Miri Marriott’s (CSR) Christmas Wish Tree project came to an end last Friday. After 3 months of preparation, we delivered all 442 gifts/money donated by guests, associates and friends of Miri Marriott to the various orphanages, disability centres and the hospital. It was an experience that brought on a rollercoaster of emotions, but an experience I will remember and treasure forever. It did get me thinking about CSR; how some companies (corporations) choose not to do it and for some that do it’s all just a load of green, blue or pinkwashing.
Personally, to experience what I experienced last week, it is worth all the time, all the money and all the effort. It’s a given that acts of CSR are not going to solve all the world’s problems (it would be amazing if they could!) but it is a way for companies to extend a helping hand to society, while also benefiting from it themselves. Clearly the feeling of doing something good for others is not enough, so why else should companies embrace corporate social responsibility? Specifically focusing on hotel CSR, I did a little informal verbal survey among my fellow associates and came up with the following reasons:
1. Going Green is the new frontier of innovation – Hotels are constantly trying to keep up with the times, in terms of standards and innovations. New generation travellers (Gen Y) are more environmentally conscious and this can affect where they choose to stay. Hotels are very much aware of this and must think of innovative ways to accommodate to their greener needs
2. It saves money – CSR is one of the easiest ways to cut down on costs. Whether it’s improving energy efficiency or water use, it really can make a difference it terms of saving some money;
3. Competitive advantage – In conjunction with point 1, CSR can set you apart from your competitors, with guests having your hotel as a preference in response to all the your positive impacts on society/environment/etc;
4. Long-term thinking – We are all very much aware of the need to be more sustainable economically, environmentally and socially (triple-bottom-line). Long-term sustainability is just good business when you’re in it for the long run;
5. Communicating and Connecting with Customers – CSR can help you engage with your customers on a more personal level. Since the message you want to put out is about doing something “good,” it can often be an effective way of getting customer attention as well as community attention;
6. Employee engagement – engaging employees in the company’s CSR priorities can really aid in communication and boosting morale.
Of course different companies do CSR for different reasons. But I take back what I mentioned before about CSR not solving the world’s problems; I would like to believe that if every CEO felt what I felt giving a gift to a little girl bed-ridden in hospital and putting a smile on her face, and then felt compelled to make more people smile, the world would be a much better place. Naive? Perhaps, but maybe I'm just optimistically planting seeds for all you future CEOs :)
Rachel Salinah Jackson
15624958/7e0b8041
Curtin Miri
5 comments:
Agree with all the six points that you shared, Rachel. For me, CSR is definitely a 'win-win'activity for the hotel, the community and the publics. Am I correct? :D
Indeed you are, Summer.
Hi Rachel,
First of all, thanks for sharing this post with us. I can really relate to your experience as I am actually doing my PR internship in the Communication & CSR department of a big business group in Mauritius.
I do agree on the benefits you mentioned about CSR. However, I would like to know how your hotel manage to communicate the success of CSR activities to your employees and customers.According to what we have learnt in PR, CSR reporting is a good strategy for proper management of stakeholder relations. It does not only help the company to be transparent in the eye of its investors and customers but also demonstrate the engagement of the company at the societal, environmental and economic level.
At work, one important task of our department is to communicate about the group's CSR activities. In addition to the information contained in our annual report, we also have a two months publication which is available on our website and which is distributed to our employees in hard-copies. From what I could observe, this publication is quite popular among our employees so I would like to know if your organisation is involved in CSR reporting too and to what extent.
Michaella Auguste
CTI
15842404
Thank you for sharing the six reasons of CSR, Rachel. This blog post is very informative for me which have made me realized that CSR is not only community project of organization, it also act as a marketing and engaging tool that attract the customer towards the business of the organisation and also strengthen the employee bond while implementing the following CSR. Good job on the informal verbal survey :)
Hi Rachel,
What a wonderfully uplifting post! So glad to hear all your hard work paid off on an organisational AND personal level.
I could not agree more with your emphasis on the benefits of CSR. In my experience, some smaller organisations are reluctant to consider and implement CSR strategies because of their perceived financial implications, and the idea that a small-medium consultancy would not be able to make a difference.
I'm also concerned by the apparent growing number of companies that seem to jump on the 'CSR bandwagon' for disingenuous reasons; to stay competitive, to APPEAR ethical, or to stay relevant.
In regards to smaller agencies, I feel their efforts would be better received if they refrained from emulating CSR practice for the sake of it, and spent more time strategising an honest approach (no matter how small the resulting effects are). Throwing money at a problem often cannot (effectively) solve it when the time and enthusiasm behind the project aren't there.
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