Month: August 2018

How many individuals and organizations do you know who have bought into the notion that challenging economic times demand that we do “more with less” in order to survive? A recent conversation with colleagues opened my eyes to the realization that those who subscribe to this approach actually are shooting themselves in the foot. Instead of following this misguided advice, they would be better advised to focus on doing LESS with less.

The reality is that while most organizations can find legitimate ways to become more effective – e.g., reduce waste caused by high error rates, sideline programs that are poorly attended, re-think work flow – there comes a point at which further reductions affect the value they provide. It’s at this moment that we begin to hear the “We have to do more with less!” mantra. My question is this: “How has ‘doing more with less’ been working for you?” With few exceptions, the answer appears to be, “Not very well.” By trying to ignore realities like the number of hours in a day and the physical and mental limitations of the human beings who produce the goods and services, we do everyone a disservice. And we need to stop doing it – right now.

It’s time to let go of the fantasy that we can do “more with less.” Why? Because we can’t – not if we’re honest with ourselves. If we overburden people and systems, we will succeed only in burning out employees, experiencing equipment and process meltdowns, and cutting corners or engaging in other activities that will come back to haunt us in the long-run if not in the short-run. Although it may seem counterintuitive, implementing a “doing less with less” strategy actually results in increased productivity and decreased stress.

The new reality is NOT about doing more with less, it’s about letting things go.

How do we do that? Letting things go is hard, and it requires making tough choices. NOT making those choices, though, will result in even tougher outcomes. We have to prioritize what we do, relentlessly asking how every person, process, system, program, and policy moves us closer to providing value to our customers/clients. Those people and things that are critical to providing the value must remain; everything else must go.

Though it may not seem so, doing “less with less” actually provides organizational stakeholders, including employees, with a number of wonderful opportunities to optimize results. Here are two major ones:

1. Clear the clutter

Over time, we tend to layer “things” on top of each other, such as adding steps to an existing process or increasing the number of layers in the organizational structure. Even when we are required to tighten our belts, the question usually is “How can we cut back on what we have?” instead of starting with a clean slate and asking, “How can we provide value to our customers/clients most effectively?”

2. Uncover hidden talents and resources

Organizations often are full of people who either are in the wrong jobs (i.e., a mis- fit between job and talent) or who have talents that are underutilized in their current jobs. Employers have a great opportunity now to hone in on their employees’ talents and leverage them in ways that serve everyone well. Encourage people to be creative and innovative, and support their efforts. The same logic is true of other resources: most organizations can discover “hidden” resources, or those that are underutilized.

Clearing the clutter and uncovering hidden talent and resources often reveal a great deal of misalignment that has kept the organization from optimizing business results. For those who may be concerned that investing in anything or anyone during challenging economic times is not a good idea, consider this: there is a huge ROI (return on investment) in developing and empowering people, both now and in the future. Remember, one of these days the economy is going to turn around and people will have choices about where they work. Will your good performers choose to stay with YOUR organization? The answer depends on how you treat them now.

Source: http://www.businessalignmentstrategies.com/articles/fallacy.php

A merger and acquisition (M&A) is not for the faint-hearted. Rather, it is a rigorous process with a required degree of detail that will make your head spin. A myriad of processes have to go right for this sort of business dealing to be successful.

But the good news is that successful M&As are not exclusive to Facebook-like acquisitions or Berkshire Hathaway buy-overs.

There are many reasons why top executives and business owners decide to do a merger. Some mergers are a way to kill competition by buying up rival companies. Other reasons may include the ability to easily gain new customers, boost business productivity, seamlessly penetrate a new market and even save a business from going under.

Whatever the reasons for a merger, the entire process starts and ends with strategy. You have to be willing to look at everything from culture fit, geographic location and product to the market, the industry and business perspectives. No one deliberately plans to enter a bad deal, but unfortunately, it does happen.

Here are a few tips that can help you keep your focus on the right things if you are about to execute an M&A.

1. Thoroughly evaluate your liquidity and financial capability.

While an M&A is not simply a financial transaction, you will be remiss to misinterpret the importance of financial stability while executing such a deal. If the recession taught businesses one thing, it is the importance of liquidity above profit-and-loss statements. Before embarking on a M&A, ascertain that your company has enough liquidity to make and sustain such an investment.

Also, keep an eye on your capital structure; you want to be sure that it can handle the added strain and responsibility. If each of these questions can’t be answered in the affirmative, it may be a bad idea to go forward with your plan. Reason? Unless you can handle a sufficient amount of debt and access equity-capital funding strategies to provide you with the perfect balance sheet, you will need to hold off on that M&A.

2. Put together the perfect team.

Almost every company has these three divisions: finance, sales and marketing and operations. So, it makes sense to pull together a pool of experts that represent these areas of expertise. Depending on your unique situation, you may need to bring in external help in the form of legal counsel, valuation experts, investment bankers and accountants.

It is extremely important that the people who make up this team be able to work together; this is neither the place nor the time for maverick thinking. Everyone’s eyes must be on the same objective, and these experts must think cohesively and communicate constantly.

They must also be willing to carry out their respective responsibilities within the limits of their authority as defined by the CEO or someone appointed by that person.

3. Establish your goals and measure for success.

Start by asking yourself some pertinent questions. Is your objective to boost your market share? Are you seeking to bring in new products, services and intellectual property under your corporate wing? Are you trying to break into new and contiguous markets?  Are you trying to eliminate a competitor or to achieve vertical integration?

This introspection will definitely help you set goals for your business, and make decisions in the right direction, to keep you from veering off track.

4. Make sure information can be shared securely and efficiently.

In today’s world, you’ll hardly hear of a company (buyer) sending over a team to the physical location of another company (the seller) to look at its books. We live in a digital world today that has eliminated the need for that hassle. However, this digitization brings its own hazards, especially in the form of security issues.

For this reason, consider using a virtual room to help both parties look at each other’s business documents securely and efficiently. Virtual data rooms act as a neutral and secure off-site location where members of both teams can be free to share documents and collaborate effectively.

Virtual data rooms help expedite the M&A transaction process, not to mention that they significantly cut down costs such as transportation (if you were to fly in your executive team to physical data-room locations).

5. Get the best leadership team you can.

If you’re planning to merge two separate entities, this means there will definitely be compatibility and integration issues, no matter how hard you’ve worked to reduce the risk of that happening.

Every transition requires the presence of strong leadership, whose members will be chosen to define the tone and set a precedent for the direction and efficiency of the new entity. Daniel J. Dewitt, a psychologist and partner with Shields Meneley Partners, a Chicago-based consultant, has suggested the right questions to ask, to avoid making the wrong leadership choices.

These include questions like, “Is the executive a clear, quick thinker?” and “Does the executive have strong people skills?”

Importantly, these transition team leaders must be chosen from both sides of the deal.These people will already understand the workings and culture of their respective companies and understand their employees on a personal level; and those advantages trump the hiring of new executives.

In addition, these leaders will be able to set expectations and develop a well-defined transition and work plan while maintainin

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/297919

The benefits of a strong corporate culture are both intuitive and supported by social science. According to James L. Heskett, culture “can account for 20-30% of the differential in corporate performance when compared with ‘culturally unremarkable’ competitors.” And HBR writers have offered advice on navigating different geographic cultures, selecting jobs based on culture, changing cultures, and offering feedback across cultures, among other topics.

But what makes a culture? Each culture is unique and myriad factors go into creating one, but I’ve observed at least six common components of great cultures. Isolating those elements can be the first step to building a differentiated culture and a lasting organization.

1. Vision: A great culture starts with a vision or mission statement. These simple turns of phrase guide a company’s values and provide it with purpose. That purpose, in turn, orients every decision employees make. When they are deeply authentic and prominently displayed, good vision statements can even help orient customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Nonprofits often excel at having compelling, simple vision statements. The Alzheimer’s Association, for example, is dedicated to “a world without Alzheimer’s.”And Oxfam envisions “a just world without poverty.” A vision statement is a simple but fundational element of culture.
2. Values: A company’s values are the core of its culture. While a vision articulates a company’s purpose, values offer a set of guidelines on the behaviors and mindsets needed to achieve that vision. McKinsey & Company, for example, has a clearly articulated set of values that are prominently communicated to all employees and involve the way that firm vows to serve clients, treat colleagues, and uphold professional standards. Google’s values might be best articulated by their famous phrase, “Don’t be evil.” But they are also enshrined in their “ten things we know to be true.” And while many companies find their values revolve around a few simple topics (employees, clients, professionalism, etc.), the originality of those values is less important than their authenticity.
3. Practices: Of course, values are of little importance unless they are enshrined in a company’s practices. If an organization professes, “people are our greatest asset,” it should also be ready to invest in people in visible ways. Wegman’s, for example, heralds values like “caring” and “respect,”promising prospects “a job [they’ll] love.”And it follows through in its company practices, ranked by Fortune as the fifth best company to work for. Similarly, if an organization values “flat” hierarchy, it must encourage more junior team members to dissent in discussions without fear or negative repercussions. And whatever an organization’s values, they must be reinforced in review criteria and promotion policies, and baked into the operating principles of daily life in the firm.
4. People: No company can build a coherent culture without people who either share its core values or possess the willingness and ability to embrace those values. That’s why the greatest firms in the world also have some of the most stringent recruiting policies. According to Charles Ellis, as noted in a recent review of his book What it Takes: Seven Secrets of Success from the World’s Greatest Professional Firms, the best firms are “fanatical about recruiting new employees who are not just the most talented but also the best suited to a particular corporate culture.” Ellis highlights that those firms often have 8-20 people interview each candidate. And as an added benefit, Steven Hunt notes at Monster.com that one study found applicants who were a cultural fit would accept a 7% lower salary, and departments with cultural alignment had 30% less turnover. People stick with cultures they like, and bringing on the right “culture carriers” reinforces the culture an organization already has.
5. Narrative: Marshall Ganz was once a key part of Caesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers movement and helped structure the organizing platform for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Now a professor at Harvard, one of Ganz’s core areas of research and teaching is the power of narrative. Any organization has a unique history — a unique story. And the ability to unearth that history and craft it into a narrative is a core element of culture creation. The elements of that narrative can be formal — like Coca-Cola, which dedicated an enormous resource to celebrating its heritage and even has a World of Coke museum in Atlanta — or informal, like those stories about how Steve Jobs’ early fascination with calligraphy shaped the aesthetically oriented culture at Apple. But they are more powerful when identified, shaped, and retold as a part of a firm’s ongoing culture.
6. Place: Why does Pixar have a huge open atrium engineering an environment where firm members run into each other throughout the day and interact in informal, unplanned ways? Why does Mayor Michael Bloomberg prefer his staff sit in a “bullpen” environment, rather than one of separate offices with soundproof doors? And why do tech firms cluster in Silicon Valley and financial firms cluster in London and New York? There are obviously numerous answers to each of these questions, but one clear answer is that place shapes culture. Open architecture is more conducive to certain office behaviors, like collaboration. Certain cities and countries have local cultures that may reinforce or contradict the culture a firm is trying to create. Place — whether geography, architecture, or aesthetic design — impacts the values and behaviors of people in a workplace.

There are other factors that influence culture. But these six components can provide a firm foundation for shaping a new organization’s culture. And identifying and understanding them more fully in an existing organization can be the first step to revitalizing or reshaping culture in a company looking for change.

Source: https://hbr.org/2013/05/six-components-of-culture

Every business should be able to trust its employees. Not doing so can mean you miss out on many benefits, below are some of the reasons why trust leads to success for both your workforce and your brand.

1) You’ll have more time to be proactive

If you place trust in your employees you’ll allow them to get on with their work without you feeling like you have to check up on them. This will allow you extra time to be getting on with proactive activities.

When employees are trusted to work independently towards a common goal it means that you can work alongside them, as opposed to overseeing their activities, effectively adding another team member.
This additional resource benefits the whole team and results in a more productive and collaborative workforce.

2) Trusted employees are more productive

If employees feel trusted then they’ll feel less compelled to ask you to check their progress, meaning fewer pauses in productivity while awaiting your approval.
Without the constraints of regular progress checks (for no other reason than a lack of trust) employees can work uninterrupted and complete projects more efficiently.

3) Flexible working can’t prosper without trust

Working from home or out of hours is often a necessity in our modern working lives, allowing us to take care of other responsibilities and balance work with personal life.
This type of arrangement has been widely reported to be more efficient and productive than working in the office 9-5 everyday, improves employee satisfaction and retention and reduces costs.

Without trust from management this type of working cannot work and leads to an inflexible business with less than happy employees. To get the most form flexible working brands need to trust that their people are able to work unsupervised, wherever they are.

4) You’ll get honest feedback

If workers feel trusted and respected then they’re more likely to give honest feedback and suggest improvements.
If you trust their opinions and are seen to make decisions based on your discussions then you’ll increase engagement, improve your employer brand and benefit from the improvements recommended.

5) Trusted employees become brand advocates

Trusted employees are happy employees, happy employees become brand advocates.

Word of mouth marketing and referrals from employees are two very important benefits that your business can capitalise on if you simply trust your people and encourage them to engage with the brand.

Advocates are far less likely to look for employment elsewhere, reducing turnover and its associated costs and building experience and expertise among your workforce.

6) Trust inspires confidence

When an employee is trusted they’ll feel more confident in what they do. Over time this confidence can be turned into the skills required to further their own career and become a leader themselves.

Confidence means that employees will take on new challenges and push themselves to learn new skills which benefit not only them, but you as their employer.

Source: https://www.ciphr.com/features/reasons-why-you-cant-afford-not-to-trust-your-employees/

The environment can pose many risks to your business, but climate change is perhaps the biggest environmental risk. Climate change refers to the build-up of man-made gases in the atmosphere that trap the sun’s heat, causing changes in global weather patterns. It has environmental, economic and social impacts.

Climate change risks for your business may include:

• frequent extreme weather – you may have increased insurance costs, more damage to property and resources, and disruption of power and water. Customers may be unable to visit or contact your business, or suppliers may be unable to deliver goods or services.
• decreased demand – there may be less demand for your goods and services if they are not environmentally friendly, or competitors with energy-efficient products may target your customers. It may also be difficult to attract and retain staff if your business is not sustainable.
• global impacts – overseas suppliers may be unable to deliver goods or services due to climate change events in their country or international customers being encouraged to buy locally.
• increased costs – you may experience higher costs for energy, water and other resources. Water restrictions may also affect your business.

Prepare a risk management plan

Identify the risks that climate change brings to your business and prepare a risk management plan that deals with climate change. Then plan ways to manage these risks. Assess how climate change is already affecting your business and how it could affect it in the future.

Taking steps now to address climate change risks can save your business from financial or other problems, and improve the sustainability of your business.

Source: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/environment/environment-business/risks

Companies that can support diversity and inclusion will be more attractive to potential employees, especially as competition for top talent continues to rise. Today’s workforce is comprised of highly talented people from countries and backgrounds across the globe. As facility manager, the decisions you make not only affect operations, they can also help promote workplace values and culture. You want your processes to be highly-effective and streamlined, while promoting a culture of respect and inclusivity. If office culture is a priority at your workplace, here are some things to take into account.

Implement universal design elements

It is difficult for people with disabilities to feel comfortable in an office that isn’t designed for their specific needs. Universal design creates spaces that are usable by people regardless of physical or cognitive challenges they’re facing. Wheelchair access, highly-readable signs and attention to acoustic and thermal comfort are examples of universal design elements. Spaces that use this philosophy aren’t just designed for those with disabilities either—many of their principles like simplicity, flexibility and tolerance for error benefit the entire office. Facility managers should first understand the principles of universal design and then seek opportunities to make appropriate changes in their offices.

Provide flexible workspaces

Creating flexibility and opportunities for choice allows employees to customize their work environment to their specific needs throughout the day. Flexibility and customization help all workers be more productive but have an especially powerful effect on women in the office.

One way to foster an inclusive environment is through activity-based workspaces.

These areas are optimized for certain types of work like deeply focused solo tasks or collaborative brainstorming meetings. Employees can move around in the environment and find the area that suits their work best; this also helps the office to feel more dynamic and energetic, as employees won’t always be static at their respective desks. Furthermore, flexible workspaces encourage interactions between staff who might otherwise rarely speak or engage, and promote a more cohesive and supportive corporate culture. A desk booking system can help you establish a more flexible workplace.

Establish protocols for conflict resolution

Having an inclusive office means allowing for conflicting opinions. Your office should embrace diversity and have a structure in place for addressing and resolving disagreements. Healthy conflict can arise from talented teams looking to present unique ideas. This type of disagreement helps companies maintain a culture of innovation and better cover any blindspots they may have. Facilitating productive conflict requires great processes and transparency. Facility managers should ensure team leaders are trained to listen and manage conflict appropriately. Highly intuitive complaint or feedback systems can also help address situations that require immediate attention, so that no one feels unsafe or invalidated in the workplace.

As facility manager, this may also mean tracking move or change requests. While there may be logistical reasons behind a request, there may also be cultural or personal reasons—for example, an employee with mobility issues may want to be closer to the washroom, or an employee may request a change if they are being treated unfairly by a peer in their department. As FM, make sure to understand how and why recurring issues are happening within the office space. A request manager can help you respond to and resolve change requests.

Assess your recruitment practices

Recruiting methods hold inherent biases—hiring choices are often made based on first impressions. These biased decisions can exclude qualified candidates because of irrelevant factors like cultural background, physical looks, gender or even the current mood of the interviewer. Effective recruitment and inclusivity thus go hand-in-hand. Failing to account for human error in recruitment means potentially missing out on the perfect hire. Facility managers can use tools like recruitment software and processes like anonymized applications to help negate some of the bias present in their hiring methods. It is important for FMs to review their processes frequently to ensure their fairness.

Inclusivity ultimately holds both business and social benefits. Facility managers that can present a welcoming environment in their office space stand to gain from improved team communication, more diverse ideas and access to a wider pool of top talent.

Source: https://www.officespacesoftware.com/blog/how-office-managers-can-promote-a-culture-of-inclusivity

According to Bruce Kasanoff on an article on LinkedIn, it’s often difficult for many companies to truly understand what their customers really want, and the reason is because companies often employ and promote employees that lie, cheat, and steal—whether it be in large or in small ways. In other words, companies often employ individuals who are in it for themselves, rather than for the greater good of the customer or the company, and this makes conducting an ethical business difficult.

Not only do companies offer jobs to employees that are in it for themselves, but also people often institute business practices that reflect the taker mindset rather than the giver/care for the customer mindset. Kasanoff states, for example, that one sneaky way businesses justify this taker mindset is by collecting money on monthly services for services customers who don’t need and/or don’t know they are being charged.

Personal Experience of An Insurance Company with a Taker Approach to Business

Here is recent personal example of this type of taker approach to business. My sister joined an insurance company when she moved to Utah, and when a few years later, she moved out of state to California, she purchased both a new car, and a new insurance policy. The deal was the new insurance company would contact the old insurance company and make sure they cancelled her old insurance policy.

Well, a few years after the fact, and several thousand dollars later, my sister realizes the old insurance company had been deducting a monthly insurance premium payment from her checking account for a car she no longer owned, regardless of the fact that the new insurance company informed the old insurance company of the change.

For the old insurance company, it was easy to simply let this notification fall through the cracks, and continue taking payments out of her account until my sister noticed something was wrong, and called them about it.

Is it my sister’s fault for not double, triple, and quadruple checking? Is it the insurance company’s fault for not putting the needs of their customer first?

Perhaps both sides of the story can be argued, but what really would have been the ethical step for the old insurance company to take? Is it better to simply take payments for a service you are not providing, or is it better to do everything to avoid and rectify the situation?

Yes, the insurance company ended up with a large chunk of change for doing absolutely nothing, but they also lost a customer, and the story of their indiscretion is a common topic of conversation among her large network of friends and family—some of whom have canceled their services with this insurance company as a result of their dishonesty.

The Takeaway

How you choose to conduct business truly is your choice, and you may get away with taking large sums of money from people, but is that really the best way to conduct business? Will you really get ahead in the long run? Are there other alternatives to attract more business as an honest business owner who is truly watching out for the needs of the customer?

A Solution to the Taker Mindset

Most business owners, hopefully, would agree that honesty is the best policy, and would try and repair the problem. Additionally, they would probably try and avoid this situation all together, but how do you actually do this as a business owner? How do you make sure that you and your employees are acting as givers, rather than takers?

One solution would be to hire and promote people within your company who are naturally givers. In other words, make sure that you trust your staff, and you have countless examples of your employees running customer-focused initiatives that will mutually benefit the customers and the company.

As you interview new recruits, make sure they can provide examples of how they have fostered customer-focused initiatives in the past, and how they plan to do the same at your company.

Additionally, as you promote individuals, make sure you are promoting those with innovative and customer-centric ideas.

False Advertising

In a society of unending and hardcore competition, it truly is difficult to get ahead. It’s true that Americans are huge consumers, but for any business owners to get a piece of the pie, it seems we have to be the best, the smartest, the fastest, and offer the coolest solution to what pains the American people. As a result, this need to be the best can lead to some type of false advertising—whether it be cheating, or lying to get ahead.

Don’t believe me? I have to words for you to illustrate the point: Lance Armstrong.

You know the story. Armstrong was one of the greatest American sport’s symbols, founder of the Livestrong Foundation, and survivor of cancer. His excellence was touted and recognized far and wide, and that need for excellence drove him to do something that led to his downfall—cheat. Now, rather than being the poster boy for cycling, the very first page of Lance Armstrong’s Wikipedia page talks about his doping offenses, and everyone knows he is a fraud.

Yes, the competition is tough, but is cheating really the best way to the top?

While the example of Lance Armstrong is poignant, athletes aren’t the only ones susceptible to cheating and false advertising. Small businesses and big businesses alike can fall into this same trap.

Ashley R. Cummings, a content writer who works for Shield Funding says, “As small business owners, we are constantly thinking about ways to grow our business, and outsmart the competition, so we can get ahead, but the question always remains of what is the best way to do that.”

With lots of competition in every industry, especially when it comes to online marketing, it is truly a fear that if you slow down for one second, you’ll be left behind.

Sometimes this pressure to stay ahead leads people to misrepresent themselves with false advertising campaigns, and, if they are caught, can result in a brand loosing millions of dollars. Here are some recent examples of large false advertising scandals that ended badly for the brand.

• Activia yogurt – Activia touted that the yogurt was “clinically” and “scientifically” proven to have certain health benefits, which was not true. This lie led to a class action suit costing Activia $45 million dollars.

• Definity eye cream – Definity eye cream lost precious advertising space by falsely advertising former model, Twiggy, as looking much younger after 62 weeks of using this product. Turns out the ads were just touched up.

• Groupon’s tourism ads – Groupon was sued for targeting travel-related keywords to destinations they didn’t actually offer travel coupons to.

These are just 3 examples of companies that suffered from going a little too far in trying to get ahead of the game.

When it comes to advertising your company, is it better to creatively and cleverly stick to the truth, or to do everything you can to outshine the competition?

When Lying and Cheating are Good

Up to this point, we’ve talked about a couple different scenarios when cheating in business really didn’t pan out well, and led to unhappy customers and business owners. But, are there times when lying, cheating, and bluffing are good for your business?

I submit that there are.

When to Lie in Business

Sometimes you may want to lie to yourself. Get up out of bed, look in the mirror, and tell yourself you are the smartest, most accomplished, and good-looking businessperson on the planet. Then, go out there and accomplish your goals. It may not be 100% true, but as you keep telling yourself this, your mind will become full of positive images about yourself, and your ability to accomplish your dreams will become easier.

This type of lying really can be productive. It’s the type of lying that if you say it enough, it becomes true. Or at least the idea of you being the best, worthy of accomplishing your goals, and capable of setting out what you set out to do is a reality.

When to Cheat in Business

As a small business owner, you aren’t going to know all of the answers all of the time. You just aren’t. This is when “cheating” comes in handy. I’m not talking about misrepresenting yourself or your company; I’m talking about using tools and resources to figure out the answers to your problems.

If you don’t know the answers, go out and do the research to find them. Figure out what type of schooling, training, or online education programs you need to attend in order to make it through until you really do become an expert. If you’re in a business social situation that is challenging, pay attention to body language and other social cues, and fake it till you make it.

There is nothing wrong with not knowing everything. It’s much better to continue to grow, learn, and quickly find answers, rather than to pretend you are perfect.

What Do You Think?

The examples above are sparse when it comes to the overwhelming world of business. What examples do you have of lying, cheating, and stealing in business? Do you think it’s necessary to cheat to get ahead in business, or do you think honesty is the best policy?

Share with us what you think in the comments.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/do-you-need-cheat-become-sam-baitz/

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable — to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. By practicing corporate social responsibility, also called corporate citizenship, companies can be conscious of the kind of impact they are having on all aspects of society including economic, social, and environmental. To engage in CSR means that, in the normal course of business, a company is operating in ways that enhance society and the environment, instead of contributing negatively to it.

Breaking Down ‘Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’

Corporate social responsibility is a broad concept that can take many forms depending on the company and industry. Through CSR programs, philanthropy, and volunteer efforts, businesses can benefit society while boosting their own brands. As important as CSR is for the community, it is equally valuable for a company. CSR activities can help forge a stronger bond between employee and corporation; they can boost morale and can help both employees and employers feel more connected with the world around them.

In order for a company to be socially responsible, it first needs to be responsible to itself and its shareholders. Often, companies that adopt CSR programs have grown their business to the point where they can give back to society. Thus, CSR is primarily a strategy of large corporations. Also, the more visible and successful a corporation is, the more responsibility it has to set standards of ethical behavior for its peers, competition, and industry.

CSR in Action — Starbucks

Long before its initial public offering (IPO) in 1992, Starbucks was known for its keen sense of corporate social responsibility, and commitment to sustainability and community welfare. Starbucks has achieved CSR milestones such as reaching 99 percent ethically sourced coffee; creating a global network of farmers; pioneering green building throughout its stores; contributing millions of hours of community service; and creating a groundbreaking college program for its partner/employees. Going forward, Starbucks’s goals include hiring 10,000 refugees across 75 countries; reducing the environmental impact of its cups; and engaging its employees in environmental leadership.

Published Standards for CSR

In 2010, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released a set of voluntary standards meant to help companies implement corporate social responsibility. Unlike other ISO standards, ISO 26000 provides guidance rather than requirements because the nature of CSR is more qualitative than quantitative, and its standards cannot be certified. Instead, ISO 26000 clarifies what social responsibility is and helps organizations translate CSR principles into effective actions. The standard is aimed at all types of organizations regardless of their activity, size, or location. And, because many key stakeholders from around the world contributed to developing ISO 26000, this standard represents an international consensus.

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp

Increasing motivation in your workplace can help improve performance, raise morale and boost productivity. While different motivators work for different types of employees, there are several common techniques for getting employees excited and energized. If in doubt, ask employees what you can do to increase motivation.

Create a Positive Work Environment

Motivate employees by offering an upbeat, positive work environment. Encourage teamwork and idea-sharing, and make sure staffers have the tools and knowledge to perform well. Be available when employees need you to be a sounding board or a dispute mediator. Eliminate conflict as it arises, and give employees freedom to work independently when appropriate.

Set Goals

Help employees become self-motivated by helping establish professional goals and objectives. Not only does this give employees something to strive for, but your business benefits when goals are tied to corporate contributions. Make sure goals are reasonable and achievable so employees don’t get discouraged. Offer encouragement when workers hit notable milestones.

Provide Incentives

Increase motivation by providing incentives to work toward. You can create individual incentives for each employee or team incentives to motivate employees as a group. Financial incentives can include cash prizes, gift cards or restaurant gift certificates. Nonfinancial incentives can include extra vacation days, compressed work weeks or choice office space or parking spots.

Recognize Achievements

Celebrate employee achievements through employee-of-the-month or star performer awards. Make a big deal out of accomplishments by celebrating at staff meetings. Print certificates or engrave plaques, issue a press release or post a notice on your company website. Recognize team accomplishments as well as individual efforts.

Share Profits

Motivate employees with the incentive of a profit-sharing program. In this way, employees increase earnings while helping the business income rise. This approach simultaneously promotes collective goal-setting and teamwork. It also gives employees a sense of pride in ownership and can improve performance and reduce turnover as well as raise morale.

Solicit Employee Input

Regularly survey employee satisfaction. You can conduct anonymous polls or hire an independent party to conduct a formal focus group. This will help you catch potential morale breakers before they get out of hand. Soliciting employee input also shows staffers that you care about the opinions of workers and want to continually improve working conditions.

Provide Professional Enrichment

Encourage employees to pursue additional education or participate in industry organizations. Provide tuition reimbursement or send employees to skills workshops and seminars. If an employee is motivated to an upward career path, offer mentoring and job shadowing opportunities. Promote from within whenever possible and create opportunities to help employees develop from a professional standpoint.

Source: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/7-techniques-increasing-motivation-55420.html