Inclusivity is one of the things I love about social enterprise.
From Babies with Love’s shareholders are orphaned children. We enable these children, a group in society who would not otherwise be included, to participate in our economic system. From Babies with Love is the baby brand that donates 100% of its profits to orphaned and abandoned children.
So, OK, they are not technically legal shareholders. But in our way of thinking they are; their wellbeing and future directs every decision and action we take – my job is to deliver the highest return to our shareholders, just like anybody else running a business.
There are many other social enterprises that return their profit to similar effect. From providing micro-finance to female entrepreneurs that would not otherwise have access to capital, to satisfying basic needs such as clean water.
All lift people out of poverty, creating a fairer and more inclusive world.
There are also models of social enterprise that make society more inclusive through employment, creating jobs for marginalised groups such as ex-offenders and the homeless.
I speak to many HR professionals within our extensive corporate client base who are fans of our unique parental leave gift service.
We contribute to people strategy – in particular to gender balance – through retention of working parents by providing parental leave gifts for colleagues adding to their family.
Our clients simply give a beautiful gift that shows appreciation for their employee, then the story of how they are also helping a vulnerable child delivers pertinent employee engagement, and tangibly expresses the company’s approach to inclusion.
The HR leaders I speak to all talk about diversity and inclusion strategy, and how high this is on their departments and their executive committees’ agendas.
This creates a wonderful opportunity for social enterprise. We deliver products and services companies are commonly spending on already and add value to that spend through employee engagement.
Social enterprises are uniquely placed to enhance corporate diversity and inclusion strategy, because inclusivity is intrinsic to so many social enterprise models. And because, alongside the business case and adding value, I think we all feel good when we’re working towards a more inclusive world.
Need to see it for yourself? Hear HR leaders at some of From Babies with Love’s corporate clients share their views on our service at frombabieswithlove.org.
