ONE PERSON, ONE BUSINESS

Paul Wagenaar

WHAT CAN ONE PERSON, ONE BUSINESS DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Recently I started a new position with the United Way of Bruce Grey and one of my first assignments was to learn as much as I could about the work they do and the needs of the community that they serve.

It was an eye-opening experience, I had a passing familiarity with the needs of the community, but no where near as much as what I should have, and even after as little time as one week, it has become apparent about how more needs to be done.  I wrote this brief post to focus on a few things that we as business people could do.

This is not an exhaustive list, but consider:

  • HIRE FULL TIME PEOPLE WHEN YOU CAN – Living in our community, like so many others, is very expensive.  The lack of affordable housing is a primary cause of poverty in our counties.  Instead of people paying 30-40% of their income on housing like is suggested, for many people in our community the percentage is 70-80%, leaving little money for food, clothing, and “life”.  Someone working part-time has virtually no opportunity for decent housing, and in many cases sometimes they work two or three jobs just to have some place to live.

I know that some companies hire part-time people instead of full-time associates to save money and increase flexibility.  As a manager or owner, think about the costs of that practice:

  • You may not attract as many good applicants because they are drawn to the full time positions.
    • You may not be able to retain a good associate, because they may leave for the same reason.
    • Your part-time associates may have to juggle multiple positions just to survive, increasing their stress, limiting their availability to you, and perhaps affecting their productivity. 
    • By offering full-time positions, you may enjoy increased loyalty, better continuity, and actually save money by not having to recruit, train, recruit train etc.
  • PAY WHAT BENEFITS YOU CAN – Many businesses reduce costs by cutting benefits or not offering them to staff.  Benefits are expensive, but put yourself in your associates shoes, what do you gain by offering benefits, even benefits that are financed 50/50 by you and the associates:
    • Associate retention
    • Increased loyalty
    • Happier and healthier associates.
  • PROMOTE RECYCLING/ENERGY CONSERVATION PROGRAMS at work – Being socially responsible takes many forms:
    • Turning off computer screens at night time
    • Having bathroom/lunch room/warehouse/office lights on motion sensors so they shut off when no one is in the room.
    • Ensuring that any recyclables are properly sorted and taken to the recycling centre.
    • Use a fleet monitoring system that measures your vehicles mileage and when it drops below a certain efficiency, have it trigger a warning for servicing.
  • RUN A WINE/BEER BOTTLE DRIVE for staff and customers to bring in their “empties” and donate the proceeds to a different local charity each time a level like $500 is achieved.
  • ENCOURAGE CUSTOMERS AND STAFF TO DONATE food and/or money to local food banks, community kitchens, community gardens, once per quarter and promote it on social media.  It is a great way to help the community and create a “buzz” about your organization. 
  • HOST A COMMUNITY GARDEN – If you can, even consider existing flower beds being converted to vegetables and fruit.  Community gardens are staffed by volunteers and they can generate much needed fresh produce for the community and to raise money to sustain the program.  If you have extra property, even small amounts, consider this.
  • QUESTION THE MOTIVATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONS THAT YOU BELONG TO – As a businessperson I supported a number of business lobby groups that supported annual 0% tax increases, fought the drive to raise minimum wages or guarantee basic incomes; and, unfortunately I never considered the social costs to society, but only looked it how it affected me.  Good business practices can function in a society where social responsibility are a priority and vice versa, they are not mutually exclusive.

A government that is proud of annual 0% tax increases is actually cutting programs each year when they don’t allow for inflation.  If you think minimum wage is too high, I suggest that you try living on it; our poverty spiral is almost impossible to break when people have to decide on whether to pay the rent or buy food for their children.

  • HOST AN EVENT ONCE PER YEAR WHERE THE PROCEEDS OF THE EVENT GO TO CHARITY – If each business in Canada did this one day per year, just imagine the impact that this would have on breaking the poverty cycle in Canada or helping to eliminate issues in our communities.
  • ENCOURAGE YOUR ASSOCIATES TO DONATE TIME, PRODUCTS, OR OTHER THINGS TO ASSISTING LOCAL CHARITIES OR THE CLIENTS THEY SERVE – Furniture companies – donate customer merchandise to groups like Habitat for Humanity; Banks – donate associates to help teach financial literacy; Accountants – do free seminars for seniors on tax preparation; Garages – set one day aside to do free vehicle inspections;
  • HELP CHANGE ATTITUDES ABOUT POVERTY – There is a prevailing opinion among some people that someone people who are poor deserve their place in life and somehow, they may abuse the charity that is providing for them unless they are carefully watched or almost treated like being poor is a crime. 

While there may be some, the vast majority of people are not, in fact one of the major issues facing society is that some people who should be getting help are not because of the stigma they feel towards using a “food bank”.  Businesses and people can help by supporting and promoting not only the charities who run food banks, but by helping to eliminate the stigma about accepting help when it is needed.

  • MAKE SURE YOUR PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT SERVICES THAT NGO’S PROVIDE – We can educate our associates, especially the more vulnerable ones, about the services that are offered in our communities, and if we do a few of the suggestions in this post, there will be more things available to help those who need it the most.

One person can make a difference, your company can too, do what you can, everything helps.  Consider that the issues faced are deeper than just what they might seem:

The food insecurity that drives the need for food banks is a result of insufficient income; having safe, affordable housing is part of the solution; having stable multi-year funding from various levels of government is part of the solution; eliminating perceptions that the people who use these services are taking advantage of society is part of the solution; making these services available at times when those needing the service are available is part of the solution, helping people acquire better skills and knowledge is part of the solution; and simply have more people aware of the problem is part of the solution.

I am not an expert on these issues, it is my hope that by reading this, you might decide to do one, two or maybe all of these suggestions.  If we all do something, then things get better.