasm and commitment to the organisation, its mission, and the products or services provided.

What does an engaged employee look like?

To make it less abstract, let’s take a look at how you can recognise an engaged employee — or the lack of them. Engaged employees are invested in their work and workplace. They are 5.3 times more likely to recommend an improvement for your company.They are also 8.9 times more likely to recommend the company as a place of work.

Engaged employees are more inclined to keep learning, to challenge themselves and invest in their work.

They are not just aware of the company’s purpose, but actively align with it. If that’s still a bit vague, think about the question: ‘’So, what is it you do?’’. A question we’ve all gotten, surely.

But in the way you approach your answer, you can find out how engaged you actually are in your job.

Do you jump to job titles or descriptions? Or would you answer in terms of what the company as a whole is doing, and how you are contributing to that?

Purpose-driven CSR & Employee Engagement

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Ever heard of the janitor former US President John F. Kennedy met at NASA? When the President asked him what he did, he answered: “I’m helping put a man on the moon!” Now, that’s engagement.

make a positive impact on the world and watch engagement skyrocket.

What is Employee Purpose?

Engagement & Purpose

And so how does engagement tie to Purpose? What does it mean for an employee to connect their Purpose with the company?

There are different kinds of engagement, and different ways to engage employees. Learning and development opportunities are important drivers of engagement. But all too often, organisations depend on rewards, perks and benefits to boost employee engagement. While this may be successful every once in a while, it is hard to maintain in the long run: What kind of perks are still surprising and valuable enough to top the last one?

Employee Purpose is the sense of meaning employees have behind their work and how their values align with a business. It’s all about enabling and encouraging employees to bring purpose to their professional environment and working life.

A purpose-driven workplace is one where employees have the opportunity to work on what is meaningful for them.

Real engagement boils down to something deeper: We all want to feel like we are making a difference.

Some examples might include:

Adding meaning to what’s done in a workplace can be done by investing in the social responsibility of the company as a whole, and allowing employees to contribute to this. From giving back to communities to volunteering: Help your employees

Purpose-driven CSR & Employee Engagement

Volunteering (online or physically) to develop their skills and give back Monetary and goods donations for causes that matter to them Taking care of their physical and mental wellbeing Trying new habits to be more sustainable to protect our planet Freedom to choose causes that matter on an individual level

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What’s the difference between Purpose, mission, and vision?

Why is Employee Purpose important?

Your company’s Purpose is supported by your mission and vision statement— it’s at the core of it all. A company’s vision answers what the world looks like when the company is a success.

Employee Purpose isn’t a bonus to having a Purpose statement that others agree with, it’s a business strategy that your leadership team works on and strengthens over time— and employees are driving it. 77% of new hires and 76% of current employees are the primary drivers for purpose-driven companies, sitting above customers and other business stakeholders.

A company’s mission statement answers how the company intends to achieve that success in the world. A Purpose statement answers a company’s reason for being in the first place.

Each drives the other, and today, each needs to be focused around a better society if it hopes to succeed.

“Innovation cannot advance in a positive direction unless it’s grounded in genuine and continued efforts to lift up all of humanity.”

– Marc Benioff, CEO Salesforce

It contributes towards business growth goals and employee acquisition and retention goals. Employees that find work meaningful are more likely to be engaged with what they do.

Engaging employees through purpose is about connecting your company purpose with their individual purpose. A study by Mckinsey showed that purposeful employees are more likely— than those not doing so— to sustain or improve their levels of work effectiveness, and have 5x higher signs of positive wellbeing.

The same study also showed purposeful employees are 4x more engaged, and engaged employees bring a wealth of benefits to the workplace, including pulling 147% more earnings per share than competitors with low engagement levels.

Purpose-driven CSR & Employee Engagement

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SOURCE

Engaging employees through purpose is about connecting your company purpose with their individual purpose. A study by Mckinsey showed that purposeful employees are more likely— than those not doing so— to sustain or improve their levels of work effectiveness, and have 5x higher signs of positive wellbeing.

“Profits are in no way inconsistent with purpose – in fact, profits and purpose are inextricably linked.”

– Larry Fink, CEO BlackRock

The same study also showed purposeful employees are 4x more engaged, and engaged employees bring a wealth of benefits to the workplace, including pulling 147% more earnings per share than competitors with low engagement levels.

Purpose-driven CSR & Employee Engagement

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How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

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What is a CSR strategy?

There are four types of CSR categories, and a CSR strategy helps you define which one is best for your business, ways in which you can implement it, and track the results of your efforts.

The four areas of CSR are: Philanthropic responsibility Environmental responsibility Ethical responsibility Economic responsibility A good CSR strategy builds a business case around how your chosen areas of CSR can integrate into your business growth plan, and makes sure that your initiative stays on track, hitting every KPI along the way.

How does CSR integrate into business strategy?

Linking your CSR strategy to your company Purpose and values is vital.

Once you’ve identified them, this will enable you to align your CSR strategy to it. You can then show how it’s contributing to your long term strategy and support continued investment in your CSR program.

There are a few different ways CSR can integrate into business strategy. It depends on your company's needs and goals. Look at your company’s strategic goals to help you shape your CSR strategy, for example, whether it’s to have an impact, engage or retain employees, or to engage consumers.

CSR can help with employee retention and employer branding, so can be aligned with your Human Resources strategy. It’s also shown to increase customer retention and loyalty.

In fact, 68% of online consumers in the U.S. and UK would consider ending a relationship with a brand because of poor or misleading CSR. It can, therefore integrate into your sales growth strategy or customer success strategy.

SOURCE

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

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How to launch a CSR strategy in 8 steps Let’s dive into the thick of it. Above, we looked at what a Corporate Social Responsibility strategy is, here are the steps you need to take to ensure your strategy runs smoothly.

“Corporate Purpose is how a company delivers its core business objectives, in lock-step.

There are no gaps between what it does for the planet, its people, and society."

— Isabel Kelly, Profit with Purpose

1. Define the concept Especially today, CSR can mean many different things to different people. It depends on someone’s culture and past experiences with CSR that will determine their opinion and definition of it.

At this stage, it’s important to speak to and understand all stakeholders’ concerns; leadership, employees,

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

consumers, professional organisations or unions, local communities or environmental groups. Once you’ve understood concerns, you can consider where there is a match, and how your CSR program can address these.

Define or redefine what CSR means to your business, and make sure the entire business is on the same page. Once you know everyone understands what CSR is, then you can start discussing it without bias or misconceptions.

2. Understand the benefits Before your CSR strategy even begins, you need to get the project approved, and to do that requires buy-in from internal stakeholders.

It’s important to spend a lot of time researching the benefits of CSR and find some example businesses that have profited from having a successful CSR plan in place.

Once you have an idea of the ways you can benefit from CSR, this will help guide your business case—spoiler alert for step three—to one that is more specific for your business.

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“The global system right now doesn’t work, and there’s a need for change. Stakeholder Governance is a key driver for change and to support people's willing to engage in climate and social emergencies.”

— Jonathan Normand, B Lab

3. Get project approval You may have seen this one coming, but launching a CSR plan does require a certain amount of budget and human resources from your business. You can certainly use tools to optimise the CSR experience, however, until you get to that point you’re going to need people power. Put together a business case for implementing a CSR strategy and make sure you include all of the potential benefits a unique CSR initiative can bring to your business.

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

Your business case doesn’t need to include the initiative you’re going to be launching or even the tools and people needed to create success. It needs to be broader, cover what CSR can do for your business, and the initial resources required to kick the project off.

4. Set project goals Next up on your list for implementing and launching a CSR plan is setting goals. These goals and KPIs showcase your strategy is positively impacting your business, and that your CSR project is on track.

In the early stages, they can be anything from winning board member buy-in, have 100% of employees understand what CSR is, host 3-5 meetings with potential CSR SaaS providers, ehem we’re right here, to name a few.

Further down the line, they can be more KPI-orientated like employee engagement rates, online brand sentiment, or lower customer churn.

All of these goals are designed around making progress to launching.

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5. A current CSR analysis A current analysis includes a full review of any CSR initiative you currently have running, be it officially or unofficially, within your company.

Perhaps employees have set up their form of a socially responsible initiative that can be something bigger with new support from the company. For example, fundraisers like bake sales, community running groups, volunteering days, in-office recycling, meat-free Fridays, or eliminating singleuse plastics.

Or, perhaps there are small acts of kindness floating around the office that inspire a broader initiative idea. For example, an employee of the month award, team brunches, budding office plant life or wellbeing initiatives.

If you’ve been hosting CSR initiatives for a while, but they just haven’t been taking off, then look at the project tools and communication styles you’re using to support it. Perhaps there are some operational changes to the cause you can introduce to help it run smoother Try to identify what may be the problem with the current solutions you have and find new ways to approach the problem. Look at all of your current

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

areas of CSR and note down what you currently have. Bring these pieces together to form your strategy – so that they connect to what your employees are interested in and the broader business strategy, including long term goals.

6. Do your initiative research You have the benefits of what CSR can bring to your business, you’ve won company buy-in, now it’s time to find your initiative and CSR tools.

This stage includes researching social and environmental initiatives you think will be a good fit for your company Purpose, mission, and vision and those that answer employees’ values.

Corporate Social Responsibility research also includes looking at the initiatives of others in your industry.

How are other businesses aligning CSR to their company Purpose? It could inspire some great ideas or possible collaborations of your own.

Lastly, this step includes different tools you may need to support your CSR efforts. Consider technology that empowers your employees to take the initiative and communication tools to help stay on top of everything.

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7. Launch your CSR campaign Once you’ve done all of the above, you should be in a comfortable position to launch your CSR campaign— it’s potentially the most important part of your CSR plan.

You get one shot at launching it as effectively as possible, so it’s the time to make it count. Your CSR launch needs to be communicated clearly to the right stakeholders; this includes: Employees Shareholders or investors Fans and followers External stakeholders, partners, & local communities Press Customers Make sure that each of these groups has a clear communication plan and priority so that your initiative launches with maximum impact. For example, your employees need to know the ins and outs of your initiative before your fans and followers.

8. Manage your program to success Last on your list is the maintenance of your CSR campaign or campaigns. What KPIs or goals have you set? Consider all types of goals.

For example, if your initiative was to plant 100 trees by planting one for every time an employee took a bike to work instead of driving, then consider every goal around this goal.

How many trees have you planted?

How many individual employees have biked to work?

Has your employee engagement rate and happiness increased?

Consider your larger Corporate Social Responsibility mission, but also consider the smaller KPIs and data points that help you get there.

It’s also a good idea to collect qualitative feedback alongside quantitative feedback. Ask employees how they’re feeling towards your CSR initiatives. If they’re not engaging, then how can you adapt them to make them more relatable, offer them more choice, and win employees’ interest?

Let’s dive a little deeper into getting approval, how can you get your CEO’s buy-in?

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

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Convincing your CEO 4 key steps to get your Employee Purpose Program off the ground Getting stakeholders and decision makers' buy-in in your new program can be a challenge, which is why we've put together some key steps to focus on when you’re trying to get a program like this up and running in your organisation.

Highlight the broad benefits to the business and employees. Make sure to highlight how an Employee Purpose program can make a positive impact in many ways. It never hurts to spell them out! You'll find some more ideas in our presentation template, with reputable sources to back them up.

Get the toolkit to convince your CEO. Learn more.

1. Start with the Why? In order to get buy-in from your team you need to explain the why behind your thought process. The first step is to work out what the problem or opportunity is, explain it, suggest a solution with a timeframe in order to address it.

“Your business’s vision was most likely centred around serving society or a need.”

— Isabel Kelly, Profit with Purpose

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

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2. Propose possible solutions

3. Outline the implementation

Whether you want to try and run your program manually, or maybe you want

Now you have shared your preferred solution, it’s time to explain the implementation process and what next steps look like.

to leverage a partner to maximise the impact and participation you can offer several options to stakeholders, with specific details about each one. It’s also important to emphasize the pros and cons of each to show your research has been done.

Be sure to: Connect it to your company values Connect it to your internal

For example: Think of focus areas (causes, type of activities, etc), eventual internal policy and key goals of program Prepare internal communication for launch and beyond Track and report the program results, and continually improve it

initiatives Share your recommended solution

How to build a purpose-driven CSR strategy

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ROI: Making the case for purposedriven CSR

ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR

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When it comes to implementing your Corporate Purpose, there are a lot of stakeholdersyou’ll need onboard.

Employees, customers, leadership, investors, press, everyone needs tounderstand your Purpose, as well as the whys and hows driving it. We think something has to be said across the entire company, with no exceptions.

Today, purpose-driven CSR is about facts and figures. There are clear and conventional business benefits that come with it.

Jasmin Khalifa of PwC Switzerland, says it comes down to 3 key factors:

2. Communication Find clear and concise ways to explain the Corporate Purpose and reasoning behind it. Usecommunication channels that already exist within your organisation to your advantage.

3. Finding the link Find clear and concise ways to explain the Corporate Purpose and reasoning behind it. Find links in what employees do every day so that it becomes a part of the employee experience.

1. Long-term perspective

“Like a tree, a strong Purpose needs time to grow. You cannot start talking about Purpose today and expect it to bear fruit tomorrow.”

— Jasmin Khalifa, Head of Corporate Responsibility, PwC Switzerland Ensure that you instill a long-term perspective into every stakeholder. It’s important theyunderstand that results will come in time.

ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR

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Reporting: the key to making the case Reporting is vital to telling the story of what you’ve done.

“You've got a broad number of internal and external people that you need to report to, against different frameworks, such as the SDGs or the Dow Jones index or whatever you've chosen to use as your framework.

And you need to do internal storytelling, but you need to also start reporting more than just inputs. So not just how many activities you did or how much you gave, but how that then shows progress against your objective, and how that ultimately shows impact.”

— Isabel Kelly, Profit with Purpose That’s why you need to set your metrics from the start.

ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR

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As we've seen, CSR is no longer a niceto-have; it’s a need-to-have and CSR comes in many forms. Businesses, little or large, are expected to lead the way in way in creating a progressive CSR program that gives back to people and our planet and one that continuously shifts depending on the current social and economic climate. When done right, it comes with many benefits for your society, your employees, and your company - let's recap so you can make the case:

2. CSR improves bottom line financials When you’re trying to win buy-in from leadership for your CSR program, it often falls to financials. Stakeholders want to know if this investment will see a positive ROI. While some numbers are a little long-winded to get to, CSR and sustainable initiatives have positively affected business bottom-line.

1. CSR increases employee engagement There has been extensive research proving that CSR and a strong sense of employee Purpose actively contribute to increased employee engagement.

Employee engagement is not just a KPI to measure CSR effectiveness; it’s a positive metric to further other business performance statistics.

Engaged employees have a 17% increase in productivity, are 21% more profitable, and can have 41% lower absenteeism. Translating this into financials, disengaged employees cost businesses between $450 and $550 billion annually.

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3. CSR supports local and global communities For all of the fantastic benefits your business gets from showcasing your CSR initiatives, it can be easy to overlook its reason for being in the first place. CSR gives people the leverage and the platform they need to make a difference in local and global communities. Companies are often collections of like-minded, talented people working towards a broader vision. If you can find a CSR program that’s in line with those people and their mission, then your business truly has the opportunity to create a substantial positive impact. TOMS is a fantastic example of how a product-led CSR initiative can support global communities.

SOURCE The TOMS CSR initiative drives their company mission and is at the forefront of their product. The shoe brand has positively impacted close to 100 million lives globally, committed $6.5 million to impact grants, and provided over 700k weeks of safe water. Now imagine the impact we’ll see if more major brands followed suit.

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SOURCE

4. Contributes to the United

5. Increases investment

Nations’ 17 Sustainable

opportunities

Development Goals

Today, global sustainable investment is now over $30 trillion worldwide—up

Building off our last point and often a great reference for businesses struggling to pick a CSR route to go down. You have the power to take your CSR initiatives globally and work toward answering one—or more— of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. By creating a CSR push towards answering one of these goals, you’ll be joining part of the global “to-do list for people and planet.”— UN Secretary, General Ban Kimoon.

ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR

68% since 2014 and 10x since 2004. In January 2021, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink echoed this in his letter to CEOs, arguing that climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects. In 2020 letter, he explains how the $7 trillion investment firm will shift toward sustainable investing, putting it on par with financial returns.

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“While government must lead the way in this transition, companies and investors also have a meaningful role to play.”

— BlackRock chairman and CEO Larry Fink With recent notable investments like Marshall Wace targeting $1 billion for a brand new green hedge fund that aims to trade shares based on ecological and moral qualities— investment opportunities are making giant leaps toward conscious change.

6. Presents press opportunities As we've seen , impactful CSR can get excellent press. If your business is ever struggling to gain online popularity and press interest, your CSR initiative could be your route to market. Creating a CSR program that gets you noticed will see a fantastic boost in your brand awareness and overall online brand affinity.

However, be cautious about the why behind your CSR efforts. CSR that’s not authentic has been called greenwashing; if your CSR initiative seems too out of line with your mission and values then people can question its purpose, even though it comes with good intent.

ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR

Research has shown that employee beliefs behind CSR initiatives can impact workplace attitudes, trust in top management, organisation pride, job satisfaction, and even performance.

Your employees are your biggest brand ambassadors— lead with authenticity, and authentic press opportunities will soon follow.

7. Increases customer retention and loyalty Excellent CSR gives a company a chance to showcase consistency and win loyalty, which ultimately converts into customer retention and increased sales. It dates back to Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion and proves to be a fantastic way for businesses to showcase they’re trustworthy.

Research shows that 87% of Americans are more likely to buy a product from a company that they can align their values with, and over half of all consumers are willing to pay extra for a product if they’re buying from a company with a sturdy CSR plan.

Have faith in your CSR initiative, and ensure they align with your customers’ values. In doing so, your customers will place their trust in your business and remain loyal to your shared mission.

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8. CSR improves employer branding Last on our list, but certainly not least, is the employer branding benefits that good CSR initiatives can generate.

It can be a struggle to attract and retain talent. Still, research has shown that 82% of Gen Z workers consider CSR a significant factor when deciding on their next employer, and 66% would consider a pay cut if it meant working for a more socially responsible company.

However, it doesn’t stop at the younger generations. LinkedIn found that 75% of

ROI: Making the case for purpose-driven CSR

candidates research a company’s online reputation before applying for arole. Plus, CR Magazine found that 75% of Americans would not take a job with a company with a poor corporate responsibility reputation.

Need more convincing? 92% of all employees would consider leaving their role if presented with an offer by a company with an excellent corporate reputation.

Don’t underestimate the power a good CSR initiative can do for your recruitment and staff retention strategies.

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Examples of CSR initiatives

Examples of CSR initiatives

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Examples of CSR initiatives CSR takes many different shapes and forms, but is ultimately about contributing positively to society.

Corporate social responsibility initiatives operate on scales of all sizes and range from community projects, to developing socially and environmentally sustainable corporate policies to advocating for social justice causes.

The most important thing is that your initiative makes a positive difference, integrates Purpose into the workplace and is relevant to your company’s mission.

Want concrete examples? There are tons of responsible businesses out there today implementing innovative initiatives and making a positive impact.

Keep reading for a few inspiring examples of corporate social responsibility in action.

But before we dive into the specific examples, we want to cover a few important points about what counts as Purpose-driven.

Examples of CSR initiatives

What areas of CSR initiatives fall under Purpose-driven initiatives?

Purpose-driven initiatives can be described in simple terms: they’re the ones that mean something to your employees and that are linked with your Corporate Purpose - your company’ reason for being.

Frontiers, for instance, has a Purposedriven program that reaches over 50% of its employees, and it came naturally.

Their employees would reach out to HR, asking for help in their initiatives, from bake sales to marathon running and everything else under the sun.

It made sense, because it’s what mattered to their employees. It’s what they asked for. So Frontiers centralised their ad hoc initiatives into one holistic Purpose program and unified it on a platform.

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But it’s not just having a charity on the side or a CSR-initiative as an add-on. A Purpose-driven initiative is one that shows that your whole company—every department—lives and breathes the Purpose. It’s one that makes a fundamental impact across the company, its stakeholders, customers, and the world.

The four key pillars of a Purpose-driven program underpin: Environment (planet) Social (people) Economic (profit) Governance (transparency and accountability) So even more than being something your employees want—it must be an initiative that demonstrates that your company lives this Purpose from the core.

How does Diversity, Equity & Inclusion fit into a CSR program?

Corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity and inclusion need to work together. Equal treatment and opportunity is a social issue, and your CSR program is in a unique position to influence executive decision-making when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

If you structure your DEI and CSR as a partnership, your company’s philanthropic and social strategy will include and focus on the diverse values and perspectives of your stakeholders, which is what’s most important.

Especially today, in the context of employers making anti-racist statements, it’s important, once again, that their actions align with their talk.

Anything less, and it’s easy to be seen as a virtue signaler and lose the trust of your customers and employees.

"It’s not just our partners who benefit, our employees have the unique possibility to develop new perspectives and stretch their skills, while taking something back to their daily lives and professional roles – so it’s a big benefit for both sides." ― Emilie Dorlin, Johnson & Johnson Switzerland

Examples of CSR initiatives

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"We've made diversity and inclusion one of our primary company objectives, with the goal of long-term sustainable change. We are setting time aside so that members of leadership are able to meet with our diverse team members one-on-one in order to listen to how they feel and get feedback on how we can make improvements to our company culture. We are also looking to diversify the models and influencers that we work with in an effort to represent all backgrounds."

Sustainability programs Patagonia is an American outdoor clothing brand that’s been around since 1973. They’re largely considered trailblazers of corporate social responsibility and consider themselves “an activist company.”

Patagonia focuses on climate change issues and reducing their environmental impact by working with renewable energy, encouraging clothing longevity and repairs and reducing their carbon footprint. They also impose a “Earth Tax” on themselves by donating 1% of their sales to environmental nonprofits.

Employee wellbeing programs The reason you’re building a Purpose is for your people: and that starts with your employees. Showing employees that you care about their wellbeing, and that your company is a place that they can grow, feel safe and stay healthy, is an important part of supporting them to be their best.

– Brian Lim, CEO of iHeartRaves

Examples of CSR initiatives

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NextJump does a great job at

these partnerships are important, what

prioritising employee wellbeing. They have a Director of Health and Wellness

can you do as a company to cascade your corporate Purpose down on an

on staff, and pre-COVID they had fridges and snack bins stocked with healthy food and an on-site fitness centre with trainers.

individual level, and have them connect with the company’s Purpose while living their own?

They were voted the Healthiest

There are a few ways, and all of them entail involving the employee:

Employer in New York City, because they rightly believe that healthy employees perform best. NextJump

Ask your employees what they care about so they are involved and can take action to connect it.

also provides an environment that encourages their employees to fail repeatedly in the goal to learn and grow. Their Better Me program includes both ongoing and one-off initiatives like Toast Masters, Next Jump University,

Communicate often and across a variety of channels and formats, from a townhall, webinar, emails, to your intranet.

Train middle management and offer resources to help them

mentorships and even a dance competition.

understand and communicate the importance of Purpose to their teams.

Embed your Purpose in the employee experience - from hiring, to onboarding, to development, to retirement, create deliberate moments for your employees to connect their Purpose with your Corporate Purpose activities. For example, through microvolunteering during employee onboarding.

How can you get individual employees to connect with the company’s Purpose?

Coalitions and partnerships are often managed by a central team. The CSR team talks to the nonprofit, and employees may not end up not being very involved in the process. While

Examples of CSR initiatives

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Launching & managing your purpose-driven CSR program

Launching & managing your purpose-driven CSR program

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How to launch a purpose-driven CSR program When launching a new company-wide program for employees, the question of timing often comes up among HR and

We’ve found that the most impactful launches are ones where companies have a specific campaign to show their

CSR professionals. Especially when things change so quickly.

How can we make the most of the launch to kick off an impactful

support and is well worth the investment to launch your program on the right foot.

program and maximise participation?

How can we make this relevant to what is happening in the world?

What other internal programs are being launched and how can we ensure alignment?

Like for most questions, it depends.

That being said, we’ve found that there are best practices that work particularly well to help guide your decision.

A well-planned communication strategy is key to engaging your employees from day one. And it can all be done online.

Here are some ideas for launch activities:

Collect testimonials Get testimonials from champions or the management team (or both!) and share them through your social media and internal communications channels.

Nothing will convince your employees to participate better than a positive comment from a colleague or leader.

Introduce the program via online workshops Share the objectives of the program.

Why would employees want to participate? Include fun activities to get

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your employees motivated to start

offer to match donations made during

contributing to your program. Some examples of fun and inspiring activities

your launch to show your support. As an example, if an employee decides to

could be: An interactive online presentation from a nonprofit A “pub quiz” about some of today’s

donate $20 to a nonprofit close to their heart, the company commits to donate $20 as well, to the same nonprofit.

There are lots of variations with a

environmental issues

Create a video Get together with the leadership team and champions and create a teaser video to get your employees excited about the launch.

Empower everyone to pick a cause with a voting campaign Give your employees a voice in your program to truly engage them from Day 1, by letting them vote for a cause, for example, from a selection of projects related to your corporate purpose. This works particularly well for donations, which you can also tie in with a donation matching campaign. If you have a grant budget, it’s well worth it!

similar objective, to boost awareness and participation by offering meaningful rewards and incentives to your employees.

For example: Offer donations for platform signups Plant a tree for good actions taken: Some platforms have built-in gamification elements like a virtual points system that accumulates as your teams take action. You can associate a certain number of points with a tree planted to encourage action!

Step count challenge: Combine wellbeing and positive impact by matching every step taken by your employees with a donation.

Match donations over your launch period You can also combine your voting campaign with donation matching, by

Companies with a donation matching policy have up to 100% more donations.

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Match volunteering hours with

meaningful way to show employees you

donations (aka Dollars for doers)

care about what they care about.

Support employee volunteering with a Dollars for doers initiative (this can also be a year-long policy), where each hour of volunteering made by an employee is matched with a set donation from your company.

For example, for every 1 hour of volunteering, your company can offer $10 the same nonprofit. If you’d like to encourage volunteering, this is a

Reward your early volunteers with meaningful goodies. Many nonprofits produce goods like ethically-sourced tea, sustainable notebooks, reusable water bottles, and even upcycled bags!

Champion sustainable consumption and offer your first X volunteers these rewards. Not only are you supporting a good cause, and boosting participation, you’re also raising awareness about the causes through their products!

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Setting up an Employee Purpose

which case, consider what policy you

program is a common effort, and it’s important to involve the right teams

will put in place to support your employees, and at which moments

from the get-go. We’ve found that buyin from the following teams is particularly important:

during the employee experience you’ll embed this program (such as during onboarding of new hires, donation matching, Dollars for Doers, rewards/incentives, or offering paid time off to volunteer...).

Company leadership Executives need to set the tone and lead by example. They should act as role models by contributing and engaging their teams in the program.

When the executive team shows they’re purpose-driven, employees will believe in the program more.

Remember: Leadership will usually push for a plan that best meets business objectives. It’s important to address them, but also to balance them with the needs of employees, the community and nonprofit partners.

Human Resources This team will help create a framework for your company’s Employee Purpose program. This might be your team, in

Internal Communications This is vital to ensure clear and aligned communications with employees. With teams spread out across a lot more locations, it’s all the more important to communicate through the right channels to reach them.

Corporate Social Responsibility This might be your team! This team will ensure the program fits in with your overall CSR strategy. Do you have existing non-profit partners? Are there particular causes to champion? What other CSR initiatives do you have in place?

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IT It’s the era of remote and virtual programs. IT will be important for a smooth launch from a technical standpoint, such as compatibility and whitelisting.

Legal Involve them to review data security and privacy requirements, or other legal concerns.

Questions to ask at this stage Who are the key stakeholders involved?

Who can be responsible or the representative from each department?

What are the goals of each department?

Engage key internal champions In addition to engaging leadership, communications and HR teams with the program, start looking for key champions at all levels of your organisation. This is particularly important for global programs, so you can best adapt the initiatives to each culture. Their role is to support and advocate for the program internally, to help you to put the program into practice and to adapt it to the local culture.

They may even be able to help you understand the team: would some healthy competition help motivate them? Or might this particular team prefer to collaborate toward a shared purpose? Let them help you understand your employees’ culture at a local level. Look out for colleagues who are committed, passionate about the program, willing to promote it among other employees, and ready to collect feedback and ideas to improve the program.

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Let them know that this is a valuable

There are strong digital platforms to

growth opportunity to develop their leadership skills in a fun, meaningful

help host and manage your Employee Purpose program, and even more

way.

purpose-driven activity opportunities online. A partner can help you find the

Reach out to teams: ask people managers to nominate people on their teams, send out a survey for volunteers in the company, or to start making their

A digital platform lets you reach both desk and non-desk workers. Plus, online solutions let everyone involved see

teams aware that you’ll need their support.

everything that’s happening in real time.

An online solution has numerous benefits: your employees can easily

Find a digital tool or platform to use

access and browse through projects, you can centralise and manage the whole program in one place, and you can track the impact of your program and share the results with your organisation.

In pre-2020 employee engagement programs, having a virtual option was a nice-to-have. But today, it’s not as simple as meeting up for a teambuilding activity anymore. It’s important to offer an online option.

Finding a way to make it accessible to everyone, regardless of where they are, is a good way to show your dedication to the cause.

An online platform also boosts employee engagement, because it makes it easy to log in from anywhere and follow projects in real time even when your teams work remotely. It brings the options to your employees and makes participation easy.

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Reporting on purpose-driven CSR

Reporting on purpose-driven CSR

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Companies today provide more value to their stakeholders and shareholders than just dividends and profit. Today, shareholders care about Purpose, but how do you measure it? It needs to be consistent and structured enough to support accountability. Everyone, from the board to your employees, should know how the company clearly defines its Purpose and how it’s going to deliver that promise to its stakeholders.

“One of the big challenges in sustainability is nonfinancial reporting. As one of the big four accounting firms, PwC recently worked with the WEF, the accounting profession and 120 leading companies in the International Business Council (IBC) to identify a global set of metrics based on existing standards. That’s for us one way to bring our purpose to life.

Metrics you can track to show progress on a company’s Purpose Purpose-led metrics come from a clear definition of what your stakeholders value, and deciding what you’re going to do for them. If your Purpose is to help your employees become healthy and happy people, a metric could be how many of your employees sign up for your company fitness program.

“The performance measurement approach is how you frame the impact of your action with credible and contextualised figures and how you make the company accountable.

This is what drives talent and people that work inside companies: This is our impact and our stakeholder governance.

And we have a framework for that.”

Jonathan Normand, B Lab

— Jasmin Khalifa, Head of Corporate Responsibility, PwC Switzerland

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Make sure that your metrics are achievable and measurable—your Purpose might be to combat climate change, but how can you measure that?

It’s a little too immense and far reaching to have any valuable insights on your effect. Instead, metrics for this could be going carbon neutral, which is measurable and time-based.

Make sure you set a timeline of how frequently you’ll report on these metrics. Make it as consistent as accounting reports.

Business For Social Impact (B4SI, formerly LBG) B4SI, or the Business For Social Impact, is the global standard for measuring corporate community investment and philanthropy. It’s a practical tool to evaluate purpose program effectiveness and make sure that what you’re doing means something. It helps more than 220 companies globally measure, report and benchmark community investments.

Common CSR reporting standards Here are a few common purpose reporting standards you can follow in your Purpose-led reporting.

SOURCE

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Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) The Global Reporting Initiative’s mission is “to enable organizations to be transparent and take responsibility for their impacts, enabled through the world’s most widely used standards for sustainability reporting” and is one of the most widely used frameworks for reporting out there, which can also be linked to the UN SDGs.

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board is a sustainability reporting specialist, that helps businesses identify and report on the values that matter most to their investors. The SASB sets standards to guide the disclosure of financially material sustainability related to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information by companies to their investors.It differs by industry, and connects businesses and investors who care about Purpose.

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Your next steps in your purposedriven CSR

Your next steps in your purpose-driven CSR

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A purpose-driven CSR program is a

Build up to it, and eventually you’ll have

powerful way to engage employees, attract purpose-led investors, and to make an impact for all stakeholders.

a meaningful, sustainable program. With the right technology, you can build a robust, impactful and engaging program

The key to a purpose-led CSR program is to live and breathe your Purpose. Talk to all stakeholders first, find out what matters to them, and make sure your

that can be a real differentiator for your brand and business.

Purpose is clear. Not just in your CSR initiatives, but in every way your business operates.

Have questions?

We’re here to help. www.alayagood.com

The ultimate guide to purpose driven CSR

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