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| Path: Main Street > Resources/Library > Research Articles > Feature Article |
Business as an agent for world benefit
By Louisa Jewell, WhyDidYouGo.com
February 16, 2009"Improving happiness at work, one workplace at a time." This is my company's tag line. After surveying over one thousand people, I discovered that those who truly love their jobs find the work they do meaningful and important. As I research more about what makes people happy at work, I often contemplate how business owners and leaders can create greater meaning for the people who work for them. When businesses engage in economically sustainable projects that benefit their local and international communities, it is a powerful way to emotionally engage their workforce. I want to introduce you to a few Canadian businesses that have implemented simple community-enhancing innovations that are making a difference in the world.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Peggie Pelosi, founder and Vision Keeper of ORENDA Connections, a strategic consulting company that helps other organizations leverage corporate philanthropy to create a meaningful connection between employees and the workplace. "What you want is a group of employees that feel great about coming to work. By allowing employees to link arms and give back collectively, it is a simple way to inspire your workforce," says Pelosi. This improves employee engagement and retention rates because there is an emotional connection to the company they work for. By connecting company and cause, ORENDA helps businesses create inspired workplaces that attract talent, increase loyalty and trust, retain employees, increase productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. For example, when she was the VP of sales for USANA Health Sciences, Pelosi created a partnership between USANA and the Children's Hunger Fund that reinvigorated the company, resulting in a significant increase in sales and a 3000% increase in USANA's share value. ORENDA is a sustainable business that uses results like this as the value proposition for the consulting work they do.
TurnAround Couriers is a professional and socially responsible bicycle courier service in Toronto. They've been providing courier services at competitive rates while changing the lives of at-risk youth since 2002. Their clients include some of the largest Fortune 500 companies in Canada. The difference between TurnAround Couriers and other courier companies is that TurnAround recruits only at-risk youth for all its bicycle courier positions and back office staff. Richard Derham, founder and general manager will tell you that "a business can have a social agenda and still make a profit. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive." TurnAround is a profitable growing business that also offers job-ready young people a chance to gain the experience, confidence and financial means they need to turn their lives around. They also manage to give away 50% of their profits to support other charities.
ATIRA Property Management Inc. is one of the first socially responsible property management firms in British Columbia. The company delivers excellent customer service and monitors the safety and environmental impact of everything it does. What makes Atira different is that it is wholly owned by Atira Women's Resource Society, a not-for-profit charitable organization. All of the society's services are dedicated to supporting women and their children who have experienced domestic violence and abuse. The profits generated by ATIRA Property Management help reduce the society's reliance on government funding and improve the long-term sustainability of the society.
Jody Steinhauer of The Bargains Group is a prime example of an entrepreneur with a heart. For seven years, Jody has organized "Project Winter Survival" and a team of volunteers and donors to assemble and distribute more than 10,000 winter survival kits, which provide warmth and essential supplies for the homeless who are trying to survive Canadian winters on the streets. It is unimaginable to even think of living on the streets in the dead of winter, and yet many of Toronto's homeless do not have a choice. For these people, the kits make the difference between life and death. The Bargains Group works directly with frontline agencies like the Red Cross, Salvation Army and local shelters. What is interesting about this innovation is that most of Jody's staff engages in this project, happily working sometimes on weekends for this worthy cause.
Internet censorship is a human rights issue that allows oppressing countries the power to deny parts of the world's population access to important news and information. The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab developed Psiphon, a human rights software program that allows censored Internet users to ‘jump' the firewall and get access to information. Once signed in, users are patched into the Psiphon network of servers. Censors only see an unfamiliar IP address, which could be for anything, like buying a book online. The lab has even developed a high-tech hide-and-go-seek game that prevents censors from blocking IP addresses once they are discovered. It is open-source software but the lab sells enhanced versions to corporations doing business in censored countries.
While this organization is not Canadian, it was so inspiring that I had to write about it. The Rwanda Path to Peace project offers Rwandan women economic stability through retail trade. The project employs thousands of weavers organized in small weaving groups throughout Rwanda. Baskets are woven by the women, exported to the US, and sold exclusively at Macy's Department Stores. The baskets are absolutely beautiful so the demand for them is not just created by sympathetic buyers. What is even more inspiring about this project is that every weaving group consists of both Hutu and Tutsi weavers, from both sides of the 1994 conflict that killed hundreds of thousands. These women not only create a sustainable revenue stream that pays for things like clean water, health care and assistance for those with HIV/AIDS; they also build peaceful relationships across groups that once seemed irreconcilable. This is a wonderful example of a sustainable business for world benefit and peace.
I hope I have inspired some of you to think about simple innovations that can make a difference in the world. Perhaps there is more that can be done to integrate the wonderful work of the nonprofit organizations in Canada with businesses that want to find ways to fully engage their workforce. It is a winning solution for both parties and an inspiring proposition at a time when we could all use some inspiration!
Louisa Jewell is one of the co-founders of Why Did You Go, a consulting and coaching firm specializing in employee engagement and retention. Their vision is to improve happiness at work, one workplace at a time. For more information about how they can help you fully engage your workforce, contact Louisa at Louisa@whydidyougo.com.
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