Nursery Management: Community - Doing good

Over recent years, evidence has begun to indicate that companies which support their communities and good causes are not only helping others, but are also aiding their own success and longevity.

Many nurseries are becoming aware of just how important their social and environmental approach is to their staff. They have made supporting charities and good causes an increasingly important part of their day to day business.

For nursery chain Busy Bees, a priority has been to ensure that its chosen charity fits well with its company ethos. This year it has worked in partnership with the DKH Legacy Trust, a charity set up by athlete Dame Kelly Holmes (pictured at the nursery below), to improve life chances for young people.

'Last year each region was able to choose its own local charity to support and we made it a competition to see who could raise the most money,' says Katie Whirledge, head of PR. 'But this year we decided to support the DKH Legacy Trust because we wanted a good fit with some of the things we were doing at the nursery.'

She says families in the nurseries' parent-nursery partnerships were very keen on the charity. It seemed to be a good choice in the Olympics year, and would provide an opportunity to get children focused on physical activity.

As part of the fundraising activities for the trust, Busy Bees organised its Golden Mile initiative, which challenged each child attending the nursery to complete eight miles of physical activity in the year and raise £1 per mile for the trust.

'It's only successful if the children embrace it and the parents are involved,' Ms Whirledge says of the company's charitable support. 'Our children know they are doing something for someone else and I think that is very important. But it's also all about them having fun.'

Cathy Griffin, director at Children 1st @ Breedon House, which has supported a number of hospices recently, including the Bluebell Children's Hospice (see right) says the chain often tries to support charities which have a close link to the families whose children come to any of its 15 settings. This is important to the staff, she says.

'It's very soul-rewarding,' she says. 'Staff feel that they are doing something - especially if there's a cause that is close to home, as they can deal with it by raising money. It aids staff retention as well as raising our credibility as an employer.'

Long-term view

A big consideration for nurseries is that charitable work does require resources, including staff time. But although there can be resource requirements in the short term when any nursery decides to start supporting charities, they will reap benefits later on, says Dominic Phinn, account manager at Business in the Community, which promotes responsible business practice.

'We would argue that it's now more important than ever to be a responsible business,' he says. 'It's about taking a long-term view. If you can establish yourself as a responsible company and employer, the prospects for any business can be better in the long term.'

Some nurseries may be concerned about putting pressure on parents to support charities at a time when many families are feeling under added financial strain.

Manager of Portico Day Nurseries Debbie Harden co-ordinates the group's fundraising and events. Eighteen months ago the company decided to start supporting just one charity - its local hospice, which has services for children.

Ms Harden says, 'In the past we were doing a lot of charity work like Comic Relief and so on, and it felt as though we were asking parents for money all the time. There are a lot of charities, and I know what it's like as a parent.'

She adds that focusing on one charity has also helped with fundraising, because it is easier to show parents exactly where any money raised is going.

At Kiddi Caru, marketing manager Caron Moseley says its head office is aware of the impact on parents and is careful never to pressure any of its 19 nurseries to raise money or do work for charities at all.

'We never force any of the nurseries to undertake fundraising events, but they all still do,' she says. 'Often we'll put buckets out at fun days to raise money, rather than asking parents directly.

'I don't think there's much pressure from head office to do all of this. At the end of the day the nursery staff know their parents and know what's going to work, so we leave it entirely up to them.'

Company reputation

Giving charitable support can actually prove to be a big draw for parents. Anita Shepherd, manager of Bright Kids Nurseries in Warwickshire, says that whenever it does a charity event it usually issues a press release and then sees news of the event in the local newspaper.

'Parents like to see their children in the paper; it always gives them a smile,' she says. 'Some parents say they chose us because they saw us in the paper doing this extra work and working with the community. It's comforting to know that parents who are looking for nurseries like to see this.'

While charity work can be very positive for a company's reputation, any nursery thinking about getting involved in it should look at how it fits with the values of the rest of its business, according to Laura Spence, professor of business ethics at Royal Holloway, University of London.

'The difficult thing can be opening yourself up to criticism about having links with charities but not having those values within the whole of your organisation,' she says. 'You need to have your own house in order if you're building yourself as a responsible business externally.'

Jonathan Gill, corporate advisory manager at the Charities Aid Foundation, which works with companies to help them deliver corporate responsibility programmes, also offers advice for any first-timers. He says that any nursery thinking about taking up charity work should try to find out if there are already other organisations in their local area doing something similar.

'There may be another nursery doing it already, and collaborating may benefit things and help you have more impact. This is an opportunity where competition doesn't matter - it's about doing general good, after all.'

CASE STUDY: CHILDBASE - BUILDING CONFIDENCE

Over the past 17 months the staff, parents and children from Childbase nurseries have raised nearly £104,000 for causes including the Rainbow Children's Hospice, and Ikamva Labantu, the company-adopted charity which supports vulnerable people in South African townships.

Fundraising takes many forms at Childbase. There are small events such as fancy dress days when participants contribute £1 to charity, and the 'Phil the Bag' scheme, when staff and parents are asked to fill a plastic bag with unwanted clothes, which is then converted to cash by a local charity on the basis of weight. The company has also run a payroll-giving scheme called Thousandaire, in which employees donate £1 from their pay to charity every month, with the chance of winning a cash prize draw provided by the company.

Lynda Gostelow, Childbase operations director, lists a range of reasons why charity support is so actively encouraged. She says it can enable the company to better support parents during difficult times by fundraising for a charity that is related to an issue the family is facing, such as an illness or accident. Activities such as delivering harvest-time goods to the elderly and homeless can help prepare children for responsibilities in later life.

'A commitment to charity fundraising and community service builds a child's confidence in interacting with adults outside their own environment, and is essential in preparing them for wider roles in the world,' says Ms Gostelow.

Staff engagement is also an important reason for supporting charities. 'It helps to promote and develop team spirit among individual groups within a nursery and engenders pride and a sense of accomplishment for the nursery as a whole.'

The chain's charity work has helped it gain a number of accolades, including a place in the Sunday Times 'Best Companies to Work For' lists.

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

A survey this year suggests that employees who can make a social impact through their job are happier than those who think they cannot.

Talent Report: What Workers Want in 2012, published by Net Impact, analysed a sample of just over 1,700 people and found that 49 per cent of the respondents who were in a job where they could make a social or environmental impact on the world reported high job satisfaction levels. Of those who could not make such an impact at work, only 24 per cent were very satisfied.

Social impact is set to become even more important to the next generation of employees. Of the university students who were approached as part of the Net Impact survey, 35 per cent said they would take a 15 per cent pay cut to work for a company that was committed to corporate social responsibility.

The full report is at http://netimpact.org/docs/ publications-docs/NetImpact_WhatWorkersWant2012.pdf