Partnerships - Making Them Work 

Before selecting a potential partner, it is essential to assess your own business first. Understand the sector you work in, the internal structure of your organisation, and the current business climate. Determine the character of your business and how it may be complemented by a community partner. This self-analysis can be achieved through a variety of business evaluation tools. Your local bookstore or library contain many resources that may assist your business analysis. Box 2 offers some initial suggestions for keyword searches.

Be clear on what you want to achieve from the partnership: is external or internal influence your priority? If your focus is primarily external you may want to access new markets, improve your brand recognition, be seen as an employer of choice, or enhance community perceptions. If your focus is internal you may be working towards acquiring skills your organisation is lacking, or providing a medium for staff motivation. A variety of partnership mechanisms can meet these internal and external needs. For example, if you identified an internal weakness in staff retention, and also found a shortage of qualified people in your industry, you may consider working with local employment agencies to create training programs for their clients, some of who will eventually become part of your employee base.

You should also be clear on what you are prepared to offer such as, staff hours, equipment, networking, facilities, or a combination of such assets. The size of the organisation you are thinking of partnering with is an important consideration as this will affect the type of support you give and the expectations you have from them. For example, a small community group may have difficulty conforming to strict business reporting guidelines, due to limited staff resources. Alternately,

a large community organisation may not need a marketing secondment from a business organisation if their marketing department is already very sophisticated. It is important to consider your impact on any potential partner, as this will contribute to the long-term success of the collaboration.

It may be useful to select your cause by matching it to the company’s slogan, logo or culture (see advertisement 1), or by searching for a community group that uses your product (advertisement 2).

Stakeholder attitudes are an important part of assessing the right 'cause' with which to align. Canvassing staff, customers and/or suppliers can give insight into areas of concern for these key stakeholders. By considering staff interests the partnership will have greater ownership within the company and become embedded into the character of the organisation. Staff or stakeholder opinions may also influence the type of partnership the company chooses. If for instance your staff is divided over the type of cause to support, it may be more useful to leave it up to the individual and facilitate this through payroll deductions and gift matching, or a staff-volunteering program (types of partnerships will be discussed in more detail in pages 9-17). When consulting with your staff it may be useful to refer



them to issues that have directly impacted on the business, such as local crime, suicide, homelessness, illness or natural disaster. See Box 3 below for an example of how to survey your stakeholders. Stakeholders are any group that may have an impact on the core workings of a business. They may include employees, customers, suppliers, contractors, board members or government representatives.

If you are new to the community it may be useful to approach some local community leaders to assess local needs. Potential contacts are your Member of Parliament, the local council community liaison officer, Parents and Citizens groups, youth group leaders or industry leaders in your area.

THE RATIONALE FOR A FOCUSED APPROACH ANDSTAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT

Community Relations Manager for AXA Australia, offers this insight into the company’s selection of a cause.

“Best practice in corporate community involvement suggests that a successful community relations program should:

• Have a clear and unambiguous focus on a small number of causes (AXA has selected no more than 5)
• Have a strong theme that all levels of staff can identify with easily
• Ensure that the program is giving more than cash by mobilising non-cash resources (a combination of cash, product, people, expertise and systems is ideal)
• Engage and involve staff at all levels
• Ensure that all community related activities are supporting chosen causes

While it is unlikely that a focused approach would appeal to all staff, these causes have been chosen:

• Support our elderly people
• Provide assistance to people
• Support children in need with disabilities
• Support the socially disadvantaged
• Support health and well being

These areas were chosen following staff focus groups held in Victoria and New South Wales and through a company wide survey, which identified these as areas of interest and concern to employees.

The focus groups also allowed AXA to target key areas for action and building relationships. There was a strong sense of ownership apparent in the focus groups. Participants indicated a desire to be long-term members of partnership schemes. There is probably a need to continue the focus groups in the future and there is a definite need to explore more inclusive roles for the other states.

An additional benefit of a focused approach to community involvement is that it enables us to apply a strict and uniform assessment process to all requests for financial assistance/community sponsorship. By adhering to this approach we can decline with grace other requests for assistance. Partnerships may take any of the three forms-namely long-term, medium term and one off-and all will have relevancy within our program, but organisations selected must meet our chosen areas.”

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