Several months ago over 40% of our membership completed a survey specially designed to assess the effectiveness of Chiltern Chamber businesses in corporate social responsibility.

One month on and we are now in a position to reveal the very positive results! Chiltern Chamber businesses were consistently effective in providing corporate social responsibility across all four categories of ‘Environmental’, ‘Workplace’, ‘Philanthropic’ and ‘Community’. Some particularly impressive findings were as follows:

Chiltern 150% better than UK Average

100% Chiltern businesses recycle paper
40% UK businesses recycle paper

Chiltern staff have freedom

100% Chiltern businesses offer flexible working
43% UK businesses offer flexible working

Chiltern staff are skilled

95% Chiltern businesses offer training
75% UK businesses offer training

Chiltern is Eco-Friendly

86% Chiltern businesses use LED lights
49% UK businesses use LED lights

… and Chiltern is Charitable!

79% Chiltern businesses give to charity
60% UK businesses give to charity

As you can see, these figures are consistently high, with Chiltern businesses performing way above the national average for all four categories of corporate social responsibility.

Despite these very promising results, the survey still displayed room for improvement in certain areas of corporate social responsibility:

• 29% Chiltern businesses have health & wellbeing schemes
• 33% Chiltern businesses have a charity policy
• 37% Chiltern businesses encourage cycling to work
• 48% Chiltern businesses give staff volunteering time

Therefore whilst the survey showed many impressive statistics regarding the corporate social responsibility of businesses belonging to Chiltern Chamber, there remains room for improvement.

Many surveys displayed that whilst companies often donated towards charities, they failed to have an official company policy in place. This is an important thing to address on the road to becoming an extremely socially responsibly corporation.

Why is Corporate Social Responsibility important?

Corporate Social Responsibility is a useful tool for business owners who want to further their company image in the local area. This can be useful for many reasons:

Public Image

Contribution towards the local community creates a positive public image of your company. This will make your brand more marketable on social media platforms.

Increased sales

Potential customers are more likely to seek your business over rivals if you are a noticeably more socially responsible company.

Skilled staff

A socially responsible corporation treats their staff well. This will increase the attractiveness of your company as a place to work for high-skilled potential workers.

Reduced recruitment costs

Your company’s recruitment costs will be greatly reduced if you are socially responsible – if high-skilled people want to work for your company, then they are probably already applying!

Reduced lighting costs

Environmentally-friendly practices can also help lower costs. LED lighting, for example, is estimated to be 20% less expensive than regular lighting.

Compared to the national averages, Chiltern businesses are very socially responsible and, for the reasons mentioned above, this will benefit all of our companies. However, there is still a lot more that can be done! We don’t want to sit back on our laurels.

Another CSR survey will be sent out to all our members in a few months time. Let’s make our results better than the last one, so we can all receive the benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility!

This is what Richard Collins from CSR Accreditation had to say about the importance of becoming a certificated CSR company…

Thanks everyone

– Nicola