So, you are probably thinking: Why should I create a social responsibility report for my company?
Well, there are two main reasons:
- Benchmarking your current operations and how they impact the environment and society
- Showing stakeholder that you need to invest in community and environment
But, how do you create a great report?
Here are some great tips:
Focus on your goals
The point of this report is to show and understand how you did business in the past so that you can do better in the future. So, while you should definitely mention the past and what has been happening then, you should place the main focus on what your goals are as a company for social and environmental responsibility.
Talk about sustainability
Your business can move forward in a more responsible way no matter how bad things are at the moment. But you need to talk about the responsibility you are taking at the moment as well. Talk about your current faults and how you plan on improving them. So, make a notion of what you are doing at the moment, admit that your product may be affecting the environment more than it needs to, and state how you plan on changing and improving that. If you don’t want to admit your faults, then you probably aren’t creating the report for the right reasons.
Make sure you don’t create a PR nightmare
You should place your focus on sustainability in your operations and socially responsible workplace conditions rather than just philanthropy. Social responsibility in companies is more about how you are making a profit and less so about how you are using that profit. In essence, you have to show that you are earning money in a responsible way for the environment and for the people working for you. Helping people with your profit is a part of it, but not the entirety of it. You should make sure that your report is focusing on responsible operations and the donations are just a bonus. If you work the other way around, it could turn into a PR disaster.
Get credibility
“Nothing can help you be credible and trustworthy more than a third party report. Most industries have the tools to report on various industries. For example, you can use the Global Reporting initiative, Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Carbon Disclosure Project,” says Brenda Wyatt, a communication manager at Studentwritingservices, and Write my essay.
Make it interesting by adding stories and stats
Stories can show what you are doing much better than plain data can. But because they don’t give the company metrics to evaluate the future efforts of the company or current efforts of the company, you have to include some stats that will help your stakeholders understand the story better and in more measurable terms. When you use just stories, you also risk sounding more like you are trying to create a report for the PR and not for the sake of the environment and society.
In essence, it’s good to have both – stories to make things interesting and stats to make things realistic and measurable.
Create a good balance between good and bad news
Instead of just listing what is bad about your company’s social responsibility, you should also include what you are already doing good. This will help your company gain perspective and learn more about how everything can be improved. It can also be a motivator to move on and work harder to be socially and environmentally responsible.
Pay attention to editing and formatting
While in the bigger picture sense of things, your report’s overall look doesn’t really matter, it will matter for the credibility and readability of your report. This is why you need to pay close attention to your editing and your formatting as well. Check for spelling and grammar mistakes, unnecessary words, and fluff, and create a content structure that will look good and be readable. For that, here are some tools that can help:
properly written social responsibility report
- Revieweal and Essayroo are editing tools that are great are showing you and fixing sentences that don’t sound good and that need a bit more flair.
- Mywritingway and Simple grad are grammar checkers that can help you remove all grammar mistakes.
- State of writing is a proofreading tool mentioned by Bestbritishessays. It can help you find all of your writing mistakes.
- Via writing and Australian help are formatting tools that can help you structure the content properly
- Boom essays and Writemyaustralia are tools that can help you generate titles and subheadings that will make your content better.
In conclusion
Creating a great social responsibility report for your company will require you to get all of the data, communicate with stakeholders, get the approval of everyone involved, and so on. It will all come down to why you are doing it. Why do you want this in the first place? If you are doing it out of genuine care, people will understand that you have faults and that you are doing your best to improve your operations. Your brand needs to be honest and have integrity. If you only care about OR, your report will just be a huge mistake.
These have been just some of the tips that you can use to create your report. Hopefully, they will help you create a great report that will be beneficial both for your company and the environment.
