One of the early lessons taught in most business schools is the importance of a company’s Mission Statement. It is intended to tell the world why the company exists, even though the company’s customers may never see that statement. A Mission Statement also tells the company’s employees why the company exists. And that can make a huge difference in how hard the employees work, how much initiative they take in fulfilling the mission, and how closely they work together as a team.
The mission of the Business Process Outsourcer (BPO) Solvo is proudly prominent on its website: “…to provide talent solutions that exceed client expectations by increasing productivity, adapting to every work environment and delivering positive results.” While that might seem like a standard corporate goal, it actually runs much deeper.
Solvo is a nearshore provider of its services, performing a range of back-office and remote work business functions. While it’s headquartered in Medellin, Colombia, Solvo has offices in over 20 countries all over the world. Solvo taps a wealth of talent that might otherwise go unrecognized or underutilized in their native economies.
For this reason, Solvo also plays a role as a catalyst for social and economic development in those countries. A central element of their operations is Solvo Social, an evolving series of direct social actions designed to be productive, adaptive, and deliver positive results.
Here are some of the lessons from Solvo’s accomplishments that can apply to a wide range of service businesses:
Expanding the Candidate Pool
Solvo calls their personnel Soulvers. The company goes beyond granting its Soulvers time-off to participate in community development activities. Solvo actually organizes and administers many such activities. In addition to familiar projects like environmental cleanup, community beautification, and housing rehabilitation, Soulvers engage with community members and peers outside the company through specific outreach activities.
These include Social Cinema pop-up movie presentations in underserved neighborhoods, Dreams Machine that introduces grade school children to computers, and Ludotech workshops to expose young people to more advanced technology and software coding. This serves as both and model and inspiration for those young people to follow the path the Soulvers are blazing. It also seeds a positive connection between the company and their local community.
What distinguishes these programs is the degree to which they enable meaningful, collaborative engagement with community members. For all the talk in HR and executive circles about being “an employer of choice,” Solvo is demonstrating a proactive approach that puts them at the top of any candidate’s wish list while creating happier and healthier communities for those candidates.
Team Building Through Shared Values
Many companies around the world support community development programs. But, by virtue of the communities in which they live, Soulvers’ activities come with special significance. These tend to be more economically distressed districts with fewer social services.
Programs like Quick Victories address urban blight and elder care. The Crear Unidos Coffee Shop engages with and employs those with developmental disabilities. By providing opportunities for Soulvers to bond around issues both close to their hearts and close to their homes, Solvo gives special meaning to the concept of adapting to one’s environment, a key part of Solvo’s mission.
Companies anywhere looking to support social action would do well to confirm it highlights their corporate mission and how deeply the resulting experience will affect employees. The deeper, the better.
From the Workplace to the World
Companies worldwide want to tell their stakeholders they’re “delivering positive results.” And all the best companies strive to do the same for their customers. Not as many strive to do that for their employees. But they would be well-advised to try.
What Solvo does through Solvo Social delivers conspicuous, significant positive results to Soulvers’ home countries and even neighborhoods. By acting on consistent values in both their professional and personal activities, the work Soulvers do has more meaning and inspires the extra effort that results in superior service.
Solvo’s experience with social engagement programs can teach two lessons to any company that struggles to find great employees: 1) Find ways to bring out the greatness in the employees you have, and 2) help build a world where greatness will grow and be recognized. For more information about how Solvo can put their people to work for you, visit https://solvoglobal.com/contact-us/
