ESG must be part of your strategy, this is why!

Building a great business can only happen if you have the right people in your organisation.

Your team need to be diverse to generate ideas, bring different experiences and skills to the table and impact your bottom line positively — but having shared values is key to building a company culture that underpins your strategic success in every way. ESG is the answer.

Those values provide a compass point which every person in the team can follow and be part of that journey.

Putting business objectives to one side, what people really bond over is shared experiences, especially when they make a tangible difference and have meaning. A solid corporate social responsibility agenda and social value focus can go a long way towards building a community, not just a group of people that work together.

Quality human interaction has become even more important since the Pandemic which shone a powerful spotlight on the basic human need for connection. Our lives’ regular patterns were erased and replaced with limited interactions and the search for new familiarity in our routines.

Many teams are now hybrid so having a common purpose that unites them, outside of business goals has never been more important. Engaging your team through your ESG activities done properly can support a healthy workplace culture and drive business growth, whilst encouraging collaboration and team bonding.

These are some of the benefits:

Team building

How we work has changed forever as a direct result of the Pandemic. 52% of workers surveyed by Gallup in Feb 2023 reported they worked hybridly and 54% expecting hybrid working in the future. Added to that a more dispersed workforce where new staff are onboarded remotely and the opportunities to meet and build relationships have become more sporadic.

Working with a charity partner allows teams to plan, be creative and achieve as a collective outside of their usual working practices and team members.

The camaraderie of a shared goal, to benefit others, creates those water-cooler moments where we learn more about those we work with, our shared values and how we can work together.

ESG actively promotes teamwork and encourages employees to think outside the box and look at the bigger picture around them. We have lived through a time of short-term thinking and a lack of long-term planning. CSR starts to plug this gap and encourage us to look forward, which cascades into all areas of working life as a positive force.

Employee Engagement & Talent Attraction

Social value and your Corporate Social Responsibility stance are a great way to attract people who will supercharge your business. Good people and the right skills in short supply and the talent market remains competitive. Values are important, so much so that 44% of millennials won’t take a job with an organisation that doesn’t align to their personal ethics.

Motivated, focused and happy team members engaged in common goals are proven to impact organisational growth. CSR initiatives help forge stronger organisational ties and promote creative thinking, alongside a little healthy competition.

A Forbes article in 2019 cited highly engaged teams showing 21% greater profitability, a significant increase on a business bottom line. Added to this 71% of managers feel that employee engagement is one of the most important factors in overall company success. (Social Chorus 2019).

Wellbeing

We are naturally tribal creatures, and assisting others helps develop our humility, empathy, and integrity. These are all essential leadership skills for an employee to have, so ESG and charity initiatives offer professional development opportunities which can only benefit your business.

Giving to charity and supporting the sector promotes happiness. Employees who have a chance to give to charities through their work are happier than those who do not, according to Harvard Business School.

With the mental health impact from recent years only just starting to present itself there is little doubt that being aligned to help others in highly emotional and challenging situations taps into our natural empathy as human beings. It again comes back to a sense of purpose and provides small steps that help focus us on gratitude and usefulness as well as promoting the forming of stronger relationships.

Brand Building

Building a strong business brand is critical for success, especially in the “always-on” world we live in. A wealth of information on organisations is available at our fingertips within seconds, which allows potential partners, customers and employees to get an instant feel for what you believe in.

ESG activities promote transparency, ethics, humility, and trust and make a statement to the world that you are an organisation that takes your social value responsibilities seriously.

Make no mistake, aspirational brands are on the rise; a Globescan & BBMG survey found that 40% of consumers seek purposeful brands and trust in brands to act in the best interests of society. Can you afford not to align your brand to a shared purpose?

A substantial commitment to ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility really does deliver outcomes that benefit organisational and team growth – from wellbeing to the bottom line.

So find some causes that your people can really believe in and take the plunge to partner with a charity or charities that shares your values. It will reap the rewards.

Axiologik are proud to support various charities including:

Boycott Your Bed, an annual Action for Children fundraiser which raises money to support vulnerable children in the UK. Funding a myriad of projects throughout the country their aim is to give children the childhood they deserve. With over 4m children living in poverty due to the cost of living crisis, this has never been more important. Will you sleep out on the 6th October?

Preventing surplus food from ending up in landfill and redistributing it to communities in need is the work of our charity partner Fareshare based in Leeds. Our team are regular picking, packing and delivering volunteers to ensure fresh food is available to foodbanks, charities and schools across the region.

Leeds Community Foundation is an incredible charity that supports charities throughout the region. In 2022 they gifted an incredible 279 grants to charities across every community outreach iniaitive you can think of. From digital skills to gardens, their donations make a difference. We have sponsored the Leeds Digital Ball a major new fundraiser for the charity which this year has raised £100,000 for good causes.