As a fully paid-up subscriber to the online Chic Murray appreciation society, courtesy of Facebook (oops, now calling themselves Meta), I’m well aware of how the late comedic legend was quick to poke fun at the Scottish myth of short arms and long pockets when it came to parting with one’s money.
It comes as no surprise to learn that, even despite Covid hard times, we’re a nation continuing to top the charity table charts when it comes to giving, especially in the fields of education, health and employability. What he would have made of artificial intelligence would have been, undoubtedly, hilarious: ‘How many humans does it take to change a digital light bulb? Answer: None’. (I’ll stick to my day job.)
The linked areas of business and commerce feature centrally under the rather dry umbrella term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and are integral towards Scotland continuing to outperform the rest of the UK on the donation front. Traditionally, the practice breaks down into four types: economic, ethical, environmental and philanthropy, but sharing one purpose, that of helping in social accountability to stakeholders, the public. And itself.
Such social programmes boost a brand as they benefit society, but also forge a stronger bond between employees and employer, as they feel more connected with the community around them. Its adoption is often viewed as part of the commercial strategy, implemented as a matter of course by the larger companies and corporations who can regularly afford to indulge in CSR.
I actually prefer the term ‘community’ than ‘corporate’. This is because there are numerous small- to medium-sized outfits who create and voluntarily participate in such social responsibility work but don’t necessarily get the coverage they deserve. Time to change this perception. The thing is, it would be very easy to just drop CSR in such an uncertain pandemic economic period, but not for many smaller organisations who fully realise it’s now when their help is really needed.
We’ve all become used to receiving through the letterbox the latest missives, especially from the bigger charities. However, neighbourly.com lists half a dozen smaller organisations: Social Bite, with strapline ‘good food for a good cause’, Free Cakes for Kids, the K9 Project mental health partnership, Bumblebee Conservation Trust (yep, all about bees), Children’s Food Trust, and the Landmark Trust, renovating key historical buildings. This hammers home the point of just how each are vital, especially in today’s still highly uncertain economic climate. Third Force news report bleak figures from the charity regulator that one-in-four small Scots charities ceased operating due to the pandemic during 2020 into last year.
Here are a few examples of helping out such outfits. They include folks I work or have worked with. I trust them when it comes to explaining how the right social mindset can prove inspirational for any organisation planning to play their part on the community social responsibility frontline:
Lochend Community High School, a non-denominational, coeducational, state secondary school in the Easterhouse area of Glasgow, aims to increase uptake of computing science, especially by female pupils. Step-up Livingston-based Capito. The IT services and solutions leading provider’s managing director, Mark Gibson, has joined Scotland’s Digital Critical Friends Programme, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Glasgow, along with ScotlandIS, the tech industry’s trade representative body, to jointly launch the ‘Friends’ project, providing tech mentors within Scottish Schools. PwC research reveals only 27% of young women say they would consider a career in technology, a mere 3% choose tech as their first choice.
Mark says it’s all about increasing the confidence to create more entry level positions for school leavers who have the required tech skills and motivation. Along with Capito, other businesses involved include CalMac Ferries, Virgin Money/CBYG, Amazon, Capgemini and Palo Alto Networks. Capito also chaired a ‘Cyber Question Time & Networking’ event at Eurocentral with ScotlandIS and Scottish Business Resilience Centre. The event emphasised how, at a time of Covid and adopting a ‘from global to local’ stance, the working environment can be technologically transformed, whether in business, the public sector and education, with employee skills remaining an organisation’s most important asset.
A ‘big shout out’ was given by Dell Technologies senior director, Stephen Bosarge, to Ryan and Simon at TTT Gym, who took time out through a mixed ability and fitness training session to raise £1,000 for MND Scotland, the leading charity providing care and support to people affected by Motor Neurone Disease (MND) along with funding vital research. Dell’s Scottish team is matching the donation, pound for pound, to double it up, described as a ‘generous gesture’ by MND’s corporate partnerships manager Morag McGown.
Intellectual property champions and brand protector, Snapdragon, suggest organisations try one or more of the following: they do one major pro-bono project a year, currently this involves ‘BogusBuster’ a free website helping consumers avoid being scammed. They previously ran a campaign with Police Scotland to raise awareness of such crimes through Scottish universities and colleges plus provided mentoring to a number of entrepreneurs and organisations. Their employees come from all over the globe, a multitude of nationalities speaking over 20 languages and within individual contracts is a paid-for-flight home every year (return, of course).
Summing up, Institute of Directors Scotland fellow and CEO of Exception, Scott McGlinchey, stresses how ‘Social Value’ should be at the heart of everything an organisation does. Exception, Scotland’s largest indigenous tech solutions company, link that key sentiment with the environment, fighting climate change, improving health and well-being, supporting employee physical and mental health, equality, diversity and inclusivity, plus supporting and developing the community in which it operates. An organisation’s staff should be viewed as its ‘lifeblood’, along with making a conscious effort to enable employees to succeed in their charitable endeavours and promoting fundraising for a variety of popular charities.
For Scott and colleagues, this includes pledging to support BBC’s Children in Need and implementing a new policy enabling all employees to take additional days of annual leave to do charitable work in their local communities. It can be a charity race, helping a local food bank, supporting several amateur sports teams, plus a plethora of fundraising afternoons in the office for Help for Heroes, a swimathon for Marie Curie Cancer Care, Chrohns and Colitis UK, Action for Children, Pancake Days, Halloween events, Christmas lunches, and so on.
It all adds up to a strong all-round social commitment to which Scots prove an exemplar when it comes to community-based charitable deeds and thinking of others. No matter how small a good cause might appear, it all adds up.
Former Reuters, Sunday Times, The Scotsman and Glasgow Herald business and finance correspondent, Bill Magee is a columnist writing tech-based articles for Daily Business, Institute of Directors, Edinburgh Chamber and occasionally The Times’ ‘Thunderer’
By Bill Magee | 2 March 2022