Being seen to be involved in society and making a difference attracts people to work with a company.
86% of global consumers also believe that business needs to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as on business’ interests.(Trendwatching.com)
The expectations for most companies have moved beyond simply making a profit. The backlash from the recent economic events has heightened a move towards new capitalism, with political leaders now pushing for companies to be more 'responsible'
The 2006 Companies Act placed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a critical component of corporate governance in the UK. Directors must assume responsibility for environmental, employee, social and community matters.
CSR has come a long way with larger companies now having a department for this and letting staff have volunteering days. It still tends to be seen in a lot of organisation as something separate rather than a synergistic part of what the organisation does.
Leaders of organisations need to be involved in delivering social impact. By being involved leaders are developed and get value from understanding and making a difference to a world outside of corporate life and learning from others outside of their usual scope of knowledge
Wider society benefits from the experience and passion of leaders really being involved, and people are engaged with a business in a proactive way.
To do this leaders need to be trained on how to be involved and why it's important.
So how do we get leaders trained so they can be more involved?
