Most of us know the common term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It is usually defined as a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. To us at Skillseed, however, beyond just being “responsible” for our stakeholders, which may seem to imply a one-way engagement (or even burden!), we see the “R” in CSR as building mutual relationships of trust, hence the reframe of CSR as Corporate Social Relationships.
At Skillseed, we constantly explore how we can grow and expand communities beyond our most immediate and obvious stakeholders, such as our staff and client-partners, for example. Previously, we shared about GIC and GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) CSR programmes which are designed to create long term, sustainable impact. As part of this series, we reached out to two of our corporate friends from the Company of Good Fellowship Programme, Gojek and Birds of Paradise Gelato Boutique, on how they have been making efforts to redefine whom they see as part of their community, and what giving back to the community means to them, in the context of Corporate Social Relationships.
Gojek is Southeast Asia's leading on-demand platform with a mission to empower micro-entrepreneurs to make cities more accessible and engaging. In Singapore, Gojek's point-to-point transport services give drivers access to income-earning opportunities, while bringing about greater convenience for consumers. When you think of Gojek, you may not instinctively think of frontline workers at hospitals, seniors or clients with special needs. However, the organisation has been actively leveraging their platform to cultivate relationships across diverse segments of society, and benefit these segments at the same time.
“We want to play to our strengths and use our platform to do good for society and support those in need. Creating positive social impact is built into our corporate purpose — Doing good is integral to how we operate as a business.”
- Valerie Goh, Engagement & Corporate Responsibility Lead, Gojek
Rides in times of need
For example, Gojek offered timely and relevant mobility support during the Covid-19 pandemic by providing more than a million free rides for individuals who needed transport to and from vaccination centres, as well as rides for Covid-19 patients who had recovered from the virus.
Gojek offering free rides to patients who have recovered from Covid-19 at Connect@Changi - a temporary community care facility
Building an Inclusive Community
Gojek also focuses its efforts to support inclusivity by providing subsidised rides for clients at MINDS and Dementia Singapore to and from their daycare centres. Furthermore, Gojek ensured that their drivers were equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to assist passengers who may require more support. For example, training sessions were organised for drivers in partnership with MINDS to ensure that drivers are able to ferry passengers with special needs.
Beyond focusing on providing mobility support to those who need it, Gojek is also committed to supporting the national agenda for digital inclusion. They partnered with RSVP Singapore, an organisation of senior volunteers and helped to train them to teach other seniors how to use the Gojek mobile application. They realised that this helps to lower the barrier of entry for seniors to use the app, as it is less intimidating for them to learn from fellow seniors. Gojek also collaborated with IMDA to teach seniors how to use the app through online engagement sessions.
Training senior volunteers at a “Train-the-Trainer” workshop on how to use the Gojek app
Trained volunteers conducting workshops with members of the public at The Majestic Smart Seniors Applied Learning Centre
In addition to their active participation in supporting the national agenda for digital inclusion, Gojek’s driver-partners were also empowered to join in Gojek’s giving efforts via Joy Box 2022, an initiative by Tampines Changkat Citizens’ Consultative Committee to spread joy to under-resourced communities during the holiday season. Volunteers distributed over 400 gift boxes, customised based on the intended communities’ needs, and half of the volunteers who partook in this meaningful initiative were Gojek drivers.
Gojek driver-partners with the Gojek team preparing to distribute gifts to beneficiaries in Tampines Changkat as part of community initiative Joy Box.
From Drivers to Driver-Partners, and a Work-Family
From the examples above, we were heartened to learn that Gojek doesn’t see its drivers as just platform workers, but also as change catalysts and partners who can amplify Gojek’s social impact in different sectors of need, and build even more meaningful relationships with other communities.
Gojek team celebrating Lunar New Year 2023 (and even some of their birthdays!) with their Driver-Partners.
We might already be familiar with Birds of Paradise’s unique gelato flavours using natural and botanical ingredients. What we may not know, however, is that BOP also sees its business as a vehicle to contribute back to society, and to build bridges with communities beyond their immediate customers - one gelato at a time.
“We decide on the community projects that we want to focus on based on two elements: The preference of our employees, and the company’s values and goals. Ideally, it should be a win-win-win situation for the charity organisation, its community stakeholders and our company.”
- Denise Teo, Community Manager, Birds of Paradise
Gelato and Giving
Birds of Paradise’s first community project was in 2017, called the “Cuff Road Project", where their staff gave out free gelato to migrant workers in Singapore. Through this experience and the interactions they had with the migrant workers, they learned about the challenges they faced, and were motivated to support sustainable and impactful care for them. For example, together with five other like-minded local companies (In Good Company, Books Actually, Petit Pain, Mud Rock Ceramics, Edith Patisserie), a ´Little Community of Good´ was created during the Covid-19 pandemic to help raise funds for Healthserve, a non-governmental organisation that aims to support disadvantaged migrant workers. Birds of Paradise’s staff also visited Terusan Recreation Centre for an outreach and engagement activity organised by HealthServe, where they were able to have longer and more insightful interactions with the migrant workers.
Connecting one Community to Another - for a Triple-Win
Besides being committed to providing care and support for our migrant workers, Birds of Paradise also engages their vegetable suppliers to send vegetables to a soup kitchen located in Little India: Krsna’s Free Meals. The organisation sees this initiative as a “triple-win” situation — Birds of Paradise is able to do good for the community while also providing their supplier with more business and supporting the soup kitchen with more food resources for the under-resourced communities. The Birds of Paradise staff also visited the soup kitchen to help cut vegetables, prepare meals and give out meals to the soup kitchen’s patrons.
Birds of Paradise team doing an art activity with our migrant workers at Terusan Recreation Centre
The Birds of Paradise team assisting with food preparation at Krsna’s Free Meals
Birds of Paradise believes that there is no contradiction between improving the competitiveness of their business and making sincere contributions to the community. The organisation feels that businesses should solve problems by bringing resources together and forming connections to fill the needs of the society.
For an organisation to have successful CSR initiatives, Birds of Paradise believes that community projects need to be sustainable and impactful through building long-term relationships instead of having ad-hoc and one-off projects. There also needs to be a clear brand message which communicates why the organisation supports certain communities. Moving forward, they hope to be able to focus more on sustainability efforts and possibly have in-place flexible work arrangements to encourage employees to volunteer more regularly. We are rooting for them and wish them success in their future community projects.
Skillseed is honoured to feature corporate friends and companies like Gojek and Birds of Paradise who are pursuing meaningful CSRelationships efforts and expanding their communities. As we continue to learn and grow alongside our partners, we would love to hear from you on your thoughts on Corporate Social Relationships, and how we might partner with you on your journey in growing collaborative communities as well.