Many businesses in the City of London have impressive Corporate Social Responsibility (“CSR”) programmes and were keen to ensure that the Business Alliance continued to support the local community and provide additional opportunities to deliver both a business support and community focussed agenda.
It was also clear that businesses saw the benefit of supporting local enterprise and working with unemployed residents in both the City and City fringe boroughs, which have some of the most economically deprived boroughs in the UK with a view to increasing access to local jobs for local people.
The Cheapside Business Alliance will:
• Work in partnership with the ‘Heart of the City’ programme to provide free support to businesses that want to start or develop a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. This will ensure that companies can make a positive impact on their community and environment whilst improving employee relations, enhancing their brand and potentially building client/supplier relationships
• Continue to provide a dedicated employment service responsible for sourcing, selecting and training local people to fill jobs in the City. Working closely with referral agencies, The Cheapside Business Alliance will deliver skilled, job-ready candidates for roles in retail, hospitality, facilities and administration and continue to mentor them once they have started work. The Cheapside employment programme has already successfully placed 171 local people into local jobs since 2010 and would be entirely free to businesses to use
• Use the skills and expertise of member businesses to engage with young people and graduates to share knowledge, mentor and motivate them to strive for excellence and together develop the City work force of the future
• To deliver a series of interesting and engaging training seminars that are tailored to business needs which would be offered to staff of member businesses. Topics would be developed following consultation with business
