No matter what you call it, helping the communities you work in can bring immeasurable rewards, says Rhys Hellen of Crystal Collections, recent winners of the Best Responsible Small Business of the Year awarded by the Prince of Wales’s organisation for businesses.
What does ‘responsible business’ mean? Perhaps you refer to it as ‘corporate social responsibility’? Whatever the title, the same thought comes to mind: What can I/we do to help? It falls into somebody else’s area in my business; it’s nice to have, but does it actually make a difference to my business, etc?
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One of my first acts when I joined Crystal Collections was to build our responsible business strategy, knowing that it has a fundamental link to high-performing staff, builds motivation and makes a difference to your business, whatever size your workforce.
On 26 June, the company was announced as the Best Responsible Small Business of 2013 in the Business in the Community (BITC) national awards for Wales. The organisation had received more than 400 entrants for the awards across every sector of business, not just the motor or finance industry.
We approached BITC directly. The organisation is governed by a board of trustee directors, volunteering from across a range of large successful companies within the UK and the president of the organisation is the Prince of Wales. The organisation is then split within the UK to make many regional areas that would provide more direct support to your business.
BITC asks companies to take action on their priority issues by working together to create a bigger impact and make a difference.
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By GlobalDataKey areas are:
– Marketplace – how a company develops its products, or works with suppliers, and/or markets its products/services to its customers;
– Workplace – how a company invests in the diversity, skills and well-being of employees;
– Environment – how a company seeks to reduce its environmental impact;
– Community – how a company supports, recruits from, trades with and engages with local areas of social need.
It was vital for me and the team at Crystal Collections that BITC was able to come in and work closely to our business plan and connect our teams together with the local projects or programmes that have approached them for support. This was a huge boost as it organised areas, saved time in areas and, more importantly, addressed areas that required immediate support.
BITC will appoint a relationship co-ordinator to your company and will provide regular information and tools to help assess and monitor your corporate responsibility index against other members to provide you with a benchmark.
Over the past 18 months, we have created and developed a staff appraisal system and created an employee volunteering programme in which every member of the team has a full day’s paid leave to volunteer each year. Staff can also apply for funding support to a local charity of their choice. We have developed a pupil mentor school programme for schools in Communities First areas (a Welsh Government scheme to tackle local poverty), where our staff support Year 10 children whose anticipated grades are bordering on C/D. We provide an insight into working life and the demands of employment and show the children how applying focus now will make a difference to their futures.
Pupils were hugely receptive to our work with some saying it had helped them explore their opportunities and understand how to achieve their goals. Many thanked our staff personally for their help.
I personally mentored the owner of a not-for-profit social enterprise company called Pennysmart. It delivers workshops and debt advice for councils and housing association members, aiding the sectors of society who are most at risk with debt. It builds workshops and one-to-one home visits to provide support and awareness to prevent people falling into financial trouble. I have worked for over 12 months helping the owner build a business plan.
When I joined, Pennysmart was not setting or meeting targets; now it is doing so and expanding. The work continues and the owner noted my talks and interventions had given him the confidence to make decisions and not feel so isolated. "It may have taken much longer for me to get to this stage without mentoring support," he told me.
We have delivered far more, and will continue to do so, and on every review I have with the clients we support, every agenda has a topic dedicated to social responsibility. I am very keen to push the importance of supporting the communities any car finance lender, broker or dealer operates in, and would encourage anyone who wants more information to contact myself or BITC directly as the sense of satisfaction and motivation it brings to your team in creating a positive environment transcends to adding real value to your company.
The endorsement of winning a prestigious independent award can assure the industry that no matter what sector you operate in, responsibility is a must and we at Crystal Collections are proud to be acknowledged.
Rhys Hellen is business development manager at Crystal Collections Ltd
