How to encourage employee engagement through CSR?

CSR If these three letters don't inspire you, you've missed the latest trend in positive-impact corporate policies. Standing for Corporate Social Responsibility, it's a business policy that goes beyond simple legal compliance! Indeed, it encourages companies to act ethically and contribute positively to society while generating economic benefits. Enerfip, through its humble experience, shares some tips for mobilizing your employees through CSR!

The figures

✅ 83% of employees involved in a solidarity initiative with their company recommend their employer (Korn Ferry, 2018).
✅ 71% of employees involved in an impactful action believe that it is an approach “that has made them evolve” (IFOP, 2019).
✅ 84% of companies have already carried out awareness-raising actions among their employees (CSR Barometer, Friday, 2022).
✅ 59% of companies believe that only a “small part” of their teams, or even “very few employees”, are involved in their CSR approach (CSR Barometer, 2022).
✅ 23% of companies offer their teams commitment days during working hours. (2022 CSR Barometer, Friday).
✅ 81% of companies consider CSR ambassador networks essential to deploy and drive their approach (Des Enjeux et des Hommes, 2018).
✅ 30% of French employees are aware of their company's CSR action plan or progress targets (MEDEF, 2022).

Why is CSR essential for your company?

Also known as Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR is a committed approach for companies that want to have a positive impact on society while respecting the environment and being economically viable. Based on three pillars – economic, social, and environmental – CSR is a positive incentive to align business interests with sustainable development issues. The main principles of CSR are based on accountability, transparency, ethical behavior, respect for stakeholder interests, secularism, international standards of behavior, and human rights.

Within your company, implementing a CSR policy allows you to positively influence your employees, but that's not all! It also promotes your brand image. Through this strategy, you build loyalty among your employees and customers, who better understand your company's vision, both in terms of values ​​and in the marketplace. In short, you stand out from the crowd by raising consumer awareness of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria.

The commitment, impact, and motivation generated by a CSR policycontribute not only to the company's financial results, but also to broader social and environmental objectives. Incorporating a CSR strategy is therefore a way to enhance your annual results! This positive and sustainable dynamic is a driver of growth for the entire organization, but also a symbol of transparency and commitment.

How to involve employees in CSR initiatives?

You've decided to implement a CSR strategy within your company: that was the first step! Now you need to involve your employees in this process. So how do you do it?

The first step is, of course, to get your employees interested. You need to challenge yourself to get everyone involved, not just the most committed. To do this, you can organize a CSR event to create a collective momentum of employee mobilization around a theme that's important to the company. Ideally, set aside this kind of time once a quarter to avoid a series of interventions without added value.

Furthermore, to engage everyone, you can also identify ambassadors within the company to promote the CSR policy and encourage actions in this direction. To do this, within Enerfip, we have set up a CSR Committee – composed of two managers (Vincent Clerc and Julien Hostache), Mathias André (Head of Partnerships), Nicolas Castan (Head of Finance) and Pauline Georgel (Director of Investor Relations) – which meets weekly to lead this project and discuss the progress of the various projects. They are supported by the managers of each division who, in turn, have an ambassadorial role, namely to motivate and mobilize their teams in the associative life of Enerfip. Together, they raise awareness among Enerfip employees about social and environmental issues through concrete actions such as the implementation of the hybrid week (6 days of volunteering available during the year) through Vendredi (engagement platform and its network of partner associations). At the same time, within At Enerfip, employees can also carry out awareness-raising activities via the association Enerfip en roue libre – created by two Enerfip employees with the aim of mobilizing as many people as possible to address CSR issues –, but also promote sustainable mobility or responsible consumption. Throughout the year, numerous events and workshops are organized to promote CSR both internally and externally.

Some examples?

🌿 Theater show on everyday actions
🌿 Ecological transition village at Halle Tropisme and the Réservoir
🌿 Visit to the Macondo third place
🌿 Cycling challenge to reach Toulouse in Montpellier
🌿 Educational visits to infrastructures in favor of the energy transition…

How to evaluate and highlight the results of CSR actions?

The regulatory framework for CSR

As part of the Green Deal, the European Union recently strengthened its regulations with the adoption of the (EU) directive 2022/2464, also known as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD directive). This directive requires companies to publish a sustainability report including detailed performance indicators on environmental, social, and governance aspects in their management reports.

Last but not least, when implementing a CSR policy, you must be able to analyze the results of your actions. To do this, we recommend choosing a maximum of three indicators to track per quarter. You can highlight the number of employees made aware, the number of hours spent within an association, the number of associations supported, etc. In short, you must set concrete and achievable objectives for each CSR milestone.

Afterwards, to present them to the teams, we recommend creating a summary and presenting it orally. Graphs, curves, bullet points, etc. will make things more visual, allowing you to track your impact in real time. For our part, at Enerfip, we created animpact report that we presented internally and externally. Analyzing the results and taking stock of the actions taken will further motivate your employees, who will visualize their investment in a concrete way.

→ Are you interested in the subject? Also check out our article: How does Enerfip's impact report encourage sustainability?

Does measuring your impact also appeal to you? So, don't wait any longer, invest in the energy transition, directly in renewable energy production, energy efficiency, or sustainable mobility projects. To do this, go directly to our crowdfunding platform dedicated to renewable energies (RE) or by phone with the Investor Relations department !