Tailoring a Bespoke CR Strategy: Why You Should Engage Employees
If you had a chance to take part in or review the #CSRchat on Twitter this week, you will have gleaned some key points about employee engagement in the context of corporate responsibility: what it means; some examples of who’s doing it well; what might be required to undertake employee engagement; how it might be measured; who might be involved. But, surprisingly, not too much was said about the benefits of undertaking employee engagement – perhaps there just wasn’t enough time!
Some of the benefits that I heard from other participants included “a heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his/her job/organization” (@TCBCCS), “sparks positive feedback” (@gchesman), and “ideas from many sources, action from many sources, creativity and interest in the company beyond the job duties” (@EXAIR_KE).
I thought I would use this post to describe some of the benefits that I have found after conducting the kind of employee engagement I described in my post last week [Advice for the Shoestring Practitioner: Sustainability Mapping, January 31, 2011], in the context of developing corporate responsibility (CR) strategies.
Celesa Horvath is a consultant, with 20 years of experience in corporate responsibility, sustainability, and environmental assessment. Her blog, Making Sense of Responsibility, aims to engage and support those who would further the art and science of corporate responsibility and business sustainability, whether as a practitioner, a consumer, or an advocate.