Why do so many businesses and business owners practice community involvement? There are a multitude of reasons which we will further explore. Taking part in community programs is a strong way to boost exposure and business visibility as you contribute your services and resources to meet community needs.
When you are involved in the community, you and your business are helping it grow! What could be more rewarding than that? An added benefit of helping businesses and individuals in your community grow is that you then have built in client pool. People will trust you and your business if they have seen you be active in the community.
When your business is active in its community, it’s also good for employee morale. Studies have shown employees are more likely to display higher satisfaction rates with their jobs if they know that they are working for a socially responsible enterprise. Why does that matter? Higher satisfaction rates are more likely to lead to higher productivity and increased retention rates. It is truly a win all around.
While helping with projects in your community, your business and the employees involved will begin to gain a greater social awareness. Being “on the ground” in the community provides a unique opportunity to see exactly what the needs of the community are. For instance, maybe your community has a drug problem that you or your employees were completely unaware of until you became involved with addicts in the community. Or perhaps there is a large need for support in the local elementary school that you were unaware of until now. These are priceless opportunities to learn about the community in which you live.
If those reasons aren’t enough to convince you to become involved in the community, consider the fact that being involved in these activities allows you to acquire new skills of all sorts. For example, a common community project is rebuilding homes. If your company becomes involved in that, employees will gain house-building skills that otherwise they never would have.