Inside the Chamber: Make Your Naperville Business a Steward of Corporate Social Responsibility
inside the chamber is brought to you by presenting sponsor naperville bank and trust welcome to inside the chamber i'm kalyn risvolt president and ceo of the naperville area chamber of commerce inside the chambers where we give you a peek behind the curtain and really dive deep into a topic that's important to our business community and goodness do we have a very generous business community here in naperville in the surrounding area and that generosity is one thing that the naperville area chamber of commerce wants to help support and celebrate in 2020 we created a new committee at the chamber the corporate social responsibility committee or csr today we're going to dive into what is csr and how you and your business can get involved we are joined today by our csr committee chair beth lopez by our csr marketing chair paul feith and our committee member casey chitwood thank you all for joining us here today and for sitting on the corporate social responsibility committee and i'm just going to get dive right in beth what is corporate social responsibility well in a nutshell corporate social responsibility is your company's identity as a citizen of the community it's your corporate citizenship and a lot of things fall under corporate social responsibility it's really kind of the umbrella that houses other topics like diversity equity inclusion environmental responsibility philanthropy volunteerism it all kind of falls under corporate social responsibility and paul why is it important for businesses to even care and to want to give back and want to care about csr why do they want to care well when you have corporate responsibility or social responsibility i should say it trickles down to you know if it's embedded into your culture trickles down to the employee so uh studies have shown that um employee retention goes up employee productivity goes up um clients feel more engaged and invested in what you do because you're making a difference in their community so the stakeholder relationship changes so i think yes it matters yes it feels good but also the proof is in the numbers absolutely and now casey from the not-for-profit side how does corporate social responsibility um impact you all well certainly partnering within the community elevates all of us and helps us to develop a tighter knit safety net for especially those families and community members who need us to support them it's a mindset that we hope more and more corporations and companies will adapt so that we can work together to support everyone in our community so paul beth had talked a little bit about how csr is this umbrella outside of just you know companies giving back what are practical ways that companies can enact csr policies well uh volunteerism certainly is is a big one right um getting your employees to volunteer sustainability is a big one too um and how companies are putting programs in place to save the environment and then philanthropy of course and then i would say the fourth most important uh is your social impact that would be your community partnerships and ethics transparency equity and inclusion so those are the big for volunteerism sustainability philanthropy and sustainability awesome now you mentioned volunteerism casey how has the pandemic impacted volunteerism when people are staying home more casey works at the life center um and so tell us a little bit about how that's adjusted throughout the pandemic well we've been fortunate enough all of us i think to adapt effectively as much as we can to working virtually so in some ways we've been able to connect volunteers with our community which is serving youth and teens of course through virtual programming that allows mentors and other compassionate adults to work directly with our youth but of course it has been difficult to traditionally volunteer in terms of coming into the center that one-on-one relationship that might develop that mentorship that might become part of a child's experience at the alive center has certainly been impacted and we hope more and more opportunities are going to become available soon for us to connect personally of course absolutely and i know volunteerism is a really big part of corporate social responsibility beth that's something that the corporate social responsibility committee together with the not-for-profit committee and giving dupage is going to come together in april and really work on making giving back a really big thing can you talk to us a little bit about what's coming down the pike and how the chamber is trying to make it easier for businesses and employees to volunteer sure well we have a national week of volunteer services in april and the chamber is going to try to make that as easy as possible and as you mentioned through our committee the diversity equity inclusion committee and the not-for-profit committee we're all going to work together to provide as many a plug i i would call them plug-and-play opportunities for your company or even individuals in the community to just kind of come in and find a perfect opportunity for them to volunteer it could be i think we often come to volunteerism with this concept of oh we're all going to come together and build a home or we're all going to come together and pick up trash but really volunteerism comes together on many different platforms it could be as simple as offering your company services what you do really well as a company to an organization that really needs that service if you're a marketing professional a lot of not-for-profits need marketing professionals and maybe can't afford to pay for them so the in kind of service is is really appreciated and very much needed so all of those opportunities are going to come together be listed clearly and you can just pick one and and run with it well but that's the perfect segue to paul um so paul fight through paul gregory media and actually back at our gala in february we awarded their business with our shining star award for doing just that by giving back to the community um so thank you so much for doing that and tell us a little bit about you know what that not necessarily what the award meant to you but the work you did that really earned you that award and why it was important for you to do that well thank you for that recognition kaelyn and from the chamber that does mean a lot to me and my entire team in 2018 we really stepped up our efforts in our in-kind giving and donated 200 plus hours to non-profit organizations and then a year later in 2019 we tripled that to over 600 hours and in 2020 the pandemic hit so we were uh like everyone else budgets were caught projects were paused so we decided to be part of the solution and talk to area nonprofits and what they needed most and of course we're a marketing agency so that's what uh we it's the area where we can best serve nonprofits so we gave 2 400 hours last year which is incredible if you think about a full-time person which is typically 2080 hours it's more than one full-time person and we have a staff of four plus two part-timers so it was a really big effort um on our part and here's the amazing thing our team got really jazzed up about it and they they loved doing the work but they loved the new relationships that were formed with these non-profits we also in addition to that you 10 grand worth about 7 000 each so these new companies that we targeted underfunded nonprofits for that for those grants that served an underserved population so um it was just amazing to see and and see i mean through that our employees were really jazzed up about helping the nonprofits complete their mission and and widen their their awareness in their reach yeah and like you said earlier it's a win-win-win you know it helps the not-for-profits and it helps your business and retention there's so csr plays such a big role we're going to talk a little bit more about csr in a few minutes we're going to take a quick break so stay with us inside the chamber is brought to you by presenting sponsor naperville bank and trust naperville bank and trust has the expertise knowledge and experience to help you reach your business goals they provide all the tools that you would ask that we as a growing business need of a bank most importantly to me it's a great personal relationship we have with tom and john and our bankers it was the best thing we could have done in banking and banking can be very cold what the bank brings to us is that warm feeling when you come into the bank and people say hi greg it's about being part of the community again about being a name again about having credit for who your business is instead of just being well instead of just being a number naperville bank and trust bring it home want to get more eyes on your business while supporting naperville's non-profit tv station advertise on nctv17.com which draws tens of thousands of viewers each week for the latest in local news sports and events or put an ad in nctv 17 news update an email sent to thousands of subscribers every monday through friday visit nctv advertising for details inside the chamber is brought to you by presenting sponsor naperville bank and trust welcome back one thing that companies can do to really support csr is by giving vto vto is volunteer time off and beth i know this is something that they do at phoenix that you and i have talked about but can you talk a little bit about what is vto why it's important and how companies can encourage their employees to use it sure volunteer time off is structured very similar to paid time off ptl bto and at phoenix we offer eight hours of volunteer time off a year and an employee can submit uh for that benefit just like they would pay time off so they can work with their supervisor schedule that time say they're going to go to the animal shelter for an afternoon they get four hours of paid time off to go and apply their time and energy doing something they're passionate and excited about doing in terms of giving back to the community and beth i think you kind of hit the nail on the head and we've talked about this before as well we have so many not-for-profits in our area there is something you can find that you're passionate about in the chamber alone we have more than 111 not-for-profits if people want to give back and and volunteer they don't have to volunteer anywhere they can volunteer at something that's personal to them and why is it important that people make that personal connection when they volunteer well i mean it's it's very similar to why you would want to have a corporate social responsibility policy in the first place i mean if you think about your company as as a citizen of the of the community and i'm a citizen of the community there are certain things that are near and dear to my heart for example um music and art is near and dear to my heart so to see that part of my community thrive and expand and reach more people is really important to me being able to do that with my company support is invaluable really and and as a company it's it's a it's a wonderful opportunity for us in terms of recruiting new talent too to say you know what we recognize you as an individual and know that you have issues that are important to you we want to support you in those issues and and give you the opportunity to do what you want to do to support the community our community and the company as well absolutely now we've talked a lot about volunteerism casey what are other ways that the not-for-profits interact with the business community outside of just volunteerism certainly in addition they can support the organizations that as a group they may discuss and decide as a corporation or as a agency that they want to support and and that might be in the form of sponsorships or perhaps in-kind donations like paul mentioned he gave some great examples of different ways nonprofits are seeking support certainly financially as one but connecting us with other members of the community that will help better serve the populations we're committed to serving can also broaden the effect of that safety that i mentioned i feel like this topic is so broad it's almost too broad at times to really understand what all is under that csr umbrella paul can you talk to me a little bit about how the csr committee in the chamber is working to really break that into bite-sized pieces and where people businesses in our community member can find out information about the specificities of csr you are right it is very very broad um and it covers a lot of different topics and there's a lot of sub-topics and sub-activities within each of those so our program committee had really taken a lot of time in the last several months really articulating that and breaking it down and it's in the form of a toolkit so that could be downloaded from the csr community page and that toolkit um is not just educational it doesn't just break down the definitions and and what things are it's actually a workbook if you will and you could actually take some action uh steps there's some plans and action plans in the workbook that i found very very well done and uh people can download that and and really put you know start a program or a culture in place of their workplace right now and maybe even start with something as simple as a volunteer program um and when you talk about the business community working with the nonprofit community also on that same uh csr committee page is a portal connected to our partner giving you page and all those non-profits that our chamber that are chamber members that have volunteer opportunities listed um those are listed in the portal and so if you want to search for animals or horses maybe you want to do something with uh with that um or you want to work with oh there's there's so many there there's virtual opportunities virtual volunteering opportunities that you can do remotely there's board service so if you want to be paired with a non-profit and do board service and volunteer your time in that way so many opportunities so that portal is is really great because it's filterable it's searchable and it's very easy to get involved today so those are the two ways that uh that are that are available right on the csr committee page which i love that you're talking about get involved today you know there's so many barriers to everything in the world that you know you google you go down the rabbit hole and it's it's hard to find out all the information but the way you describe the tool kit it's something that people can log on and do something and really start to make that impact today and not push it off any longer awesome thank you now beth tell us a little bit more about the committee itself um you're the new chair of the committee this year so tell us kind of what are your visions for the committee this year and how you help uh hope to help lead the businesses to really be intentional about csr programs sure well we're a committee of about 15 people we are a good mix of businesses and non-profits representatives on that committee we meet every wednesday currently online every wednesday morning at eight a.m i'm not every wednesday one wednesday morning a month at 8 a.m so uh by as paul mentioned we have a programming committee and a marketing committee within the um csr committee itself and we really strive to create programming and solid content that our chamber members can use to create a csr program in their company and what i love about the toolkit that paul mentioned is it meets everybody where they are it doesn't really matter um if you if you're a big company or a small company if you're already have some sort of a semblance of csr in your company or you really haven't formalized it at all there's a point for you to jump in no matter what and um that is a truly a goal for the csr committee is to give that sort of content that anybody can use whether you're a sole proprietor or you're a company with hundreds of employees anybody can implement csr it's really about your company's values and its purpose and its identity and so many companies especially small businesses really already do this but they just don't formalize it so the toolkit is there to help you with that and hopefully throughout the 2021 you will you will see some more content similar to the toolkit that you can use to implement a program at your company yeah i think that's a really great point that you made a lot of companies are already doing this you know so by sitting down and looking through the tool kit to say oh yes we are you know supporting uh volunteer time or you know we have a recycling bin you know as you said csr covers so much that i think hopefully as people look into it and are understanding the definition more they're realizing that their businesses are doing this and i i so love that all of you have really talked about how businesses are need to be good corporate citizens you know we are neighbors to everybody and we are part of this great ecosystem that we have here um and that we're really working to build each other up now casey you've been on the csr committee for a little bit as well why is it important to you to sit on the csr committee and kind of what have you gotten out of it so far it's important to me because i believe that we as a community obviously can do so much more together than trying to each stay in our own lane but more importantly what i've gotten out of it is it's wonderful to know how many people really believe it you know this is not just a something we do on the side it's many of the people that i serve on the community with this is the way they live and the way they look at living and being a contributor in not only the way they work but in the way they they decide to spend their time and how they they treat their job as a part of a whole part of the way they approach life it's amazing to see this continuing to become more and more important we're all going to benefit i like the fact that we're even just talking about it you know the other day i said csr in a conversation someone said what is that and i went into this tangent and talked about how important this is and i think the more that we're talking about it the more that people are aware about it and that's incredibly important paul as a leader you've been given this great opportunity where you you can make the decisions and see them happening what's your advice for other community leaders of why again it's important to be intentional about giving back well i think it just demonstrates you're you're like you i think you use the word corporate citizenry um i just noticed over the last three years when we really developed a culture purposely developed a culture around that we hired people because of their their interest and their passion for volunteering and social responsibility it really makes a difference to i think in some cases our reputations preceded us not because of our creativity in marketing but because of our corporate citizenry really to be honest and because we're involved in the community and we're out there and we're just doing what we can to help right because it's just part of our dna now at this point it's part of our hiring practice it's part of our vendor selection um do our printers use soy-based inks is therefore are they face sorry fssc certified um so those are decisions that go into every aspect of our business i think people see that i think as a leader it it sets an example and i just love how so intentional you are about it and really just thinking through those questions and now that you've brought it up now it makes me think through them and now that we have people listening um it will help them think through them as well so thank you for that domino effect beth will if you'll close us out here how can people get involved with a corporate social responsibility where can they find this tool kit and how can they get in contact well we always welcome new committee members um so you could reach out to me directly at b lopez at phxpkg.com and have a conversation with me directly about joining the committee you can also find all of our resources on the chambers website on our csr committee page including the toolkit and i would also like to point out that the toolkit itself has some really great resources within it the final appendix appendix b and the toolkit our programming committee i think went above and beyond in supplying um just link after link and books just a lot of research so if you're one of those research type of people that really likes to gather a lot of information it is truly all there for you in the toolkit awesome thank you so much and that toolkit is free it is available to everybody whether you are a chamber member or not we really want to be your resource and help guide you for best practices for corporate social responsibility so we've learned today corporate social responsibility csr be intentional start a plan and thank you so much to all three of you for joining me here today and to everyone who's on the corporate social responsibility committee as best said has put so much work into the programming and into the toolkit so thank you all for helping us make this community an even greater place than it already is so thank you for that and thank you for joining us for inside the chamber inside the chamber is brought to you by presenting sponsor Naperville Bank and Trust you
2021-03-07 05:29
