Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity is essential for all brands and businesses, irrespective of sector and business scale. Companies today have identified their brand resonance with the physical footprint and how they give back to the communities. Critically, CSR is no more a trend but a dynamic that can help build the business credibility, change the face of the company, and increase its longevity.

While CSR may hold a feel-good factor and help drive a campaign, it's about the ethos and purpose of a business, its relationship with the physical location where they're operating, its societal responsibilities, and most importantly, its strategic business management concept.

CSR also enhances the business reputation and helps strengthen the business plan. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is another criterion that breeds the same social commitment as CSR and measures a business's ethical impact.

Building a CSR Business Strategy

While the global pandemic made a worldwide impact, it also helped accelerate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) due to changes in the way people think, behave, and consume. A 2020 brand report that surveyed over 8000 candidates in eight countries stated that 76% of global consumers were ready to vote with their wallets.

It meant that if a brand weren't authentic, purposeful, or did as it claimed, the consumers would go elsewhere. The same report also showed that 77% of global consumers believe that a company's leader should embody the purpose and mission of their organization in their personal lives. CSR initiatives can also widen how organizations work and allow employees to invest in programs outside of work with the following benefits:

Employees can work in teams to contribute socially to causes that align with the brand ethos.
Companies can create digital experiences to drive deeper engagement and make their programs more inclusive.
Organizations can tap into their employees' different skills and recruit specialized, high-performance workers from abroad to fill the skill gap.
Virtual volunteering opens up the opportunity for different office groups to participate and expand the reach of the program.

Virtual volunteering was redefined during the pandemic as companies shifted to a remote workforce and looked for ways for their employees to help and contribute to social causes. While a hybrid workforce structure, increase in digital-first experiences, and different technology platforms may help increase the adoption of virtual volunteering programs, the discipline to efficiently manage them makes the success even more impactful.

Best Practices for Organizations to Manage Virtual Volunteering Projects

Ahead is a roadmap that companies can follow to bring their volunteers to the front and center of the social cause and CSR strategy and integrate the following best practices into the program:

1. Attract & Recruit the Right Volunteers

In order to meet the overall goals of the team for volunteer involvement, businesses should focus on driving their employee's current skills and passions to contribute to worldwide causes that they care about. For skill-based volunteering, companies must train employees or recruit specialized candidates with the proper knowledge and abilities for the social justice cause. It pushes teams to work together for the cause and bond with global communities by putting their unique skills forward.

2. Automating Management Solutions

While businesses are adopting new models and strategies to maximize the impact of contributing to causes virtually, the practice has limitations in managing teams or groups from different regions. In this case, project-based volunteer management software can help access, examine, and report the success of the virtual volunteering efforts. Managers can use an end-to-end volunteer platform to measure the hours and efforts put into a project. A volunteer management software can help companies track progress in real-time, accumulate/verify the team's database, share images, and schedule events. It can also help coordinate between skill-based, non-skill-based, team projects, etc., to simplify the planning/execution and avoid constant back-and-forth.

3. Host Additional Team Meetings

Failing to communicate effectively can lead to damaging the relationship with the employee and failing to create meaningful experiences to help strengthen the project. When recruiting new members to the team, managers must make the onboarding process engaging by questioning or gauging their interest/purpose in the social justice cause. Clear communication is essential to solidify the scope of the volunteer project from the beginning. Managers must effectively communicate the team's roles and responsibilities and prepare them for the challenges ahead. Honest and timely feedback must be imparted during the project, along with timely group meetings and activities to define a common goal, bond with the rest of the community, and build a more profound sense of purpose.

Final Thoughts

Since it's the era of social and conscious change, businesses can strategically plan and execute various virtual volunteering projects spread across the globe. It can help offer enriching experiences, encourage the workforce, boost employee morale, build the company's reputation, and allow leaders to take a step away from their business objectives. Once the volunteer parameters are defined, it's essential to give the project full recognition, highlight the team member's efforts, and align business goals with the available virtual volunteering opportunities.

Corporations can leverage the expertise of other innovative tools and volunteer platforms that make the process as authentic and simplified as possible to eliminate the hurdles and accomplish their CSR and ESG goals.

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