HR community Engagements Establishing and Nurturing relationships

Community engagement is evolving as a prominent relationship marketing variable that yields promising outcomes for the firms. For HR or human resource management, it is important to achieve their targets and potential competitive advantage in areas such as: economy, knowledge and the role of human resource professionals relationships improvements will have to be expanded and redefined. 

The typical HR role within managing human resources focused on individual relationships within the company which could help through overcoming issues and effective interactions across workgroups. Although effective results in these areas are necessary, as they are no longer required and sufficient. 

Through this blog, I hope to explore how HR professionals can become the driving force for building relationships with the community and how it could be used to your advantage. Relationships are always an essential foundation for any organizational activity as well as an important source of sustained competitive advantage because they capitalize on individual differences and are relatively immobile since they are embedded within a firm’s culture.

Table of Contents:

• How engagement survives within their social responsibility concept and how it advocates community involvement?
• How HR could be used to identify and promote some new values and competencies for a community? 
• Why does community engagement really matter?
• Real-life examples of how companies could achieve engagement through society. 
• 5 reasons why engaging with your community is a good idea
• 5 ways to engage with your community
• Conclusion 
• PeoplePro by Qandle: Is a community-based platform with free resources for anyone who has an interest in HR. It is free to use and you could get exclusive support and engagement with our HR specialists from there.

How engagement survives within their social responsibility concept and how it advocates community involvement. 

A highly engaged workforce may be a CEO’s and HR leader’s dream. Why? Because engaged employees will go the additional mile to make sure that your company keeps winning. These folks want your company to try to do well because they understand that when the corporate wins, everyone wins. Otherwise, unless your employees feel an emotional connection to your company, engagement will not happen.

Usually, companies that are socially responsible and powerful advocates of community involvement have higher levels of engagement than companies that aren’t actively supporting their communities. Research shows that demonstrating social responsibility within the community may be a key driver of employee engagement.

How HR could be used to identify and promote some new values and competencies for a community. 

These will include:

• Developing motivation and a real desire to interact with area people members.
• Identifying attention supported outcomes – what does the business want to realize by developing A level of community engagement?
• Relationship and trust-building – how will the business seek to build accessibility, consistency and continuity of contact?
• Inclusiveness – the worth of recognising and supporting diversity and therefore the competencies of broader participation and communication.
• Providing leadership within the community – demonstrating support for community issues through an articulated statement of values.

HR can play a task in building these competencies within the business and actively seeking ways of using the community engagement framework as a lively source of the latest talent.

Why does community engagement really matter?

In reality, any activity toward engagement with the local community or society is often undervalued. And it is the last thing on the mind for many HR and CEO professionals. However, community engagement is very important to bear in mind.  

The reason behind that is that it can create the difference between failure or the success of the organization, and it’s not a secret that consumers are more socially conscious than ever before. According to statistics, 55 per cent of customers will pay extra for products and services from businesses that have a positive environmental and social impact.

Organisations who could value their Corporate and Social Responsibility, and can demonstrate active community engagement, will definitely receive the rewards.  

Real-life examples of how companies could achieve engagement through society. 

Howard de Walden Estates:

It was found that the best and simplest to engage with the community is through giving back to local and charity too. It is often for organisations to deliver an event for the local community so hundreds of local people can have fun. 

Key West Holdings:

The other way is when the company tries to recruit locally based employees through its charitable arm. Anne and Andrew Nisbet recently wrote that businesses “should seek to give back to the local community who have supported and nurtured their businesses over the generations.”

Appt Corporation:

Lastly, the perfect way to engage locally and celebrate the heroes in our communities is through community awards. These annual awards recognise local groups who make a real difference within the UK. With a glittering awards night held at the House of Commons, the prizes include a donation to support company work. 

5 reasons why engaging with your community is a good idea

If we think about community engagement it couldn’t be just a box-ticking activity, it’s a complex good business practice. Hence there are five reasons why your company could consider launching a local community engagement.

1. It’s good for your employees. Engagement activities are personally rewarding for your staff. They allow them to make a difference to others and get involved in the local area. This leads to higher levels of morale and may even increase productivity.
2. It builds awareness of your company locally. Every time you reach out to your local community, you’re marketing your business, converting new customers, and changing any negative perceptions into positive ones. 
3. It brings you into contact with new local people. This can be more useful than you might imagine. Local communities change over time, new people move into the area and they might just have the skills you need to keep on growing. 
4. It helps your brand stand apart and get ahead. Community engagement demonstrates that you’re different; that your brand cares about people, the environment and building a healthy local society.
5. Because it’s the right thing to do! You know that community engagement makes sense – you just need to get on and do it. 

5 ways to engage with your community

Even when you’re committed to the thought of community engagement, it is often hard to make a decision on the way to put it into action. Here are a couple of ideas to urge you started.

1. Giving to local charities and causes. This is the only and quickest thanks to kick-starting your engagement programme. Choose under-supported local groups, make contact and begin donating today.
2. Sponsoring and running local events. Every local community has the space and capacity for you to get a local event up and running – even if it’s as simple as a jumble sale. Get in touch together with your area people groups, work with them and obtain out there!
3. Running a schools’ outreach programme. Local schools are always on the lookout to partner with businesses, and it’s an excellent thanks to supporting children and children also as demonstrating your social conscience to their parents.
4. Opening up private land for community use. Not every business will have land or facilities that are suitable to be used by the general public, but if you’ve got one, then consider allowing local groups to use your facilities at the weekends or in the evenings.
5. Focusing on creating jobs locally. Before you set your next ad into a national newspaper, believe your local press first, and consider running open days for local people. You might find that your best employees are right on the doorstep.

Conclusion 

Many of the world’s leading HR experts acknowledged to me how community engagement plays a critical role in ensuring that your workforce is happy, engaged, and feels connected to the business and your community.

Talent expert Gautam Ghosh said: “Community outreach helps employee engagement as employees see themselves impacting their immediate society directly. That is especially true for functions who might not come into direct contact with clients and customers.”

Gordon Tredgold, the owner of Gordon Tredgold LLC, said: “Community engagement schemes give employees a chance to get direct positive feedback for their efforts, which increases their engagement, one company doubled their revenue using such an approach. Before they donated tons to charity, but teams do not feel it an equivalent once they see their CEO fork over a cheque. But they feel the direct feedback from their communities, they feel a part of it, the texture involved and this overflows into their daily jobs.”

Fela Hughes, CEO of Buengo, said: “Community engagement programmes are essential – employees got to desire their company is giving back and need to be a neighbourhood of this effort. Something like Buengo [an app to boost money permanently causes] offers an incredible opportunity to figure together and break down barriers between different departments and teams.”

Marielle Smith, VP of People at GoodHire, said: “Developing and implementing a community engagement program is a great way to build a more connected team, especially when the program aligns with the company’s mission. Volunteering contributes to people’s overall sense of happiness and wellbeing, and such programs increase employees’ satisfaction on the work by reinforcing feelings that they are a part of a team and contributing to the company’s values, culture, and mission.”

HR speaker and expert Jason Lauritsen said: “One of the often-overlooked benefits of community engagement programs is that the relationship building that happens between employees once they are out together volunteering. These experiences foster connectedness that results in improved employee engagement and a sense of purpose.”

Finally, as any HR leader during a company with multiple locations knows, the further you progress far away from headquarters, the more isolated and disconnected employees tend to feel. Having regional community involvement ambassador teams helps rally employees around a cause and generates a way of inclusiveness and shared purpose.

PeoplePro by Qandle: Is a community-based platform with free resources for anyone who has an interest in HR. It is free to use and you could get exclusive support and engagement with our HR specialists from there.

Qandle has recently launched a platform – PeoplePro! 

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