Opportunities for business

Every business leader we asked said there were opportunities for their business to do more in the communities in which they operate; not one, in our survey, said it was not in their interest to do so.

The primary opportunities for replicating and broadening social and economic engagement of companies in local neighbourhoods are seen by business to be:

• developing the skills and motivation of employees through volunteering
• increasing the diversity of employees by including more people from excluded groups in the workforce
• actively improving the social impacts of their products, services and marketing
• recruiting, investing and procuring locally
• improving local business relationships
• reducing operational costs
• and ultimately, helping to create more sustainable communities

Which of the following areas do you feel are the biggest opportunities for your business through scaling up your community investment?

From the consultation, it is clear that there are five ways in which businesses can support the local community:

• Inspiring, training and employing local people – including providing work experience and apprenticeships, employees acting as mentors and role models, working in schools and with long-term unemployed.
• Supporting local economies – purchasing locally, supporting entrepreneurs, locating in deprived areas and retail-led regeneration
• Partnering with community leaders, local organisations and social enterprises – developing partnerships for mutual benefit and in particular offering business skills and advice
• Mobilising volunteers – from employees, customers and suppliers, through skills and time, as well as encouraging fundraising and matched giving
• Maximising the positive impacts of products and services – choice editing of product availability or increasing availability to excluded groups, engaging customers in adopting sustainable behaviours