D.I.Y. C.S.R

One of the many benefits of participating in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities is that it imbues our work with a sense of purpose. But what if we don’t have access to CSR opportunities? Maybe we’re a solo entrepreneur, work remotely or our employer’s CSR is underdeveloped.

Good news! The practice of “job purposing”, defined as making meaningful contributions to others or a societal cause as part of our work week, is as effective as CSR in igniting purpose in our workday. You might job purpose by, for example, shifting to sustainable purchasing, mentoring a new hire or otherwise contributing to others or society as part of your work week – however you can. Think of job purposing as DIY (do it yourself) CSR: It’s less institutionalized and formal than a CSR program but has the agility to allow anybody to partake.

Other examples of job purposing include:

• A hairdresser training to become an advocate for victims of domestic violence so she can offer effective help to clients who she suspects, or knows, are victims.
• A commercial landlord loaning her vacant properties to a nonprofit that uses them as staging areas for month-long neighborhood cleanups.
• A junior team member who is a whiz at creating slide decks holding web-based tech-support office hours for any coworkers struggling with PowerPoint from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. every Tuesday.

Want to learn more about igniting purpose at work? Watch the TEDx video by our partner, Bea Boccalandro, who coined the term job purposing or contact us.