West and North Yorkshire Chamber has opened the entry process for its social impact award programme Raising the Bar.
Sponsored by Provident Financial and the Business Enterprise Fund, the awards recognise those businesses which have given time or resources to help local causes and made an impact in their community, to their environment, their employees or to education.
Culminating with an awards event on Thursday 27 November at Leeds Civic Hall with guest speaker Richard Mason, Responsibility Programme, Senior Manager for Burberry, the 2018 Raising the Bar initiative is a business engagement programme spearheaded by West and North Yorkshire Chamber which includes a new diagnostic tool to help businesses in Bradford, Leeds, York and North Yorkshire to review their social impact.
“We’re looking to not only recognise and reward those going above and beyond but to inspire others to think more about where they can make a positive impact whether it’s donating hours, raising funds or working with the next generation of employees in the community,” explained West and North Yorkshire Chamber Chief Executive Sandy Needham.
“That’s where our diagnostic tool really helps. Businesses can log on and simply by answering the questions, receive an immediate overview of where they are excelling in their social responsibility and where they can make improvements.”
Sandy added: “This process alone will help businesses to really understand and acknowledge the great work they are doing and potentially, signpost them towards areas needing greater focus. It also encourages businesses to take the next step and enter the Raising the Bar awards to get the recognition their teams deserve.”
Alongside the awards and the benchmarking tool, the Raising the Bar programme offers online ‘how to’ guides, skills sharing top tips and inspiring case studies to advise and equip firms of all sizes to take the steps needed to get the best out of their social impact activity.
“More than 20,000 social impact hours were recorded by last year’s awards entrants and we’re harnessing that expertise and those experiences to help even more businesses to learn, develop and apply their own successful responsibility programmes,” Sandy added.
Nic Kendall, head of marketing from award sponsors the Business Enterprise Fund, said: “We are very proud to be supporting Raising the Bar once again this year. It’s a fantastic initiative that gives local businesses the opportunity to showcase the incredible work they do in the community. As a Yorkshire business that supports many regional businesses through responsible finance, we take our social, economic and environmental impact very seriously and are encouraged by the amazing work being undertaken by lots of very inspirational businesses and people.”
The Raising the Bar awards are free to enter. To get involved simply log onto the Raising The Bar website and click on ‘enter awards now’ and to measure your current social responsibility activity, click on ‘my social impact’ to access the free benchmarking tool.
More information about the West and North Yorkshire Chamber’s Raising The Bar awards and initiative call 08455 240 240.
