Community

A successful company needs to operate in a healthy, thriving community - the kind of community your employees will want to live in, with the kind of schools they will want to send their kids to. If you think your business can be a little island of prosperity in a sea of deprivation, think again.

And come to that, you need to be seen as a good neighbour to those communities. If you want to operate well, and to be able to expand or change when the time is right, you need the goodwill that comes of being an active supporter of the community - not a hostile intruder.

It's your business

What are the impacts upon the local community of your business processes? Are you the kind of firm you yourself would want to live next to? If not, how does that affect your "licence to operate" with the community that does?

Do your employees see you as caring abot the communities in which they live? Do you involve them in taking an approach to investing in those communities? If not, just how much could you benefit by getting them on your side to improve the situation?

What's the benefit?

Please your customers, and your employees! The chances are that some of your customers also live locally to you - and even if not, those customers can soon get to hear if you are the target of local opposition or protests. The one thing you can guarantee is that your employees are local - and their motivation in putting their all behind your business can be seriously enhanced by seeing that you care about the community.

Benefit from a thriving locality! If the local schools don't cut the ice when it comes to basic skills such as literacy and numeracy, then you'll be picking up the bill when it comes to taking on those school leavers as new staff members. If the local area has a high drugs problem, then the chances are some of this will find its way into your workplace, and you may certainly be targeted for crime in order to pay for drug habits. If people see the area as deprived, they'll be queueing up to leave it - perhaps to that more desirable area that houses your competitor.

Build team skills and local goodwill! Getting your staff directly involved in community programmes can be the smart way to both develop them as potential managers and team leaders whilst also building up a bank of goodwill in the community. If you're paying heavy at the moment on formal training courses, you may find it would save you serious money and provide better training as well.

What are the issues?

• Impact upon the local community as a result of how you do business - whether it be through noise and nuisance, transport congestion or a huge range of other potential impacts.
• How you invest in the community - either in cash or through in-kind resources - to improve the health of the community or tackle specific social issues.
• How you involve your staff in providing a lead in how you develop your relationship with the community.
• Human rights - if your operations run globally, you need to consider some fairly fundamental responsibilities to the community that may face your company.