Building a Workplace Culture with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

By Leo Ramirez, Jr., CEO and Co-Founder, Encast, Inc.

What might have appeared as a retrenchment from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) over the years while we’ve been speaking more about culture and engagement was perhaps simply a meta discussion in the context of CSR.

In 2011, when Michael Porter & Mark Kramer published their essay on Creating Shared Value in the Harvard Business Review, businesses were not trusted, they were seen as the cause of social, environmental and economic problems. While, admittedly, there is still distrust, business is today’s most trusted institution over government, media and the church. Companies are increasingly stepping up, brands are taking a stand. Whether it’s against assault weapons, for transgender civil rights, against gay marriage, or for immigrant rights, we’re stepping up. Our employees and customers are demanding it.

There is little doubt that companies grow and communities improve when there is a conscious effort to do more than just make a profit and provide dividends for shareholders. Companies are finding theirs and their stakeholders’ alignment with social and political issues.

In fact, as this “CSR movement” matures, we see increasing evidence of the linkage between financial success and being engaged in our communities.

The businesses that excel in CSR have developed workplace cultures that bond employees to something greater than themselves or their jobs. We simultaneously find ourselves, as business leaders, struggling to define exactly what is a good work culture. When the dot com boom first descended on Austin in the 90s, many of the well-funded startups began to change work environments by putting in ping pong and pool tables, workout equipment, and having happy hours every Friday by rolling out a beer keg. There was always food handy so no one needed to go out to lunch, which actually increased productivity and time on task. Work schedules, too, were flexible and as the Internet matured there was more opportunity to telecommute and work from home or remotely.

But is that culture?

The answer is a bit nuanced, I think. A lot of those same values have survived into the age of the cloud and the digital economy. They are not all, however, essential to a culture. The idea of a broader work culture that is meaningful tends toward the idea that employees are connected to common causes beyond their jobs and what they produce to keep a company viable and relevant in the marketplace. If half of your staff is involved in making donations to a local children’s home, aren’t they more involved in your business emotionally, almost as a family, than if they were simply carrying out their duties?

The answer, invariably, is yes. And a growing number of companies continue to look for guidance and technology on how to create work culture. Give employees hours they can use to volunteer. Pick a charity that needs support and offer your staff grants that, perhaps, match every dollar or hour they donate. Gather as a team to clean up the river front or a city park that doesn’t get sufficient attention. These experiences form relationships among employees that are important in sharing, not just their caring, but, ultimately, pitching in together at the office or the plant for a greater good.

A business culture is critical to any successful enterprise, regardless of whether executive management recognizes its value.

Companies can spend millions establishing their brands among consumers. Who are we? What do we represent? But often fail to even consider a culture. A culture will take root in your company, either by design and planning of leadership, or by default through failure to act.

Doesn’t it make sense that you would know what type of company you want to build? You know your business model and how you plan to make money. Shouldn’t you also spend time creating the best possible environment for the people who are going to make possible your success? Culture should not be left to chance. Guide it. Lead it. Create it. Your culture is a critical part of your reputation and is an extension of your brand.

There is an axiom in branding that if you don’t figure out your values and properly communicate them to the marketplace that buyers of your products and services will infer your brand for you. Nothing could be more dangerous for the future of any company. What if consumers don’t like the brand they perceive? If this is allowed to sustain itself for any period of time, the costs might be devastating. After consumers have been allowed to decide your brand for themselves, it will require a fortune in marketing to rebrand and acquire the image and values you should have been communicating from the day you launched your company.

Your workplace culture is equally important. Don’t leave it to chance.

Leo Ramirez, Jr.

Leo co-founded Encast (http://encast.gives), which boosts culture and brand by aligning businesses with their most important asset: people. Encast’s philanthropically-driven machine learning will bring people closer, bridging divisions between them — political, gender, socio-economic, religious — by finding common ground through philanthropic passions. Leo launched social ventures, Encast (accelerator for economically distressed regions) and MiniDonations (micro-giving platform and social network for good). His 24-year career has spanned executive management, business development, consulting, nonprofit management, technical support and engineering positions with Southwest Key Programs, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Coremetrics, Trilogy and Apple. Leo also co-founded Copán, LLC, which provided NextDooring services from Latin America, and created “Cliff’s Notes for Dads,” Austin’s first childbirth prep class for new fathers.

Leo has extensive non-profit board experience such as CASA of Travis County, iACT of Central Texas, Mexic-Arte Museum, MexNet Alliance, and Dance International. he is a certified TAB (The Alternative Board) Facilitator and Executive Coach. He also advises startup entrepreneurs, such as Ultimatum, Roostio, Puente Phone, and was an Entrepreneur Mentor for CleanTech Open.

Leo is a Stanford University Alum with a focus on Computer Systems Engineering.