Doing Good vs. Doing Better |
Gloria Stewart of Touchworks Communications has a thriving business that earns a healthy profit, yet the Calgary entrepreneur is more likely to boast about the company’s values and community involvement than any financial performance.
By Jim Veenbaas
Stewart is among a growing group of business owners who are adopting a strict ethical standard that places as much emphasis on social and environmental performance as it does financial performance. Her values seep into every aspect of her business and guides the way she runs the company. That means giving her employees one paid day off each month to volunteer for the community group of their choice, donating 1% of profits to charity and actively supporting a number of worthwhile causes.
“I’m proud that my business contributes something to the community. I don’t measure success by profits alone,” says Stewart from her Calgary office. “Giving back to the community is obviously the right thing to do, but it has tangible benefits as well. It helps me attract the best and brightest staff and I think it brings me more business in the long run.”
Stewart is not alone in that assessment. Companies across the globe are adopting the mantra of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by operating in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable way. “Companies that embrace CSR look at their business strategy through the filter of ethics, society and the environment. These businesses examine their organization, their values, principles, what they stand for and establish sustainable policies and principles to reflect that,” says Sheila Carruthers, who heads up CSR Strategies, a private consulting firm in Calgary.
The CSR movement has its roots in traditional philanthropy, but goes a step further by integrating responsible and ethical behaviour into all business decisions. Businesses establish a comprehensive and sustainable set of policies, practices and programs that maximize their positive impact on society and the environment, while providing a competitive return to investors. They are typically involved in many long-term community programs and causes and often spearhead specific projects –
donating money, manpower, equipment and expertise to make them successful. For their efforts, they expect a return on their investment, whether it is increased community support, improved public relations or an edge when it comes to hiring new staff.
“It’s not such a philanthropic effort – the attitude that we’ve made some money, it’s been a good year, so we’re going to give back. CSR is hard-wired into the DNA of a company, which makes it so much more sustainable,” says Adine Mess, president of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, one of the largest CSR consulting agencies in the country. “There have to be benefits for business. Otherwise, it’s not sustainable. Smart business people are embracing CSR in this way. How can we do more good things and how can we make this good for the company?”
Many corporations now hire or appoint existing senior executives to head up their CSR efforts. They publish externally audited annual CSR reports, establish ethical, environmental and often charitable benchmarks and measure their success at reaching those goals. That kind of commitment, however, is beyond the scope of most small businesses. Stewart, with her staff of five employees at Touchworks Communications, strongly supports CSR ideals, but she can’t afford the formal processes and reporting.
What she can do is act in a way that respects human rights, the community and the environment, while focusing her efforts on carefully selected community investment projects. “We want to look at something that will be more sustainable. We will sit down together as a staff and discuss what is reasonable for us to do, what we care about, what is manageable and where we can best put our talents to work,” explains Stewart.
That may be the best approach for small businesses. Don’t start with a full-scale CSR campaign. Focus initial efforts on a well planned, sustainable community investment project that builds experience. A successful project could be the stepping stone to a more extensive CSR campaign. “Small businesses have their ears and eyes to the ground. They can be very responsive and they understand local community issues in a way that a senior executive in a corporate head office tower can never,” explains Mess.
“Small businesses are often headed up by the owner and founder of the company, who is typically more of a risk-taker. A CEO of a much larger company is typically there to produce results and tends to avoid risk. If small business owners are interested in a project, and see the value and understand the opportunity, they will embrace this much more quickly.”
Here’s some simple steps to help get started with a project that not only benefits the community but business as well.
Step 1: Engage your employees
Start the effort by sitting down with staff members and discussing the broad strokes of getting involved with a community investment project, the benefits to the community and the business. Input from employees is critical and they must play an active role in the project. There’s a variety of different ways to solicit staff input, possibly through surveys or by setting up an employee committee to spearhead the project.
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