Building meaningful CSR stories
A strong CSR report provides an excellent starting point for your brand to achieve a meaningful position in the hearts and minds of your employees. There is even greater value when those reports lead with strong CSR stories.
That’s because, according to a recent Forbes report, CSR and employee engagement work hand in hand:
- Hewitt & Associations found that, “the more a company actively pursues worthy environmental and social efforts, the more engaged its employees are”.
- The Society for Human Resources Management found that for companies with strong sustainability programs, “morale was 55% better, business process were 43% more efficient, public image was 43% stronger, and employee loyalty was 38% better”.
- Towers and Watson reports that firms with highly engaged employees have three time the operating margin of those which don’t.
- Gallup say these firms have four time the earnings per share.
- PriceWaterhouseCoopers claims that 88% of millenials choose employers based on strong CSR values; 86% will leave if employer’s CSR values no longer meet their expectations.
Brands matter to people when they do things that matter.
If your brand is truly committed to CSR – and has a strong CSR report to prove it – it makes sense to make your CSR viewpoint, activities and achievements more evident to your employees.
Going beyond simply posting your report on your company’s website or intranet, the stories within your CSR should be re-purposed and dynamically presented to specifically address the beliefs, values, interests and aspiration of your employees.
When you create far more engaging, motivating and rewarding ways to involve your employees in your CSR, you give them new ways to create meaning in their own lives.
Your brand’s good deeds become gifts of meaning your employees can identify with, share responsibility for, and internalize with pride.
As such, there’s a more emotionally meaningful and engaging connection created between employees and your brand.
Don’t allow your employees to miss out on the personal meaning that’s hidden in your CSR report.
Bring it to the surface, engage your employees and create a stronger brand along the way
Please see our work for UPS’s CSR program.
Emotive Brand is a San Francisco Branding Agency.
