Importance of Community Relations in Organisations

Knowing the Community

A basic ingredient of every good community relations program is the necessity for an organisation to know its community. Standard information about the community i.e. Demographics (gender, caste, race, age, income, disabilities, education, home ownership, employment status, and even location), historical, geographic, economic, and other readily accessible data is useful to the management. But real knowledge of the community such as community structure, formal and informal leadership structure,  prevailing values, particular problems of the community, local economic situation, local political situation, the unique resources (human, cultural, natural) possessed by the community, what does the community know and feel about the organisation are necessary to know.

Do the organisation's neighbors understand its products, services, practices, and policies?,

What are the community’s beliefs about the organisation?,

Do misunderstandings about the organisation exist?,

Community's expectations regarding the organisation's activities?

Answers to such questions are not easy to obtain. Moreover it requires frequent monitoring of the community by the corporate CSR dept. through surveys and research. Local NGOs in the region may also provide useful information about the community. So do the professional, civic, religious, or government officials and media editors through face-to-face meetings.

Understanding Community Relations

Community Relations is defined as social outreach program(s) an organisation establish to build relations and credibility, as well as foster an understanding of the role and responsibility an organisation has to its neighbors and local community.

Community relations refer to the various methods which are being used by the corporate world to establish and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the communities in which they are operating. The underlying principal of community relations is that when a corporate group accepts its civic responsibility and takes an active interest in the well-being of its community, then it gains a number of long-term benefits in terms of community support, loyalty, and good will. Community involvement therefore, builds public image and employee morale, and fosters a sense of team work that is essential in long-term success.

Objectives of Community Relations Program

Community relations seek to inform the community about the organisation and its products, services, and practices. It should correct community misconceptions and reply to criticism while gaining favourable opinion and support.

Some general community relations objectives could be:

a. obtaining support for legislation that will favorably affect the operating climate in the community;

b. determining community attitudes, knowledge, and expectations;

c. supporting community health, education, recreation, and cultural activities;

d. gaining better access to local government;

e. assisting the local economy in purchasing local supplies and services; or even provide some income generation support to the local community.

Every community relations programme should have a written policy clearly defining management's view of its obligation to the community. Specific community relations objectives should be spelt out so efforts can be coordinated and concentrated. Failure to set forth concrete objectives kills too many community relations programmes before they get started. Community relations policies and objectives are not determined according to idealistic principles. They arise from assessments of organisational needs, resources, and expertise on the one hand and community needs and expectations on the other. Before meaningful policies and objectives can be developed, the organisation must know its community.

According to L. C. Hillstrom & K. Hillstrom (2002) “a comprehensive, ongoing community relations program can help virtually any organization achieve visibility as a good community citizen and gain the good will of the community in which it operates”. This is important to a new business as the interaction between the business and the community is the most significant determinant of whether a business will continue to grow and become more successful in the community (Kilkenny, Nalbarte, & Besser, 1999).

  

Community Relations Theory

Building relationships with the local community can be the most critical correspondence action attempted by an organisation. It is a need objective an organisation set for their customers to build up a strong, continuous and solid group relations program. For nearby organizations and establishments, it is critical to become acquainted with their neighborhood and to get included and involved with neighborhood activities. Since any organization can expect to communicate with a range of community audiences including employees, shareholders, creditors, consumers, the media, the general public and government agencies, an effective communication plan needs to be implemented.

There are three key perspective of community relations theory that is:

1.   Traditional perspective: It is a way of looking at community relations as colonies within the society. Under the traditional form the approach adopted is conventional in nature. The organisation while dealing with the tribal people will adopt a traditional form of community relation approach for the welfare of their community. This can be quoted as an example for traditional perspective of dealing with community relations.

2.    Modern perspective: This looks at the community issues from contemporary point of view. The approach brings in usage of technology and communication in order to solve the issue. The advancement of expertise in form of modern communication system shall help in effective problem solving of any community issue.

3.    Global village concept: Term the “global village” was first used by Marshall McLuhan in 1962, in his ground-breaking book The Gutenberg Galaxy and refers to the fact that advances in mass communication allow a village-like mind-set or 'super-culture' to apply to the whole world. In community relations, global village concept is to create a very basic level synergetic relationship between a nearby community learning focus with access to worldwide data on one side with a neighborhood living environment in which this learning can be associated, attempted, upgraded on the other side. The purpose of Global Village Concept is to give a high quality, healthy, satisfactory, secure and maintainable way of life to its neighborhoods.

Community Relations Policy

Community relations policy should be based on:-

A. Community-focused development approach. In this approach, organisations work with local communities to better themselves.

B. Through philanthropy. This includes monetary donations and aid given to local organizations and poor communities.

C. To incorporate the CSR strategy directly into the business strategy of an organization.

D. Through garnering increased corporate responsibility interest i.e. Creating Shared Value (CSV). The shared value model is based on the idea that corporate success and social welfare are interdependent. A business needs a healthy, educated workforce, sustainable resources and expert government to compete effectively. For society to thrive, profitable and competitive businesses must be developed and supported to create income, wealth, tax revenues, and opportunities for philanthropy.

E. Use of the strategy of benchmarking to compete within their respective industries in CSR policy, implementation, and effectiveness. Benchmarking involves reviewing competitor CSR initiatives, as well as measuring and evaluating the impact that those policies have on society and the environment, and how customers perceive competitor CSR strategy. After a comprehensive study of competitor strategy and an internal policy review performed, a comparison can be drawn and a strategy developed for competition with CSR initiatives.

Planning of a Community Relations Program

A successful community relations campaign is formed following research and analysis, ensuring that contact with the community feeds back into a strategic model. The campaign should be planned, timed and evaluated. The plan must be flexible to allow for changes to the external environment, and yet it should be firm enough to ensure that the organisation sets the agenda. This is particularly important where groups of activists oppose the organisation in a way that is persuasive and organised, with the possible outcome being that they force the organisation into a reactive position.

Principles of effective consultation

Consultation is a desirable beginning to any community relations campaign. It should aim to address the entire community and if this is not possible, those consulted should be representative of the community at large. Throughout the process, it is vital that communication enables feedback, and that feedback is used constructively. If the campaign lacks genuine discussion, an organisation will rightly be accused of engaging in public consultation simply to be seen to be consulting. Consultations should be easy to respond to – more than one means of response should be provided and sufficient time allowed. Avoid one-way communication which comes across as an attempt to persuade and influence – this can be more detrimental than failing to consult.

Research for community relations program

Research may be qualitative or quantitative, formal or informal – preferably a mixture of all four. Responses from the local community will be invaluable to you as research and, as such, should feed into your overall communications strategy. Methods of quantitative research may be focus groups and individual group briefings. Methods of qualitative research include questionnaires and surveys. The results, when complete, may be published in a local newspaper, organisation’s website, which is an excellent means of feeding comment back to the community. 

Steps to prepare a community relations plan

•         Write a community relations policy statement;

•         Identify the components of community relations plan;

•      Identify the vision, mission, and rationale i.e. underlying principle for the community plan; (mission focuses on a CSR’s present state while a vision focuses on a CSR’s future).

•         Write goals for the community relations plan;

•         Write measurable performance objectives to accomplish the goals of the plan;

•         Develop a needs assessment;

•         Identify the appropriate audience for the plan, and

•         Develop an instrument to evaluate the plan.

Media of Communications in Community Relations

Community communication has no single audience. Messages reach to the communities through employees, their families, and local media. Other important communication channels consist of a community's opinion leaders: public officials, professionals and executives, bankers, union leaders, and neighborhood leaders.  The communication channels through which community audiences are reached may range from an informal chat over lunch at any social Club meeting to advertisements in local mass media. In-house publications, brochures, and annual reports dedicate at least a page or two to this area in most companies.

Many Companies print special community relation newsletters annually to inform their audiences of the company’s efforts in this direction. Many corporate make CRP the theme of their advertising campaign. A uniquely community-oriented method of organisational communication is the open house, which can be very effective if well planned and executed. Successful open houses provide small group tours of organisational facilities with knowledgeable guides. Utilize all means to communicate with the community. These may include employees, local media, open houses, local clubs and organisations, local advertising, direct mail, newsletters, brochures, annual reports, movies, exhibits, social media and so on.

Role of Public Relations in building effective community relations

It refers to the various ways in which the public relations team of an organization steps in and deals with the issues revolving around the community. It is also a platform which connects and is accessible to everyone within the community.

Gather the interest of community: one of the major roles of the public relations team is to understand the interest of the community which it aims to serve. It can be done through mass media to find out the interest of the community.

Take up the responsibility for the community: After identifying the core interest, it is essential for the public relations team to actively participate within the community. This is possible by looking at the volunteering activities conducted by the organization for the community. Issuing news for the community interest can be beneficial for both the organization and community. Business and community group: An increased involvement in key business groups should also be introduced as part of the promotional activities. This involvement will help create visibility of the organization within a business and community audience, therefore increasing the chances of developing strategic partnerships with other local businesses and groups.

Managing Community Functions and events: Organization should take the responsibility of managing their various local events or functions and help them in raising funds for conducting or doing community activities. For example, sponsoring a local event (community festivals or fair), donating new sports equipment to the local cricket or football club or donating a prize to the local school’s annual event. This type of sponsorship is reasonably inexpensive yet can be capitalized on to make a great local newspaper story.

Planning and implementation of special events: Active participation by the organization and its employees can be successfully achieved when the public relations team coordinates and plans activities or special events like re-union, exhibition and employee community services. This can help the organization and community to interact, understand and mutually grow.

Preparing publications for local resident groups: Through community relations the public relation team of an organization can publish information and news content targeting locals who are part of the community. Such local publications would deal with ground level content generation aimed at creating knowledge and spreading awareness about indigenous community.

Looking at local house tour as needed: The organization can plan open house tours for their employees in order to provide them a better understanding about local community issues. Similarly planning and conducting local house tour can help the visitors also to know about the community and their feedback can help the community to grow.

Role of Employees in Community Relations

‘Serving the society’ seems to be one of the newfound mantras of corporate. Being a part of people at the grass root levels, uplifting the destitute, shouldering the elderly, educating the illiterate or connecting with rural areas; these form a slew of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ventures and are a necessary part of the branding exercise. The focus here is not restricted on people alone; it can be on creating awareness of the growing environmental hazards, protecting the depleting wildlife or even saving animals against ill-treatment.

Needless to mention, in an age of rising recognition and the imperative need for increasing employee engagement, CSR initiatives are not any different. The company may chart out a policy, draw up a plan, and invest funds, but it needs complete endorsement and active participation by employees to carry it forward and implement it as perceived.

The aim of CSR activities is to give back a portion to society. The means to reaching out to the needy are manifold. While some companies have readily joined the CSR bandwagon, others are still involved on an ad hoc basis, showing active participant as and when the situation demands. Companies can either partner an institution or an NGO to support a specific cause or they themselves can set up a committee of employees as volunteers to oversee the operations. Some of the programs companies can volunteer for are:

•         Help during natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, etc.

•         Women empowerment and upliftment, fighting for their rights and against domestic violence

•         Services to an orphanage or an elderly home

•         Providing medical care

•         Educational support

•         Fighting against child abuse or bonded labor

•         An attempt to save environmental degradation

•         Fighting the declining wildlife

Blood donation camps, rebuilding lives during disasters like earthquake or floods, periodically collecting books, toys, clothes or utensils for distribution, green drive initiatives like planting saplings, visiting an orphanage or an old-age home, promoting art and literature, imparting knowledge about small jobs, etc., are some of the widespread areas where a number of companies show a keen interest. CSR, in some cases, also empowers individuals by showcasing the camouflaged talent, and promoting the skill lying beneath each individual.

Waste management, reduction in fuel consumption, adoption of energy efficient methodologies, green drive initiatives, are some of the emerging projects taken up by companies through its employee volunteers. Employees also work on several technologies that help humanity at large such as power management, reduced power usage, productivity-enhancing applications, collaboration products, etc. Employees also have the option of working for NGOs to improve the NGOs strategy, finances, business, or execution.

Benefits of Good Community Relations

Following are the benefits of good community relations:-

a. They give employees a reason to be proud of their organisation, which increases loyalty and may help to reduce labour and production costs.

b. An organisation with happy employees and a good reputation in the community is likely to attract highly qualified new employees.

c. The organisation also might generate new business through the contacts it generates through its community relations activities.

d. Such contacts might also make it easier for the organisation to obtain financing for expansion, find promising new locations, or gain favorable treatment in terms of taxes, ordinances, or utilities.

e. Good community relations can also be beneficial in times of crisis, such as a fire or a plant closing, by rallying the community around the affected business.

Conclusion

Community relations can help any organization achieve visibility as a good community citizen when they support programs that improve the quality of life in their related community, including Education, Health, Sanitation, Employment, Environmental programs including clean-up and beautification. Some other examples are performing arts programs, social and educational programs, children's activities, sports events, community organizations, and construction projects. Support may be financial or take the form of employees’ participation. These measures have proven effective for the organisations to get involved with their communities and to show to that they, the organisation, do care about them i.e. their surrounding community, and remain responsible. Any organisation, that move forward with socially responsible behavior, its public image is enhanced. 

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