Salary Sacrifice & Corporate Social Responsibility

When you buy a product or service, you’ll probably have investigated (or at least come to a pretty solid answer on) how the product fits your needs or the service meets your requirements, before you pay. But increasingly, we as consumers are more and more aware of the environmental or social impact a company has before we part with our cash.

For many of us, it can be a deal breaker as to whether we go through with purchasing or not. That’s where Environment, Social and Governance standards come in. ESG is:

– British Business Bank 

But what does this mean for businesses and how can they ensure this aligns with their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals? Well, the good news is, there’s many ways you or your business can ensure this while offering great benefits to your employees, with one being a Salary Sacrifice scheme.

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

CSR is where a company considers how it impacts the environment and society for the better. It’s the idea that businesses have a responsibility when it comes to improving not only our livelihoods with a new product, but also our impact on the planet or humanitarian social issues. It considers all viewpoints from those purchasing, to those investing or employed by the company.

Companies that recognise CSR well are those that strive to ensure they’re making a positive impact in all these areas, with a clear plan laid out to show how they’re furthering their efforts. They can do this by considering Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) standards.

ESG broken down

• The environment aspect of the ESG standards is referring to the company’s impact on our planet: from immediate things like waste disposal and management, to pollution control and emissions. With the world becoming ever more tuned into the way we’re all contributing to phenomenon like global warming, this is an important thing for companies to be aware of.
• The social component of the standards, fairly obviously, is how the company impacts society. This ranges from employees (such as relationships and benefits) to customers, suppliers and the community in which they sell and run. It’s a far-ranging topic, covering labour practices, product safety, community engagement and human rights.
• Governance is the way in which the company operates – from internal practices and policies to any board members/directives and the accountability of the senior leadership team (and how transparent, or not, they are).

Why is CSR and ESG important?

It’s not just your product that’s under scrutiny, your whole company is. Everything needs to be by the book and better for our planet. If not, not only will customers look elsewhere, but potential investors and stakeholders may do too.

Of course, making money is important, and profit is still the driving factors as to how businesses succeed. But the ways in which you get to that profit are crucial.

Why is salary sacrifice good for CSR?

Salary sacrifice comes in many shapes and forms, from a Payroll Giving scheme to cycle-to-work schemes, but they all benefit the Corporate Social Responsibility of your company.

By giving your employees the opportunity to drive a zero-emission vehicle, for example, as part of an affordable package, it means you’re directly allowing your team the chance of reducing their carbon footprint significantly, while offering them a fantastic benefit.

They get the best in brand new electric car technology; you get to say you’re doing your bit to ensure your company (and those who work for it) are actively reducing their negative impact on the planet while on business. It’s a great way to positively boost the environmental mentality within your business.

Plus, if you don’t already provide your team with company cars, the chances are they’re using their own personal vehicles for business use – which you as a company have no control over. If they choose to use an old high-emitting diesel car for this, it may look bad on your business to prospective eco-conscious clients.

And let’s not forget…

…electric cars are sometimes out of reach for some employees with purchase prices high. Getting an electric car subscription through salary sacrifice means you can offer all your members of staff – not just senior leaders – a high-level benefit to those employees that otherwise may not be able to afford it (because salary sacrifice means savings for both employee and employer).

Getting an electric car on salary sacrifice also means you’re doing your bit to support your team and make things as easy for them as possible, as our scheme is all-inclusive, thus adding to the social element of your ESG goals.

Our salary sacrifice subscriptions include insurance, breakdown cover, fair wear and tear for tyres and even a public charging solution.

This means you’re ensuring your duty-of-care practices as a business by giving your team travelling on business a newer, safer, well-maintained car for their use personal and professional use.

And, finally, businesses must measure and report on their environment impacts. This includes reporting on greenhouse gas emissions, annual energy usage, transport emissions and other environment impacts. Being able to say your team use zero-emission vehicles for business (and pleasure) ties into the company’s Scope 3 emissions, meaning business travel, employee commuting and more can all be listed as zero-emission. It would hugely benefit not just your company’s reports, but also the planet (which is the main thing, right?).

It’s not just your staff that benefit, though…

Good CSR is important for you to show your stakeholders and investors that you care. It’s not just your staff or customers. 

Investors are increasingly aware of the impact their investments are making on our planet, including how any and all businesses they support behave when it comes to their ESG. Businesses who are seen not to take it seriously will quickly realise when their main income streams decide they no longer want a piece of the pie, for fear of inquiry on their investments.

Choose a salary sacrifice scheme that benefits everyone

If you or your business are looking for a hassle free, all-inclusive benefit that doesn’t cost you as the employer any more money but manages to save your team a huge 30-60% on an electric car, then you’re in luck with elmo.

It sounds too good to be true, right? It’s not. Watch the video below to see what we mean:

See how much you or your team could save:

You can see now why many companies are turning to salary sacrifice to not only add a great benefit to their staff, meaning they attract and retain talent, but also improve their CSR goals.

If you’re interested in an electric car subscription through salary sacrifice for your team or business, reach out to us and we’ll arrange a chat at a time that suits you.