Business has a major role in tackling digital exclusion and a responsibility to help clients, customers and colleagues with digital skills. It makes sound business sense and digital inclusion is no longer a "nice to have".
What we offer
- Our clients range from major financial institutions to global tech consultants. Companies come to us with different priorities, from employee volunteering to digital transformation.
- We support them draw up strategies and we create practical ways to deliver, ensuring projects are aligned with organisational goals and structures.
- Our learning products are adaptable, flexible and scalable. Every client uses them in slightly different ways for different ends.
- Most start with Inspire to create a bedrock of digital inclusion thinking across an organisation. Some then use the Digital Champions Network. Others want bespoke training content or on-the-ground projects .
- Whatever you're looking to achieve with your digital inclusion offer, we can help!
Priorities for Corporate Digital Inclusion
Our clients usually come to us with one or more of these drivers:
These drivers often evolve and grow. Once digital inclusion is embedded in an organisation, people recognise new opportunities and create products and services that are truly inclusive, efficient and profitable.
Case studies and insights
Digital Transformation
When companies become digital first, they have a responsibility to take their customers and colleagues with them as a basic part of customer service. We work with major public sector organisations (like NHS trusts) who are undergoing digital transformation, and organisations in the private sector, particularly with financial institutions. We provide:
- Advice to draw up plans that grown digital inclusion and skills capacity, underpinned by logic models and evaluation frameworks.
- Training products that deliver across the board at different levels of commitment.
- Tailored content, ranging from free guides on created hubs (for the Phoenix Group insurers) to bespoke versions of our Inspire training course (for NFU Mutual) in their language and branding on their platform.
Employee volunteering
VMO2 Business employees have 5 paid days of volunteering a year, but the company was struggling to create meaningful opportunities that met employee expectations and had real impact without requiring more time training that volunteering. As the B2B arm of the business, they also wanted to align their CSR work with their aims and values.
As part of their "Connect More" programme, they used Inspire as a foundation course. Employees could help friends and family, or deepen their commitment by training on the Digital Champion's Network and volunteering in the community. These were at opportunities co-ordinated by Virgin Media O2 Business, often with their clients or community partners - which strengthened those business connections as well as genuinely helping learners.
The initiative by Virgin Media O2 Business is both on trend and unusual. Nearly all service providers in the UK offer their staff volunteering days, but this is more focused than many ‘me too’ digital inclusion announcements.
Being a good corporate citizen is now seen as a key element of corporate behaviour and strategy, so offering substantial volunteering support for UK local authorities and the public sector makes sense… Digital skills support initiatives are key elements of ESG.
Global Data
November 2022
Combining ESG and CSR initiatives and social value commitments
We’ve worked with Capgemini for over five years on an evolving digital inclusion programme that combines these three elements. As a tech-based organisation they know they have a responsibility to tackle the digital divide. We co-created Inspire with them and it's been been instrumental in:
- Raising awareness and growing understanding of digital inclusion.
- Providing a foundation for a volunteering programme that helps everyone from beginners to coders.
- Scaling up volunteering commitments in a way that engages staff, fits into diaries and improves soft skills.
They started with a handful of volunteers and now have more than 2000 registered users. Inspire graduates can go on to become workshop facilitators and take others through the training, delivering it in-house and externally (like to the 80+ delegates at the Let's Get Digital, Durham event), supporting and adding depth to social value bids. They also deliver sessions on digital skills and practice to VCSE organisations, as well as more in-depth digital skills and productivity sessions to community learners.
Social Value projects
These are aligned with the business, its aim and abilities and have genuine and lasting impact. We run several for Capgemini under the Let's Get Digital umbrella. They are sited close to locations where they are involved in public contracts, in Sellafield and in Durham. A local, embedded project-lead grows Digital Champion capacity in the VCSE and public sector, enabling the community to build and nurture its own digital inclusion and skills.
It's a great model that evolved directly from employees doing Inspire, becoming digital-inclusion aware and spotting new opportunities.
You can read an evaluation report of year one in Sellafield or find out more about the ongoing projects.
We’re using Inspire to amplify our business-wide commitment to digital inclusion and help our people to do something practical about it. Inspire explains the impact a lack of digital skills can have for individuals and how we can use our expertise at Capgemini to help redress the balance.
It’s motivating everyone to get involved and generating great engagement with our Digital Inclusion mission.
It’s all measurable so it’s easy for me to demonstrate impact to the rest of the business. We’ve also learned how versatile Inspire is and are now looking to share it with our clients and supply chain too.
Sally Caughey
Head of Digital Inclusion, Capgemini
The winning trio of ESG, CSR and social value: how to make it work
Some companies have digital inclusion initiatives in each of these areas. But the most effective are those, like Capgemini, who use all three in a complementary way. Combining what's good for your business, your people and your community brings bigger benefits for every part of the trio...
Digital inclusion as customer service
This article by our CEO, Emma Weston looks at how we need to rethink how we consider and deliver digital inclusion.
Digital inclusion and ESG
This case-study by the Digital Workplace Group looks at our partnership with Capgemini as part of an effective ESG commitment.
