Hi,
Ususally HR initiatives also encompass social initiatives. Social Initiatives come broadly under Corporate Social Responsibility. They can be categorized as under.
1. Some social initiatives were characterized by philanthropy. Org and its employees, volunteer initiatives under this category, expressing the corporate and the employees’ social conscience, and their joint efforts to aid the underprivileged and disadvantaged in society.
2. Some social initiatives, those that normally come under social responsibility today, arise from corporate concerns for those (stake holders) affected by organisation's business. This is seen as a consequence of having internal communities within organisation that interact with external communities, identified in the broadest sense of the word.
3. Some social initiatives have been visibly pioneered by an org, and arise from using ones core competence to address the needs of large-scale societal problems. For a s/w company, this translates to finding meaningful uses of technology, particularly information and communications technologies, to address societal ills and societal problems.
Example1: the Adult Illiteracy problem in India by developing, testing and distributing Computer-Based Functional Literacy instruction software. This technology supplements the instructional material developed by the National Literacy Mission, and delivers productivity enhancement and standardization of quality to instructors.
Example2:Developing the cheapest water filter through its engineering processes, that provides potable water of at least the best quality supplied by good municipal corporations in India. The water filter element is built using by-products of rice husk (agro-waste) disposal processes.
Regards
Chandril