Last week Development Director Steve was delighted to be on the panel for an Urbano Network discussion event on “how SMEs can demonstrate their purpose beyond profit”.
Steve discussed how traditionally his firm has a strong CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) focus, supporting various community charities long term, stimulating local communities and providing training, careers advice, guidance and pathways to employment for local people, but the increasing demand for social value outcomes on projects is placing a growing demand on contractor’s resources.
The level of service now required by clients far exceeds the traditional CSR approach and more human resource is required to fulfil specific project led obligations. Therefore his advice to SME’s, especially those in the built environment sector, was to work with others in partnership.
“The construction industry already has good partners to work with in this arena, and I would encourage contractors to set up long term partnerships with organisations who have the resources and support funding to help you deliver meaningful SV outcomes across a range of activity types. These organisations for example include the Construction Youth Trust, YouthBuild Ventures UK and many other charitable outreach broker operations.”
The Podcast recording of the discussion is available via this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2202487/episodes/18824232-how-can-smes-demonstrate-their-purpose-beyond-profit