Setting up your responsible business committee is one of the first steps in your journey, and making sure you get the right mix of people means you’ll get better results. Some things to consider:
Committee size
Keep this relevant to the size of your company and the role you want them to play.
Who’s the Chair?
Have at least one senior leader who can champion your responsible business agenda and make sure the decisions you make get attention across the company.
Range of skills and views
It’s great to encourage a range of skills, backgrounds and passions in your committee. Seek the doers, communicators, creative thinkers and people who can see a plan through!
Think about your approach
Run a short survey to find potential enthusiasts to join your committee, or approach co-workers who you think would be a good addition! Be upfront about the time commitment you’re asking for.
Representation from key departments
Your responsible business committee will work best if you include key functions from across the company – consider inviting people from Operations, HR and Marketing.
Meet regularly
Get time in people’s diaries for the year ahead to make sure you stay on track – you’ll probably need to meet more regularly in the first year, and you could reduce them for the next year.
Commitment from your colleagues
You need active, enthusiastic committee members to kickstart your programme. Be clear about giving specific tasks to people, and give a timeframe for when they should be done. You could also use a free project management tool to keep track of tasks!
External support
Make sure your committee members know they can tap into our support throughout the year. Use our members area to keep updated with events, workshops and resources to guide you through your journey.
Recognise and reward
Thank your committee members regularly and make their contributions known! The Chair could make sure line managers know what they’re doing and that it’s acknowledged in appraisals as personal development.
This was updated in March 2019 by Heart of the City. We’ve created these resources for individual SMEs to use. None of our content is to be adapted, reused or repurposed for commercial use.
