We have always cared about our society. Hermosillo was built over the foundation of doing things right, for our team, clients, and community. As a result, giving back has always been natural for us. We certainly did not named it Social Responsibility per se back in the day, but the spirit existed since day one.
Through the years, that enthusiasm has evolved into something more concrete and coordinated. It has brought, consequently, the generation of projects with larger impact and scope. That scope has also been magnified by the people that take part in said projects. In these cases, more people equals more impact.
As our founder, Victor Hermosillo once stated, Social Responsibility is about stickiness. When you start working towards something with passion, others will naturally follow. It is about creating an underlying culture of help; one that is subtle but motivating.
In this post, we would like to share with you the path we have gone through and what we have learned from it. The end goal is to provide a summary of what we think are the key points to achieve a strong socially responsible culture within an organization.
But to do that, we first need to address the concepts.
Social Responsibility Concept
Our corporate Director, José de la Maza, takes the concept of social responsibility directly to a company’s application. He states that a socially responsible company is one that takes a leading role within its community, is aware of its needs, and can provide valuable solutions.
Similarly, Victor Hermosillo expresses that social responsibility is about being and creating responsible citizens, ones who are responsible for their community’s needs and issues.
Why Social Responsibility is important
Social responsibility is about doing and helping others. If you are well aware of the problems of your community and you have the capabilities to provide a solution, doing nothing almost always translates into being indifferent.
Indifference towards the needs of our community is an illness. It breaks the strings that bring our society together, causing division and social resentment. On the other side, subsidiarity and solidarity generate unity and strength. That is why it is essential that we, as enterprises, participate within our community as active members.
Social responsibility initiatives over the years
The key takeaway is that good intentions must translate into actions. There are many ways you can start helping. Here we will list some of the most outstanding projects we have executed in the past few years.
CAHOVA & CAVIM
In 2001, Macristy Hermosillo managed to collect 70% of the funds needed to create CAHOVA (Casa Hogar para Varones) and CAVIM (Centro de Atención a la Violencia contra la Mujer). The first one seeks to provide shelter and support to homeless boys in Mexicali, Baja California. While CAVIM was made to support women that have suffered domestic abuse.
To this day, CAHOVA & CAVIM remain operative mainly due to private donations, from us and many other entrepreneurs.
COVID-19 Mobile Hospital
Fast-forwarding to 2020, the year of the pandemic. Due to local hospitals being full, we donated the construction of a mobile hospital to treat COVID-19 patients. In this initiative, we worked with UABC Foundation, and multiple donors (individuals and enterprises) to build a 50-bed hospital in less than a month and a half.
Unidos Somos Mejores & OCUPA
On May 23, 2020, we kicked off the “Unidos Somos Mejores” (Better Together) initiative. The purpose was to raise the maximum amount of funds among our collaborators to donate it to associations of Mexicali, Tijuana, and Monterrey that were facing COVID-19. As a group, we committed to triple the amount raised.
On May 27, we were able to finish with a total of 498,550.00 MXN in donations. Which became 1,325,650.00 MXN that were delivered to:
- Red Cross Mexicali
- Apoyemos Mexicali
- IMSS (Tijuana)
- Topo Chico Mission Dining Room (Monterrey)
Through the initiative of the OCUPA movement, we collected +1,200 basic food pantries and delivered them to more +1,000 families in Mexicali.
The mission was to give a hand to those who have been affected by the current health contingency.
Donations & Other Activities
In the same vein, we have found out that locally, several well-established institutions aid multiple causes. We have chosen to fund multiple organizations via periodic donations that support:
- Immigrants
- Public services
- Local cultural events
- Elders
- Education
- And overall vulnerable populations.
So it is always a good idea to look out for local institutions and reach out to help.
On another note, you can also donate your services of expertise. For example, we have built infrastructure for several educational institutions.
Internal Initiatives
Our people make these initiatives possible. To achieve that, we have worked on creating an internal culture that reflects our values as a group. Some of our initiatives include:
- A monthly issue of A Tiempo, our internal digital magazine that highlights our latest happenings in Hermosillo, including projects, birthdays, work anniversaries, and overall news.
- Annually, we hold the event Valores 360º, where the main theme is one of our corporate values. It consists of a conference or master class held by an external speaker, usually an expert on the value of the year. This is followed by an activity to reinforce that value and bring everyone together.
Moreover, last year marked a milestone in Hermosillo as our collaborators actively created their own projects addressing an issue they identified in their community. The best one would be financed and executed with the help of the company.
The goal of this initiative was to make social responsibility not just a corporate value, but a personal one.
How can you become a socially responsible company?
In the end, social responsibility is about having a spirit of assistance. Once you have that, all it takes is to build a culture that aids to specific causes in a periodical manner. These are a summary of 6 things you must tackle to deliver a successful social responsibility program within your organization.
- Define your company values: They must be clear and actionable.
- Live the values of your company: You must believe and practice what you preach. So act accordingly.
- Promote values in the company: It is relevant to share your company values from the talent acquisition phase.
- Make a social responsibility plan for scheduled events according to your possibilities.
- Commit to one or two social causes (there are many!): Stay focused so you can see the results more quickly.
- Communicate the efforts and achievements done inside and outside of the organization: The main goal is to inspire others to follow this path!
Wrapping Up
Social responsibility is an easy concept to understand, but a tricky one to carry out. It starts with the simple desire to help, but it is executed by creating a program that encourages action. In other words, corporate social responsibility is achieved when the aid to a cause is systemic. Meaning, it is coordinated and pushed to achieve a certain goal in a determined period of time.
Constant actions mean commitment, and commitment causes admiration. When the people that work with you start to admire you, they will follow that path. In short, you have to work on stickiness, and that is only achievable with passionate work. Inspire your organization, then others will follow.
