Social Innovation Projects That Are Making Waves in Our Business Communities
Are you interested in the social innovation projects that are helping businesses to increase revenue while positively impacting society? In a business setting, this sort of innovation is crucial and if you can implement them in your own business, you’ll not only benefit those who you do business with, you’ll also improve your profits. Here are some of the projects we really respect from the world of business.
Digital Hub Workspaces Breed Creativity
Firstly, in cities across the world, digital hub workspaces – sometimes referred to as cooperatives – have been sprouting up waiting to be filled by eager creative and technical people looking to share ideas, collaborate and make cool stuff. A good example is Duke Studio opening in Leeds where young digital creative freelancers can share a single space and collaborate. If your business can make use of one of these spaces, you could find an infinite stream of talented people who can help you generate your next big revenue stream, and in return, you give them a job.
Social Apps Point Us to Local Events, Reinforcing Our Communities
When you’re part of a business, you’re part of the wider local business ecosystem. This means that supporting your fellow local businesses should be an important part of your working week. A great way to do this is to take advantage of the great apps like WingIt that are finding their way to the app store that help you to locate all of the great social projects that are happening around you, integrating them into one long list for you to flick through, enabling you to see and support as much as you can.
Employee Exchange Programs
Following on from that last point, you could also allow some of your employees to swap places with employees at other businesses or other sections of your team on a temporary basis through employee exchanges. At Rhino Foods, for example, employees can be moved to a different department on a temporary basis to avoid seasonal layoffs. Doing so will improve your business by enabling your employees to share feedback on their experiences elsewhere, helping you to better your own company, but it also gives your employees the chance to improve their own knowledge and skills.
Grow Your Own Lunch Projects at Work
Finally, the office space can be a little bit sterile and a little bit unnatural sometimes, so if you can spare the resource, you could send your employees to an urban farm workshop where they’ll acquire the skills they need to establish their own urban farm at work like at this Japanese office where vegetables are grown in the spaces in between where business is done. This introduces a little bit of nature to your office, and generating healthy, organic produce for your team members to eat at lunchtime. This will improve their diets, increase their amount of daily exercise (gardening is hard!) and generally improves work performance.
Ultimately, there are plenty of ways that your business can increase your profits while improving the society you operate in. Implement some of the social innovation projects above and you’ll certainly be on the right track.
