Consumers have changed. They want to participate in making our world better and generally want to engage with businesses that care about the world rather than those that blithely conduct business without caring how they affect their environment or the struggles that their consumers live with daily.

The voice of the people drives the call for change in society and with it the need for organizations to build sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility programs into their core work to be competitive.

The risk of ignoring this call is being ostracized by consumers, suppliers and the general public all of which could very well propel your business into negative growth. Customers engage quickly and easily online and want to deal with companies that care about the future of the planet and therefore their future.

Edged Out by the Competition

Business competition is fierce and margins are becoming smaller. Customers are getting turned off by companies that don’t care and are demonstrating their feelings by not purchasing goods and services from the offending organizations. This is why fairtrade and ethical organizations are showing strong growth in the current environment.

If your competition is socially responsible and you haven’t even started, before products are even considered by consumers competitors have a considerable edge over you when it comes to attracting and retaining loyal customers.

Social Media Suicide

Information travels very quickly through social media channels. People are very vocal about responsible companies but they are equally vocal about those doing nothing or worse, causing harm. Every business needs to not only be connected to their social media network, they need to pay careful attention to what is being said and take action before irreparable damage is incurred.

Peer to peer referral is a key method of attracting customers to your business and can quickly drive them away if there you have a record of bad labor practices, damage to the environment or other undesirable association.

There is even a boycotting app that encourages people to only deal with ethical companies.

Buycott.com app iPhone screenshot

Top Talent Bypass

If you want to attract and retain top talent in your organization you must be able to offer more to prospective candidates. According to a report by Net Impact, working with companies that want contribute to the community is important for workers and a strong CSR program helps you attract the workers that you want.

The talent that you want working for you may just pass on your offer if your competitor has a strong environmental program or encourages staff to volunteer once a month.

Final Thoughts

Ignoring social responsibility is no longer an acceptable business practice. Whilst there are still many companies that are yet to get on board in a serious way, it is the leaders in CSR that are really demonstrating how big a difference that CSR can really make to the community.

India has now built compulsory CSR into their legislation in an historic move. How long will it be until over countries follow their lead?

ChangeU: For your independent study...

Ethical Consumer http://bit.ly/1nZZ8uB Net Impact and the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University partnered to conduct a survey on the career priorities around sustainability and making a positive impact at work, or “impact jobs.”

Why Companies Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Their Social Responsibilities http://ti.me/1vRymFv Today, amid a lingering recession that has dented corporate profits and intensified pressure from shareholders, companies are devising new CSR models.

How the Voice of the People Is Driving Corporate Social Responsibility http://bit.ly/1BTgKcp The business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming easier and easier to make. You can argue that it boosts a company’s brand, manages risk, and just plain saves money

Organizations of all kinds are finding that, with the fast changing work environment dominated by constantly evolving high tech solutions, their workers are having difficulty keeping up. Workers are running to keep up with technology changes and it is affecting productivity.

Some companies solve this issue by laying off workers and finding others with the desired skillset. This becomes very costly and demoralising for their workforce and is not a sustainable solution. 

The more efficient option is to retrain workers to adapt to new technology to build a skilled and loyal workforce. 

Investing in workers pays off

One of the best way to create a dedicated workforce is to invest in the people that you already employ. As the skills needed in your business transform alongside technology evolution make a plan to upskill your workers to ensure your business keeps pace.

Recruiting new employees is a costly process, both in time and money, and it interrupts productivity as they settle into their role. When you train workers that are already familiar with your systems, products and culture your business will experience an easier transition when adapting to new technology and equipment.

Employing to train

Another way of dealing with a skills shortage is to look at employing people with strong skill sets that may not exactly match what you need but indicate that the person is adaptable and able to be trained to undertake a particular role.

You may consider returned servicemen/servicewomen who have worked in specialised fields and look at how they can be trained to fit in your organisation. They are used to adapting quickly and efficiently and are a great asset to any business.

Young people that are enthusiastic and have skills but not experience, people with disabilities, older workers and even ex-felons are all groups that you can consider retraining to boost your business.

Keeping your business on track

Whilst it is almost impossible to predict where technology will lead us as we become increasingly connected it is worth looking at trends and planning for the future. Ongoing training for workers is a smart move for the forward thinking business. 

Encourage workers to grow as your business does and support them in improving their weaker skills whilst developing new ones. When you need additional employees, consider retraining skilled individuals that just may be invaluable when it comes to growing your business in the long term.

ChangeU: For your independent study….

IBM Is Using An Unusual New Tactic To Retrain Its Employees Instead Of Laying Them Off - http://read.bi/1tCkwBN

Why Top Young Managers Are in a Nonstop Job Hunt - http://bit.ly/1pQuRPS

7 in 10 Employees Value Skills Training More than Degrees - http://bit.ly/14cIlLY

Workplace survey - http://bit.ly/1yyAEZz

Why Some Companies Retrain Workers, and Others Lay Them Off - http://whr.tn/1y2JHSi

How the 'Digital Skills Gap' Bleeds $1.3 Trillion a Year From US Businesses - http://entm.ag/1tZHszH

Developing a training plan for your employees - http://bit.ly/1sg3qdH

Various personality types and work style differences are naturally a part of any workplace but when you add in 12 different countries, 4 time zones and six different languages you know that you have a truly unique team that will inherit particular challenges.

At Change3 Enterprises we thrive on the diversity of our ‘delightful experts’, we know that the rich array of skills that our team contribute to our collective work adds to our ability to deliver unexpected solutions to our clientele. 

Creating a ‘Dream Team’ Takes Work

The short answer to how we manage as a cultural, linguistic and personality diverse team is that we work at it each and every day. It does get easier as we learn how to navigate the biggest challenges that we face, however we always need to work consciously to ensure that we are not leaving anyone behind.

The key takeaways from our experience so far include:

1. Comprehensive communication:  Sometimes we take communication for granted. Create strong processes that ensure that briefs are exceptionally clear using simple language and jargon free;
2. Regular meetings: Emails are not the same as face to face chats. Schedule regular meetings with key groups to keep people on track.  When people work in isolation at home these catch ups help to create a strong bond between colleagues;
3. Walk in your colleagues shoes: Cultural differences take on many forms and often encompass important religious beliefs. It is a wise move to take a breath and hop over to your workmates shoes to resolve points of difference. It is only when we truly understand their circumstances can we respond appropriately and compassionately;
4. Understanding personality types: By understanding how each person works the best it is possible to utilise their skills to the max. If workers are not producing what they are capable of, this can be a simple reason why.

How Do We Know?

One of the most powerful assets that any company has is its people. Recruiting is often a lengthy and expensive process and it is always recommended to focus on retention rather than attrition – where possible.

With this in mind we developed an online application process that helps us hire delightful experts that fit perfectly into our unique culture and environment. It also enabled us to get to know each other a lot better, which led to developing a thriving organizational culture. Read more about this subject in this blog post written by our CEO, Kneko Burney.

Because it has been so successful for us we now offer this service to you our clients. Please contact us for a chat about how we can help you get to know your team.

We Need Your Help

Does this sound like a team that you would like to work for? We are growing at an astounding rate and are looking for talented people to join us. Have a look at our vacancies here and if you can see yourself there please apply!