Partner Article

Businesses urged to play their part in combating poverty

With 6.1 million working families in work poverty and an estimated 1 million people taking out pay day loans to cover the cost of Christmas, Liz Needleman, area director for Business in the Community (BITC) England East, is calling on the region’s companies to look within their own organisations to help fight poverty in 2014.

Liz explains the critical role that businesses play in creating sustainable communities and outlines three steps they can take to improve the lives of both their own employees and local people.

Across our regions many companies are encouraging staff to collect toys and parcels for people in need. Although important, these gifts are not solving the problem of why so many families - some of whom will be on the doorsteps of regional businesses and may even include their own employees – are not coping financially.

In the UK 63 per cent of children living in poverty belong to a working household - yet how many business leaders are aware that there are men and women within their own workforce who are on the edge of a financial abyss?

In the New Year millions of people will be pitched into more misery as cold weather bites. The UK is second only to Estonia among European countries for the high number of people struggling to pay their energy bills. More than five million UK households live in fuel poverty – a condition when more than 10 per cent of income is spent on energy to keep warm.

It’s a bleak picture across many UK communities, yet responsible businesses can make a significant difference to the lives of their own employees and local people during 2014 in three ways:

1. Look within your own organisation - understand the pressures facing your staff and create a healthy environment where employees are supported.

• Don’t assume that your team are not experiencing debt and poverty issues.

As the statistics above show, many employers will have members of staff who are struggling significantly. Households tend to spend up to their total income, so if one person loses their job and there is only one wage coming in, then that household can easily slip into debt.

• Consider setting up an employee assistance programme so that members of staff have someone to talk to in confidence - either online, phone or face to face. You could enlist outside help such as Citizens’ Advice or a local charity experienced in offering support and advice on debt and managing stress.
• Common mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, account for 40 percent of all illness from work. A healthy environment can boost business performance and help employees understand triggers that lead to stress. An example is the BITC Workwell model that helps companies take a holistic and integrated approach to employee engagement and wellbeing.

2. Review your recruitment process. Many companies unknowingly overlook the skills of those in their local communities because they place too many hurdles in the application process.

• Are you removing barriers so that unemployed people can apply? BITC has a successful Generation Talent campaign which helps businesses to unlock the potential hidden by unemployment.
• Is your advertising excluding certain groups such as the long term unemployed and those without access to a computer? Advertise your vacancies with Job Centre Plus – our dedicated online resources and guides can help.
• Do your recruitment criteria exclude talented people simply because they don’t have certain academic qualifications?
• Consider ex-offenders – challenge your preconceptions! Ex-offenders may have the skills and abilities your business needs. BITC’s Ban the Box campaign encourages employers to remove the tick box from application forms that asks about criminal convictions.

3. Take a structured approach to community engagement. There is understandably a great ‘feel good’ factor when employees undertake ad hoc activities; however a strategic plan will improve the internal and external impact of your community engagement.

• Link community engagement works with business goals and Key Performance Indicators such as access to new markets, staff development or raising awareness about your business among local residents. Activities will become sustainable, with lasting impact, and not simply a bolt on
• Ensure buy-in from the top and leadership by example. If senior management don’t get involved themselves in community engagement this sends out a message that it’s not important
• Set targets and measure the impact and effectiveness of what is being done – for example, has the business helped people in the local community back into work, or have figures increased for staff volunteering?
• Look at what works elsewhere. There is a plethora of best practice examples and information with many organisations willing to support and share their experiences.

I urge companies to make it their New Year resolution to bring about real and lasting change for employees and communities in 2014.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Business in the Community .