Learning Series | CSR Programs

Summary: Thinking about launching your own corporate social responsibility strategy? Need to revise yours? Start here.

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Transcript:

Andy - WeHero: Ben. Thanks for joining us again, excited to have you back here to keep tackling some of the biggest CSR questions. We get asked,

Ben - WeHero: Excited to speak with the dozens of listeners and while we're back at it.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, well today's topic is a fun one. I think the goal today is we get so many companies coming to us and saying, you know, what is a CSR program? How do I launch one? It seems like such a big lift. And I think the goal of this conversation is maybe just to demystify what CSR is in our opinion, talk about different ways to roll it out, whether you're a 10 person company or a hundred thousand person company and the D needs of each of those group. So maybe I'll start there. Ben, you know, in your experience working with all these companies, do you just wanna talk about the range of options for what a CSR program could be across this wide spectrum of companies?

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. And so let's even just start with CSR just stands for corporate social responsibility for folks that don't know. I even like my first time in the space here, it comes up all, it comes up all the time. Like what does that stand for? CSR corporate social responsibilities to what it stands for. There's another version of this ESG, which stands for environmental, social, and governance. And so you'll hear these acronyms thrown out. But really at the end of the day, regardless of what you call this program, it's really a man concept that companies can just integrate like social and environmental concerns into their business operations. And you have a lot of employees demanding this. Now people wanna work for companies that give back and consumers wanna buy from companies that give back. And, and I can always talk about the data of what that looks like, but that's why we see companies setting up corporate social programs.

Ben - WeHero: And these programs, they can be very different for every single company. I think what's as important is understanding what the goals are for your company with implementing a program like this, cuz it is a big lift and it does take a lot of time. Sometimes these programs, they can be very small and just a small piece of the company that are really efficient. Didn't drive a lot of impact. Sometimes these are large divisions of companies and they're using a number of different tactics to reach what we call just that social impact goal. Like at the end of the day, like what's the social impact goal that the company wants to have. And so companies typically have two goals that we see with programs like this, there's the external social impact goal. And then there's what I call just the internal goal. Some people might call it something else, but internal goals are examples like increased revenue as a result of corporate social responsibility, increase employee engagement and retention company culture, brand sentiment. These are added benefits or side effects on top of you investing resources from your company and implementing it into your operations to make an impact. And so at a high level, that's what a corporate social responsibility program does. And we can get into the nuts and bolts of that and what it looks like. Yeah.

Andy - WeHero: Ahead, Andy, what you just said, Ben is such an important point that I think is often overlooked. And I think it's one of the reasons Ben and I are so excited to do this every day is there is clear data that by helping the world, you actually help your company. Yeah. And so, you know, regardless of you know, how complex of a program that you have or how simple it is, how much budget you can allocate to it, no matter that, you know, anything you do to support the external world, whether that's environment, whether that's people that need assistance, anything like that is going to help your company. And that's a really new concept. And I think there's been great data. That's come out over the last four or five years and new data's coming out all the time. We have that linked on our website, but I think that's the most important thing to understand when you think about CSR, why people are doing this and this is why, and it's cool that you have the double benefit from it.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. I mean, we see figures like employees are three time or are likely stay three times as longer at a company if there's a well run CSR program. And so it's almost like it's silly not to invest in one of these programs cuz the return on effort and the return on investment, just so high. And so that's why we're seeing a lot of companies do this and many rights, really exciting to see strong data to support it.

Andy – WeHero: Yeah. So now that's, let's look at it. So we know what CSR is. You know, if you look at a company CSR program, what are some different components that go into that kind of make this overall CSR umbrella?

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. So I'll start with my, my easy cop out, which is again, they're all very different, but here's some examples of things that we do see in a CSR program. Volunteer is huge of company volunteerism and how they, you know, deploy their employees and give them access to volunteer opportunities. Diversity and inclusion is huge. Oftentimes people separate that. We've seen different structures where that's part of the CSR program where it's off to the side. But I think diversity and inclusion is huge with these programs philanthropic efforts in so employees ability to give through a CSR platform as well as for the company to offer matching opportunities when employees can donate and see their efforts match instead of campaigns for causes, they care about that's really powerful. It really empowers employees to be able to give and support those causes and get the support from the company as well. And then grants. We, we see companies that are issuing grants to nonprofits that really align with their corporate values, their goals and those goals around social impact as well. And so we see granting as a function in that CSR function as well. And so those are the big buckets I see right now, Andy, there's a number of other little pieces that drop in alongside that. I'm curious if you think of any other others, like you're talking to these companies too, like what are others that pop up often?

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, I think you did a great example of kind of the bigger companies, how they think about CSR, the other I don't wanna call 'em X factors, but other purpose built initiatives that companies have, obviously there's a big marketing function here. And part of that is marketing externally what you're doing to receive a lot of the benefits from it, but also marketing internally to your employees. That's a function of it. I think more than that, what we're seeing companies be interested now is building, you know, purpose or sustainability into actual business model. And that doesn't always fall under the CSR team's responsibility. It could be the leadership team. It could be the innovation team. It could be a variety of these teams, but that's the other thing that, that we see kind of as a big driver here is companies. And I think the famous companies that Tom shoes, right?

Andy - WeHero: And that's a really simple model of buying a pair of shoes. You're donating a pair of shoes, but so many companies are doing this in a unique way. Stacy's pita chips is donating a certain amount for every bag of P chips. They sell to the BLM movement. Things like that I think are really big. The other the other big factor we're starting to see is, is customer success and engagement to be centered around this. And it's part of sales and marketing, but how can a company engage their customers to actually take part in their CSR strategy themselves? And, and this is really big in B2B situations because you have individuals become more ingrained with that supplier and that way they're making the making the impact together and it builds deeper relationships and both companies are doing good. And so those are some other tangents, but I think you covered the main ones, but we're seeing so many creative ways to, to do this now, which I think is exciting.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. And I want your take on this cuz I think this is really interesting and he just brought up examples of companies that have just embed at CSR to the company itself. And so rather than having like a CSR team, it's really like the executive team and the culture of the company is corporate social responsibility look at like Patagonia. Like that's why the company exists. I'm curious your take on, you know, is that an executive team that is the CSR team at that point when you are, are working to like create more EF CSR functions in our programs or do you see companies having an additional CSR team just, but the company's just really socially minded. I'm curious your take on that cause its wonderful. See companies like that.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. I think there's three different levels that drive these companies. I think all the way to the top, you look at the board and the investors and these companies, whether they're public or private, the push from capital providers to, for their companies to be impactful, purpose driven and sustainable has never been stronger. And so when you have pushes you, you have a push from the investors at whatever level they may be. The company's gonna respond to that in a lot of ways. And then I think you need to have in a bought in leadership team that understands the data around the benefit of it. But ultimately I think a lot of these companies rely on small things to make this happen and you need a CSR team to run volunteering, to engage the employees. But ultimately I think if I had to choose one group to have engaged, it would be the leadership team because they're running there and they're setting the culture and it's such a cultural shift for some of these companies. And you're seeing that with some of these, you know, more traditional companies that are just starting to launch CSR programs and they're lagging some of the newer companies and they have seen employees be pushing for this for years, but it takes some time for the leadership team to understand it. So we're excited to see kind of all these shifts happening.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. I, Andy just brought a really good one with the three tiers. I just gave a talk just about how, you know, a talking about like the investor level and the board level, like out level, sorry we were giving numbers and a talk last week, just about how globally there's 22.9 trillion of assets now being professionally managed under responsible investment strategies. That's a 25% increase since 2014 and that's number so large just for a little context that exceeds GDP of the entire us economy. And so it is really exciting me, like see these change changes and see how many levels of leadership this can impact.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, yeah. And I think you're seeing this wave happen, you know, with leaders committing to this. And I think you know, the concerns that we've talked about before is that, you know, we're seeing a lot of increased demand in CSR, but is it a fad? Is it something that because of COVID or because of all these things that have happened over the last 18 months. And I think the thing that gets me really excited about, you know, the benefit of this over the long term is that you know, organizations like B Corp have never had more applications in, in their history. I think there are 200 to 300 times the normal applications and that's a lifelong commitment for a company. You have all these people joining the founder's pledge to give up their equity to some of these nonprofits as part of their loyal launching of their company. That's a permanent agreement. And so, so these companies are building it into their DNA and that's what ultimately I think makes this successful over the long term

Ben - WeHero: A hundred percent.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. Yeah. All right, Ben put yourself in, you are the, the C H R O you're the head of HR and you work at a 50 person company and the CEO has come to you and said, Hey, I really wanna start doing more CSR activities. We're not gonna hire someone. Can you build just, you know, a, a basic CSR plan for us? What would you do and what would it include?

Ben - WeHero: Yeah, great question. In the hot seat, the first thing I would do is survey and interview the employees. And so, and the reason I wanna do that is understand what, what they really value in regards to methods of giving and creating social impact. For some that might be hands on volunteering for others, it might be like I wanna be able to launch campaigns and have my company match donor support for those campaigns. And so I really wanna understand the employees goals and what they really value. Once I would understand that, I mean, it's, it's obvious that it's likely going to be some mix or a focus on skills based volunteering, where, which is just employees taking their existing talents and skillsets and volunteering those to a nonprofit organization, curated volunteer experiences, as well as able to make donations and having company support to match those donations.

Ben - WeHero: So I'd really like to understand just where the employees prioritize that because again, part of the goal is like I really wanna make our employees feel supported and that they feel like if they have social goals, we can help them achieve those social goals. And so prioritize that way and then launch each program alongside those priorities. That that's what I would think of. And again, it's gonna be a mix of those things more than likely. But I'm gonna put you back in the hot seat, Andy, and ask you the same exact question, see what you would do.

Andy - WeHero: So I think I'd take a very similar approach. I think the one thing I would that I would do differently, that, that we do part of our programs is, you know, once we collect that data, we take back to the leaders and say like, Hey, here's what the employees want. You know, are you bought into the same goals that the employees have? Cause I think it's really important to have the two aligned and oftentimes, you know, leaders wanna lead for their employees. And so setting that, and then the other thing I would do is set up a data tracking mechanism. There's obviously some great CSR tech platforms out, out there and happy to help people as they decide those. But if you're just launching something, build a good Google sheets or a Microsoft Excel, I think it's really important the first year as you set your goals, you're tracking the data so that you can go back to your leaders and your employees and say like, here's what we did this year. And here's the overall impact that we had not only on the business, but also on these other, their nonprofits and the overall community that we operate in. And that is what I think creates kind of this snowball effect of, wow, that was incredible. Let's do more of it next year. Let's do more and more and ultimately becomes part of the company in that way. But if you don't track it, it's hard to understand kind of the overall impact I think.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah, I totally agree. And I think enough other idea that's really interesting and it's a lot of thoughts to go into this on a company by company basis, but interviewing your customers and serving your customers, like what do they really care about for your brand? I think it's especially important for B2C brands to consider this. And so I think that's another idea of, for folks is like survey 500 of your customers or your clients and figure out like what they really value and what they see your brand alongside in regards to social impact. I think that's another really interesting data point to pull into your decision making for what you're gonna launch.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. And, and, and even further than that, I mean, I don't think this would necessarily make sense 50 person company, but if you're looking at one of the larger companies, you gotta analyze what your competitors are doing. Yeah. You know, if you're trying to use this as a way to differentiate and help your business and you know, you should probably do something slightly different. And so you definitely wanna think about that. Kind of the more invested in these programs you get, if you're worried about the external factor of it. Yeah.

Ben - WeHero: Hundred

Andy - WeHero: Percent and employee differentiation for sure.

Ben - WeHero: Okay.

Andy - WeHero: All right. Next fun question for you. What is one thing, you know, we've seen a lot of CSR programs and everyone has a different program and each one has different goals. What's one thing you would steer away from if you were launching an HR program.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. that's a great question. There's a couple of things. I think one thing I try to help companies with right now is VTO. VTO is really tough for a couple of reasons in, in my eyes personally. One is you're giving employee is the opportunity, but it's it. We see so often really low employee engagement. So if you go like, you know, take a day off to volunteer, you know, we, we see little to no engagement in those kinds of programs. Also, it's really tough to track the data in regards to the amount of impact that's being made in these VTO opportunities. If the employees aren't reporting it correctly also making sure that the employees are lining up with really good nonprofits to go out and do their volunteer efforts. We also see that, you know, we have employees then all of a sudden that are volunteering in all these different areas like health sustainability food insecurity, which is wonderful.

Ben - WeHero: But if a company has a very focused to CSR strategy and a very focused social impact goal, I like using the analogy that you want, all your people rowing in the same direction to maximize impact. And so I VTO is just really challenging for a number of reasons. There's a lot of great software solutions out there that help alleviate some of the challenges with VTO. And again, I should just clarify for folks, VTO just stands for volunteer time off for folks that dunno. And so, but I really try to push companies towards curated volunteer experiences. Engagement goes up substantially impact goes up substantially the ability for us to Gar the data and makes sure we're reporting. It goes up substantially. And so I just see a lot of benefits there. And so that's one thing that I tend to steer companies away from if possible, what's something that you're noticing that's like born on the side, thinking companies stay away from,

Andy - WeHero: I would say there's two things that came to mind. You know, you focus on the volunteering, I'll focus more on the giving and kind of the creative initiative side. I think on the giving side, you know, it's a really tough call companies have, have to make, like, I think we believe the best CSR platform. Everyone needs to row in the same direction. And so, you know, we advocate, you know, whether it's matching on certain donations, whether it's approved nonprofits or whether, you know, it's a nonprofit that matches that cause of their focused on that's one route you can go, the other route is we'll match any of your donations. And that route is really good cause it allows employees to give back to whatever they believe in, but it may not be the same cause as the company and purpose alignment. So I don't, I don't think there's a right answer there.

Andy - WeHero: I just think that's a decision that every company needs to make and they need to know the downsides of each because we've seen at the end of the year in some of these CSR reports, they'll they'll list 200 nonprofits that employees have gave to, which is great. And it's amazing, but some people may want to align those to five or six, really high quality nonprofit that align with their business model. And I there's no right or wrong. I just think that's a big decision. I think the other thing that we've seen that's become less popular is large PR initiatives around, you know, corporate social responsibility. And I think now, you know, the market wants to see data and consistent proof of companies doing well. And I think the market rightfully so has become skeptical of companies, making a big PR announcement about one activity that they did and not mentioning the impact of that. And I think that used to be more popular, you know, within the last five or 10 years. But I think that's one thing that I always try to steer come companies away from. And if they wanna do a big PR event launch, something like that, I always like that to be at the end of their campaign at the end of a year, as a summary of all the great stuff they've done rather than kicking it off. Cause it's much, it's a stronger story to tell when there's follow through. I think,

Ben - WeHero: Yeah,

Andy - WeHero: Those would be the two things I would bring up.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. Language is so important with like any kind of PR release. And I, I agree with you let the data speak and let your impact speak. And that, that speaks much more volumes and yeah, we, you see it all the time. I'm sure too. And it just like these PR announcements go out that are fairly lofty and getting a lot of pushback and, and people are really so skeptical. I think people have been steered wrong with for, and, and there's a lack of trust and and yeah, so I think it's a really good point. That last point you made.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Last hot button question here. What is the most interesting, cool, bizarre thing you've seen built into a, a CSR platform.

Ben - WeHero: Interesting, cool. Bizarre in a CSR. I'm trying to think of something that's just like really off the wall.

Andy - WeHero: You want me to go first? Cause I, I had this question, so I have a little, you know, advanced head start here.

Ben - WeHero: Okay, cool.

Andy - WeHero: So I think the coolest thing I've seen and cool I'm using, I just thought it was a really good example of doing this. Is there, there was a healthcare company that focused a lot on you know, heart health with American heart association, all of, you know, similar organizations like that. And they actually had partnered with an app provider that tracks your walking and it it donated to nonprofits for that walking. So the app, I think it shares your location data while you're walking and sells that to advertisers and it raises money, but the company actually decided to match that I think two or three times. And so you had all these employees competing during, I believe it was heart health month or there, there was some time period and you had all these employees competing over how much they were walking to raise money. And then there was a big celebration at the end with prizes for the winners. And I thought that was just such a creative way to overall mission of the company down to the employee and doing it in a really like well run way. And that also was a big event for external people as well. And so I, I just thought that was you, you know, when I learned about that, I just put a smile on my face for sure. I thought it was really cool.

Ben - WeHero: That is super cool. Back to a point that we were talking about, I, and maybe not bizarre or off the wall, but I love it when companies are like implementing either a like social impact and CSR strategies into their business model or B, I love seeing it when like companies are able to align so well with something and make social impact. So a good example is we were working with a company that built construction generators. And so you're on a construction site, you need power power. And so this company was looking at, what can we do for like a CSR strategy? Well, one of the first things you need when a natural disaster strikes is you lose power everywhere. And sometimes from numerous days, weeks, sometimes months. And so they quickly figured out like, wow, we can make so much impact if we can just bring power to people that don't have it.

Ben - WeHero: And so that's exactly what they start are doing. And so cool. They literally like a, a disaster will strike in Chile or Puerto Rico and they will load up generators, ship them. There have 'em there within like 48 hours and these things are huge. And then they'll give people power. And like, it's not just the people there, but like all the other response teams like doctors without borders Amer cares, everyone that's responding now they need power. And now all of a sudden they are one of the biggest responders responders to natural disasters. And they're considered very critical for responses with these other nonprofits and just amazing how they took something core to what they do, which is giving power to construction workers. Now of a sudden they're, they're powering like relief efforts across the globe, which I just think is amazing. And you can see in their staff and their employees are just fueled up. They just love what they do as a company now as a result.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. I, I absolutely love those stories. I think about all the hurricane Katrina, all the bottling companies that stop bottling Coca-Cola and started bottling Pepsi, or start, start bottling water, excuse me, and just sent the water down to, down to Katrina and you know, tide does that with laundry after disaster. There's so many great examples of this. And so yeah, I agree. Those are special for sure.

Ben - WeHero: Yeah. They're cool.

Andy - WeHero: Anything else you wanna add here before we sign off then?

Ben - WeHero: No, but I wanna just double click on Andy's last question of bizarre unique. I think there's a lot of value of thinking about those bizarre unique ideas and also bringing in the other thought partners to create those, cuz it does help educate your staff about social initiatives that your company has. It does make a statement for your brand and your company and allows you to make an impact. So thinking about those unique spots as well, that make your program special, I think's a lot of fun and can also just drive a lot of impact. So I think that's a really good thing just to think about and consider.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, well, awesome. Matt, appreciate the time. Look forward to more of these and be sure to water your wall behind you. I can tell that it's looking a little dry.

Ben - WeHero: The leaves are slowly getting brown. Yeah,

Andy - WeHero: Yeah, exactly.

Ben - WeHero: I'll get my Mister out.

Andy - WeHero: Yeah. Well, thanks again, Ben. We will talk again soon.

Ben - WeHero: All right. See you everybody.