CSR Approach in post-pandemic era: Looking inward and beyond

The recent years have witnessed an increased awareness among corporates about looking beyond their customers and investors and taking up social responsibilities and work for the welfare of others as well. In fact, India became the first country to legally mandate CSR through the Companies Act, 2013. While this has undoubtedly bolstered the ongoing works of several NGOs because of which the lives of countless individuals have been transformed, at times like today when the need of CSR funding is direr, NGOs are facing shortage of funds more than ever.

However, a lot has changed within these few months including the idea of corporate social responsibility in some ways. Before Covid-19 broke out, CSR works were predominantly centred on environmental and social concerns but today, most entrepreneurs opine that consumers’ worries matter the most considering the volatile state every business is in. Given the time that we are living in, there is no denying the fact that every employee fears getting laid off and as an organisation, the foremost CSR initiative you can undertake is put your own people over profit and instil your employees especially those who are vulnerable, with the notion that the company is with them irrespective of any crisis – whether it is through acknowledgement of their value in any way or giving them slight flexibility at work.

Once employees are being taken care of, only then is it ideal to think of lending a hand to others. However, it is crucial to seek new and unique CSR opportunities amid the pandemic by taking a worldwide perspective. While several vaccines are under trial, until a full-fledged one doesn’t come up, chances are, there will be continuous ebbs and flow in infection rates and therefore, preparing for those fluctuations and accordingly adjusting your CSR approach is crucial. For this, you need to take the location of your CSR initiative into consideration and the community it serves.

In addition to this, it is important that you rely on data only from credible sources to help your efforts derive better real-time impacts. The tactics of CSR initiative may seem slightly different from usual however, the ultimate goal is to serve the community and therefore, it is important to adopt those measures that can help you leave the impact that you have envisioned.