As the festive season is upon us and many businesses have to do things very differently this year, let’s take a look at what we can be doing to support each other at this testing time.

Being a sustainable business is not just about looking at your ‘green’ credentials, it’s much more than that. The key to being a sustainable business is being an active part of the local community and helping others and giving a little back.

Here are a few examples of how you can give a little back:

Sourcing your materials and products locally

This is not only helping the local economy and fellow businesses in your area, but it can help to build a strong local network. Getting to know your business neighbours and how you can help each other will build a stronger local economy.  By sourcing local you are helping to cut travel miles for products too, which does have environmental benefits. 

Volunteering 

It is important for humans to feel part of a community – it’s how we thrive. So why should it be any different for the workplace? Employees that are part of an organisation that they feel care for them and their community will be more engaged to do their best.

You can enhance this by setting up a volunteering scheme at your workplace. A way to do this is to ask you employees what local causes are important to them – these can be the charities/causes that your organisation then supports for the rest of the year, be that through fund raising events or volunteering to help out at their events. 

Another way that you can help causes close to the hearts of your employees is to offer volunteering days to employees. This is where they can take one day of work and exchange it for a day’s volunteering at their chosen cause. 

An example of this is when I worked for a facilities management company in Wiltshire, employees were asked if there were any local community projects we could help with. One employee said that his local scout hut that his children attended was in need of repainting and the grounds could do with tidying up.  So a team of 10 employees went to the scout hut in work hours and helped to repaint and tidy up the area.

This had many positive knock-on effects. Firstly, the local community and scouts were thankful that an organisation had taken time out to help them. Secondly, it was great for the employees; there was a sense of achievement for helping the local community as well as getting to know colleagues from different parts of the business. Finally, the business as a whole benefits – by showing it cares about what is important to its employees, it cares about the local community and it wants to make a positive difference. 

Using your employee’s skills

Your employees each will have their specialism – but how can you use these to give a little back and help those around you? It’s important to invest in the next generation and to help them into the workplace. Why not get in touch with local education establishments and see if there is anything you can do to help them. 

Many schools and colleges set up mock-interview scenarios to help their pupils understand what they can expect from their first experience of entering the world of work. Why not see if some of your employees could help out with these mock-interviews. These may take a different form these days with video call interviews instead of face to face. 

Always engage your workforce with these ideas; what do they want to do to help others? Whatever your organisation decides to do to give a little back, make sure that it is genuine and with integrity – positivity breeds positivity.