Encourage your staff to be good corporate citizens

If you are prepared to be a good corporate citizen your staff will be more likely to want to get involved as well. Make it easy for them to do this and encourage them to participate. It is important not to be threatening or intimidating—some people just don’t want to get involved and that is fine.

They should not feel like their job is not secure if they don’t. What you are trying to do is to provide the right environment for your staff to feel they would like to get involved. This may mean making a few allowances for them giving up their time, it may even mean some financial support; for example, if a group of your staff want to enter a fun run, offer to sponsor them.

Community involvement is a great team building exercise and it is rewarding in a lot of ways—not the least of which is the realisation that as an individual you can really make a difference. Provide the right working environment and most workplaces will automatically produce some community minded individuals who will drive the process from within. Encourage and support them as much as you feel able and recognise their efforts.