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CSR Report: Key Factors And Presentation

Businesses small and large, private and public, are observing significant progress executing corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies & initiatives into their structures; however, their endeavours do not end at that point. The more successful companies generate a CSR report illustrating their drives. These reports can be unique and flexible, just like the institutions they represent and should express the vision, corporate values, and culture. Why A Company Should Produce A CSR Report?
  • To benchmark an organization’s operations and result, in society and the environment, in line to know where and how they can advance.
  • To convince stakeholders that a company is financing environmental and community stewardship. 
Key Elements CEO’s Letter The first section of the report is often a letter from the CEO. These letters are important because they give readers a strong sense of the degree of the company’s commitment to CSR programs. Letters that address specific CSR challenges, accomplishments from the previous year and goals for the next, the resources used to make a certain CSR program work – these topics can give readers a better idea of the company’s initiatives. Focus More On The Future And Less On Past Success The point of a CSR report is to explain and exhibit how business was handled in the past so a company can frame a plan to do better in the future.  While sharing the progress of CSR strategy is good, dwelling on the past CSR achievements can lessen the focus on future goals. A report without definite goals for the next year is a boat with no compass.  Being clear about the future helps the stakeholders and the company measure the success of that plan. Transparency & Acceptance goes a long way How can an automobile company talk about social responsibility? Within reason, they should talk about everything, not just the information the company feels comfortable sharing. Many are aware that corporate social responsibility is the ride, not the destination, and thus, being truthful with your readers can go a long way. This can be accomplished with a simple statement like: “We are giving a valuable service that helps people with XYZ and while we acknowledge that the consumption and the creation of our service do have consequences on the environment, we are looking at techniques to reduce our negative impact.” Avoiding a foreseeable negative press Centre the report on responsible workplace conditions and sustainable practices as opposed to generosity.  How a company makes a profit than what it does with its profit, is what CSR is all about.  If a company talks about its CSR efforts on the contributions it made and overlooks its toxic child labour practices and chemical pollution, the media will have a blast. Authenticity is paramount Try to incorporate support and testimonials by third-parties: shareholders, consumers, charitable organizations – what others say about carries greater importance than what you speak about yourself. Data credibility & facts The public and the stakeholders want to see transparency in the company’s efforts and mission, so be honest. That transparency can intensify credibility and reputation, thus changing critics into supporters and supporters into advocates. Back claims with statistics and legitimate sources of data. Manage risks, build trust, explain operational methods and promote stakeholder involvement. Presenting A CSR report The intended audience of these reports include employees, customers, media, suppliers, NGO’s and government representatives. To maximize the effectiveness of this, the information strategy should be planned early in the report development process. Include case studies. This will humanise the report and connect with the readers. Approaches That Can Deliver Benefits While Presenting A CSR Report: Aligning CSR reports with the company’s broader stakeholder engagement like investor relation meetings and distribution of annual reports. Providing data to decide what mode of engagement is best suited to reaching a target audience, i.e mail outs, annual general meetings, press releases, websites, mailing and advertising.   Having read this, you should have no trouble whipping up your next CSR report and subsequent presentation. At Vardaan, we guide companies draft impactful CSR reports, sustainability reports  that caters to the above best practices among other strategies.   Image References: https://pixabay.com/en/environmental-protection-environment-683437/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kids_in_Rishikesh,_India.jpg
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Retaining Talent of your Company through CSR

It’s a common practice of most talented employees to look for better jobs that offer not just higher monetary benefits, but also better emotional benefits. Losing such valuable assets can pose a threat to your organisation, and more often than not, replacing the talent can be quite a challenge. CSR is a great approach to retain these invaluable assets and boost your company’s growth and success rates. Retaining Talent CSR What is CSR? CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is a business concept that adds meaning to an employee’s day-to-day work. The concept spreads across various worldly elements including the environment, health and safety, human rights, contributions to a nation’s developing economy, and even working conditions within the country. Whether it’s for the benefit of the environment or to reduce poverty around you, CSR ensures longevity, sustainability and growth which is a rewarding aspect for your organisation. The current generation is motivated by personal values linked to their career. While profit and business impact is critical to the company, through CSR, employees can also look to making an impact on the society through their regular work. This incorporates sustainability into the daily work process—a factor that can be effectively achieved through CSR. A convenient way to achieve this is just spending 2% of the profits, as CSR ensures tenability and promotes a healthy advancement in the company’s development. How To Incorporate CSR? Despite the mandatory rule to integrate CSR in a company’s work operations, many organisations have failed to do so, posing a risk to their own sustainability without even realising it. Let’s take a quick look into how companies can be pushed into incorporating CSR in their policies.
  • Setting The Right Mindset
An environment that encourages individual’s initiatives and also provides scope for employees to take some action can prove helpful in the long run. This not only helps retain top talent, but also helps your organisation meet the high expectations set for it by society. It also makes room for broader markets, ideas and innovation—even if in the smallest of aspects—that make your workflow efficient and faster. By shifting the focus off of short-term goals to bigger social causes, you create an environment that values all the stakeholders involved and one that encourages several possibilities. The changed mindset ensures newer revenue streams, expanded core capabilities, and a competitive advantage in emerging markets—all aspects that increase the company’s success rates dramatically.
  • Women Empowerment
Feminism is a concept that has been a topic of concern for several decades now, and at a global level. Despite a drastic decrease in female infanticide, child marriages, child labour, and an increase in the education of the girl child, the number of women working in firms across the country are quite alarmingly low. 60% of the companies across the country have a proportion of less than 10% of female employees. CSR can extend its aid in social causes by providing career opportunities to women. Providing support to women who are interested in enterprise formation, specially through financial, marketing, and training components is a simple step that could be taken towards women empowerment.
  • Equality For The Differently Abled
A simple way to address the differently abled through CSR would be to hire talented individuals who are facing the challenge of disability. In fact, it’s one of CSR’s policies to include the differently abled as at least 10% of the entire workforce. This adds to the diversity of the company, which increases the company’s social impact. It also adds to the overall value and reputation of your firm, giving you the benefit of obtaining a multitude of clients, many of whom are sensitive to factors such as these. It is important for an organisation to provide for a challenged individual in not just social but also the legal aspects—which include unique policies, commitments, and actions that might vary from the regular system.
  • Motivation At Each Level
The motivation to engage in social activities does not depend on an organisation, but on each and every individual of the company who can spark a change—be it the CEO or the junior employee. Individuals within the company, who are constantly involved in the work processes, are in a convenient spot to gauge the company’s assets, network of resources, distribution channels, and market share. They can easily come up with innovative solutions for the challenges faced within the company, as well as other social obstacles that the organisation is likely to face. Even simple ideas like reusing and recycling, or energy conservation drives within the company, are goals that employees can work towards in addition to their usual day-to-day tasks, which on the long run has a positive impact on CSR and your firm’s success. The basic mandate of 2% of CSR integrated in your organisation enhances its reputation dramatically. It not only helps you support social causes, but also encourages an environment for innovation and expansion into new horizons, which eventually lead to retaining top talent and amplifying success rates within the organisation. At Vardaan, we provide professional advice on CSR to corporate companies, NGOs, businesses, philanthropic entities, and social enterprises. We provide assistance through baseline studies, CSR compliances, impact assessment, and advice on social responsibilities and the option of the right programme and partners. At Vardaan, we also provide corporates access to our fund-raising capabilities, proposal writing services, impact reports, and capacity building advisory services to implement CSR seamlessly. With a mission to do good for the society and enhance your firm’s returns, we emphasise on originality, respect, and an unbiased approach through our services. Our aim is to ensure that we are both, thought and action leaders in the world of CSR in India. Hence this evening when your office shuts, CSR will ensure that your most valuable assets – Employees return & continue to work for your Company. Image references: