If you want to make your work environment successful, one of the most important things you can do is to create a positive team culture. When you make sure your employees feel supported and encouraged every day, your employees will also be motivated to bring their A-game and help your company achieve its goals. But did you know that corporate community involvement can also play a significant role in building a positive team culture?
Community involvement has the power to bring positive, measurable change to both the community, and also have a significant impact on the company’s internal culture. Let’s explore how you can leverage community involvement as an effective tool for building a stronger, more engaged team and a positive, winning culture.
The Benefits of Corporate Community Involvement
Corporate community engagements benefit more than just your community, they benefit your company and employees as well. You are creating a positive workplace where all your employees can feel honored, and it is great for business. The 2017 Doing Good Is Good For You study showed 92% of employees believe volunteering activities developed their people skills/teamwork. Here are 3 ways that community involvement can benefit your company.
1. Positive Brand Reputation
Community engagement can give your company a better reputation by showing that your corporation cares about giving back to the community. Whether it be volunteering, donating, or even helping at a local soup kitchen. This improves your brand by demonstrating a commitment to social responsibility. Doing this can set you apart from the competition. People will see the good your company is doing and will choose you over others. Having a positive brand reputation leads to brand loyalty and customer relationships.
2. Improved Community Relationships
Another important step in benefiting a company’s success is to have community relationships. Customers want to see that your company is not only about making more money for yourselves but also that you genuinely care about the people within your community and how you want to help them because these are the people who are engaging with your establishment. Improving your relationships helps your business by building customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is very important because loyal customers spread the word about how great your operation is, which then gives you the opportunity to gain new customers in the process.
3. Employee engagement and motivation
Corporate community involvement can benefit employee engagement in numerous amounts of ways. When your employees feel as if they are involved in something that is important and maybe even something that they are passionate about which in return makes them feel joy. They will not feel like they are just working a regular 9-5 with no purpose. Boosting their happiness will then motivate them to their professional work engagement to do their best work. Keeping your employees motivated will have a positive effect on your company.
Tips for Building a Winning Team Culture with Corporate Community Involvement
Take the first step to empower your employees to make a lasting impression on your local community to make your corporation an overall sustainable workplace. Together you can build positive team culture, one success at a time. To help get you started, below are four major tips for building a winning team culture.
1. Identify community needs and causes that align with company values.
Start by reviewing your company’s mission statement. Figuring out what your company stands for and its overall purpose. From that, you can research organizations that align with your company’s values and social mission. Begin by figuring out the needs of your local community. The best way to find out what the community needs are by talking directly to the people who live there. Ask questions about what issues need to be addressed and how you can help support them.
2. Encourage employee participation and volunteerism.
Get your employees involved! Motivate your employees to volunteer their time to assist in helping the community need that you have chosen. One effective method for motivating employees is by acknowledging their hard work and achievements. A great way to do this is by presenting them with an award during a company meeting, which can help them feel valued and recognized for their contributions. Plus, this will encourage other workers to follow in their footsteps. Provide your employees with all the resources they need to make volunteering more convenient and enjoyable.
3. Incorporate community involvement into company policies and goals
Motivate community engagement in corporate policies and objectives. Meaning companies should attempt on creating recommendations and goals highlighting the needs of people in their local communities. A couple of examples are creating an employee volunteer program where your company allows employees to take paid time off to volunteer in their local community or creating charitable giving programs, where you find charities that need donations and encourage employees to help donate.
4. Monitor the impact of corporate community involvement
Tracking the impact of your company’s involvement is key to success. This helps you figure out the area that needs improvement and make sure that you’re making a positive impact within the community. So, you should first track participation. See how many of your employees are getting involved and how much time they are putting in. Next, figure out the effect your involvement is having on the community. Is the community satisfied with how you’re getting involved and believes you’re doing a good job? Most importantly, are your employees satisfied? Keeping track of whether employees are pleased and feel proud is major because employees will feel satisfied working with your company.
Corporate Community Involvement and Team Building
Make it Fun! Corporate community involvement is not only rewarding but is a great opportunity to have fun with your employees by creating team-building activities that get you and your workers out of the office and working together to have an impact on the community, with a little friendly competition. Team building competition has a huge impact on positive company culture because it gets employees the chance to get to know each other, build relationships, and build trust. All for the good of giving back!
TeamBonding offers a variety of different events to help your company give back while strengthening your team. In our Bikes for the Biosphere program, teams get together to build adult bicycles to donate to local community centers. Not only is this good for people who may not have transportation, but it is also great for the environment. In our Clean Water Connection program, your team will make a difference in some of the world’s most underprivileged communities. This program gets your employees to build water filters, transforming dirty water into drinkable water. Each filter provides people with clean water for years to come. And if you want an activity that will really bring your team together, check out our Wheels Around the World program where each team will sponsor a wheelchair recipient, and answer questions to earn a wheel-spoke safety cover to decorate and attach to their sponsor.
With any of these programs, your employees will not only feel good about themselves but also feel good about your company and their coworkers and what everyone has accomplished together. For more team-building programs, check out our charitable TeamBonding page.
Successful Corporate Community Involvement Examples
There are many companies that have already put into effect successful community involvements that have benefited their corporation today. Here is a list of some companies that have taken an active role in creating positive changes within their community and team culture:
- Coca-Cola Foundation: Helps to support sustainable community initiatives across the globe.
- Salesforce Foundation: Giving back to young people so they can reach their full potential by supporting Education, Workforce Development, and Thriving Community Programs.
- The Starbucks Foundation: Supports thriving communities through grants to nonprofit organizations transforming lives across the world, with a focus on enabling community resiliency and prosperity and uplifting communities affected by a disaster.
- Walmart Foundation: Working with farmers and suppliers, and collaborating with nonprofit organizations around the world, to ensure that more people have access to the foods they want and need.
- Apple: For every hour an Apple employee volunteers or dollar they donate, Apple matches with a monetary donation to the same organization. In addition to volunteer activities and contributions made through the Employee Giving program
- Johnson & Johnson employee giving program: Gives back to improving the health of mothers, infants, and children.
- Motorola Foundation: Prioritizes support for first responders, technology and engineering education, and underrepresented groups.
Get Started with Corporate Community Involvement
Time to get started building your winning team! Together you can make a difference, investing in your community is an investment in your success. The benefits of corporate community involvement are endless. From volunteering for a local charity to incorporating it into your company’s goals.
To learn more about the benefits of community involvement, check out our CSR page or contact TeamBonding directly for more information!
