So the stage was set, after some brilliant community and CSR work from the SiteVisibility team we headed to Reading last night for the BITC South East Responsible Awards Gala Dinner, with our collective fingers all crossed.
It has been a fantastic journey for us and all the charities and partners we’ve worked with over the previous months and being shortlisted for the BITC awards is fantastic recognition for our efforts. It also presents the opportunity to let other businesses see how they can work to help and improve the communities that they form part of.
We were over the moon when at around 10:30pm SiteVisibility was announced ‘Big Tick in the Santander Responsible Small Business of the Year Award’ – Brilliant! We were so proud to receive the award on stage in front of so many inspiring people and then felt a double sense of delight when we received ‘Achievement in the Employee Volunteering Company of the Year Category’.
What we Achieved
We achieved a huge impact in so many areas of our business – we increased the number of hours our staff focus on CSR activity by 376%, increasing staff training by 29%, with 77% of employees saying they felt CSR activity has had a positive impact on our business. In 2012 we reduced energy usage, increased recycling and raised awareness and funds for the NSPCC as part of the 1600 club challenge.
Business Impacts
- A huge increase in the number of hours for staff training as well as work spent on CSR projects makes for happier staff and has led to 77% saying they felt CSR activity has had a positive impact at SiteVisibility.
- By engaging our staff in our CSR projects we hope to reduce staff turnover and recruitment costs.
- Increased PR means that 65% of our clients are aware of our CSR activity.
Societal Impacts
- Our team fundraising activites raised a total of £1,645.57 for the NSPCC.
- We established a digital marketing fund with over 24 applicants.
- Our University of Brighton training day was attended by over 200 people.
- Our Social Media for Charities training session was attended by 56 local charity members.
- We increased our recycling by 236% compared the to previous year.
Plans For The Future
Our CSR work and activity doesn’t stop here, 2013 promises to be a big and better year as we find more ways in which our business can make an impact on the local community.
Last year we developed a 3 year plan which aims to address Leadership, Environment, Employee Health and Well Being and Community. The CSR budget equates to around £25,000 of billable time across the company – that’s equivalent to 2.5% of revenue and 50% of our net profit.
Our £25K digital marketing fund means that we can work with local charity Extratime to deliver improved awareness, increased donations as well as increased footfall to their shop.
We’re also working closely with Brighton University to provide a student the opportunity of a 12 month digital marketing placement scheme. Furthermore, we’ll be providing training sessions for charities looking to improve their teams skills in digital marketing.
On Tuesday next week we’ll be attending the main ‘Business in the Community National Gala Dinner‘ which will showcase the inspirational stories of finalists from across the UK and will announce the overall winners of each of the national award categories – we’ll be keeping our #fingerscrossed
In the meantime, take a look at our CSR case study on the BITC website – here.
To find our more about our CSR projects click – here.