Corporate Social Responsibility+

We take CSR to another level by working not just with customers and consumers, but also incorporate carbon culture change in our initiatives.

We work with businesses to aid them in CSR ventures focused on staff engagement and stakeholder and customer or consumer management.

We ensure that any CSR activity is of high value to all core constituents or stakeholders. We find that many companies have mature approach and CSR becomes a built-in, self-regulating mechanism and this enables the organisation to monitor and ensure they maintain and adhere to legal and ethical standards of behaviour.

Start with the End in Mind

The purpose of CSR is to take a holistic view of how the organisation impacts its environment and those it transacts with including, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and the public.

CSR is essentially inclusive, involving and engaging with core constituents with the deliberate inclusion of their interests into business decision making and achieving the triple bottom line of  People, Planet, Profit.

There is a strong business case for CSR, in that organisations benefit in multiple ways by operating with a perspective broader and longer than their own immediate, short-term goals.

Our view is that CSR+ is a route to improve the focus on the business and achieves far more effective relationships than some traditional CSR work which is no more than window dressing.

Values & Vision: "We do what we value and we value what we do"

We have worked on many projects with organisations focusing on how our clients can more effectively engage with their own staff as well as their customers and consumers of their product or service.

We can also help to flesh out the standards of behaviour or business ethics by which an organisation will transact with their customers, their suppliers and their staff and larger constituent groups.

Corporate Values & Corporate Performance

Whether we are aware of it or not, organisations demonstrate their core values every time they transact business with their supply chain and their end-users and consumers.

We can help them better ‘self assess’ how they do business and help them readdress any emerging environmental and social issues before they become a problem.

In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of the 21st century, the demand for more ecological business processes and actions is accelerating.

CSR History

The term CSR came into common use in the early 1970s. Whilst there is no recognized standard for CSR, public sector organizations (the United Nations for example) adhere to the “triple bottom line” of People, Planet and Profit.

An approach for CSR that is becoming more widely accepted is community-based development projects.  Marks and Spencer, the retailer, is also active in this arena through the building of a trade network with the community - guaranteeing regular fair trade purchases in Africa.

Often alternative approaches to this are the establishment of education facilities for adults, as well as HIV/AIDS education Programmes. The majority of these CSR projects are established in Africa. A more common approach of CSR is through the giving of aid to local organizations and impoverished communities in developing countries.

Other examples include the Shell Foundation’s commitment in the Flower Valley, South Africa. Here they have set up an Early Learning Centre to help educate the community's children, as well as develop new skills for the adults.

Business Benefits of CSR

The scale and nature of the benefits of CSR for an organization can vary depending on the nature of the enterprise, and should not be difficult to quantify and audit. There are balanced scorecards that can be adapted to take account of a variety metrics from consumer engagement to business efficiencies, from environmental monitoring to community learning and development.

There are more formal and business metrics which can also identify innovative new practices, cost reductions, green procurement and reduction of waste.

By adapting a more carbon friendly approach the organisation will grow closer to its customer and community and staff engagement and should win new business simply because the larger organisation is seen as a real driver for change and demonstrating best practice.

Business Performance

There is a clear relationship between CSR of social and environmental performance.  Orlitzky, Schmidt, and Rynes found a correlation between CSR and financial performance.

HR Benefits –Engaging with Staff

A CSR programme can be an aid to recruitment and retention of staff, especially within the competitive graduate student market.  Today’s Millennial graduates have strong authentic values and are not just looking for any job – but for an organisation with strong ethical values and behaviours.

Potential recruits often ask about a firm's CSR policy during an interview, and having a comprehensive policy can give an advantage. It also helps in the ‘public relations’ and ‘corporate or investor relations’ arena to improve the perception of the company among its stakeholders as well as its staff and investors, particularly when staff can become involved through activities or community volunteering.

Protecting the Brand & USP

The economy is in meltdown.  We live in the crowded marketplace.  Organisations need to be unique in customer and consumer eyes.  Organisations develop USP’s that differentiate them from their competitors in the minds of their customers.

CSR can play a role in building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical values such as the Cooperative Group, the Body Shop and M&S.  Consumers wanting to focus on purchasing from CSR companies often go to websites such as www.guidemegreen.com to assess the reputations of companies committed to the larger carbon culture change agenda.  Organisations too can benefit from building a reputation for integrity and best practice.

Benefits Reputation & Risk Management

Reputations that take decades to build up can be ruined in minutes with poor stakeholder management.   Incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental accidents can destroy reputation. Such events can also draw unwanted attention from the media, regulators, courts, governments and consumer groups. Building a genuine culture of 'doing the right thing' using our CSR+ within a corporation can offset these risks.

Long Term Profitability

Corporations exist to provide products or services that produce profits for their shareholders and many take this a step further, arguing that their corporation's purpose is to maximize returns to its core constituents. 

Many organisations have taken responsibility and the obligation to society.  This open-system model is extremely ecological for people, the planet and profit.

Societal Values – Societal Good

We believe that nothing changes until behaviour changes.  Leadership is critical and our model of leadership incorporates more than the short-term profit motive.  A wide variety of individuals and organizations operate in this arena.  We assert that the business of leadership (private or not for profit sector) is to change the world for the better.

We highlight that CSR can significantly improve long-term corporate profitability because it reduces risks and inefficiencies while offering a host of potential benefits such as enhanced brand reputation and employee engagement as well as doing well in the community and society.

Population Growth

Over the last twenty years ethical consumerism can be linked to the rise of CSR. As global population increases beyond 6.75 billion, the pressure is on limited natural resources required to meet rising consumer demand.

Industrialization in many developing countries was booming as a result of technology and globalization until we hit the worldwide recession in October 2008 – and this will return.

Consumers are becoming more aware of the environmental and social implications of their day-to-day consumer decisions and are beginning to make purchasing decisions related to their environmental and ethical concerns.  You may have noticed this in your marketplace.

Globalization & CSR

As organisations pursue growth through globalization, they face new challenges that impose limits to their growth and potential profits. Government regulations, tariffs, environmental restrictions and varying standards of exploitation of the land and labour are problems that can cost organizations millions.

Some companies use CSR methodologies as a strategic tactic to gain public support for their presence in global markets, helping them sustain a competitive advantage by using their social contributions to provide a subconscious level of influence and persuasion

.

Either globally or locally. competition places particular pressure on large organisations operating in many geographies and regions to examine not only their own HR practices, but those of their complex supply chain, from a CSR perspective.

Nowadays, organisations are becoming interested in transparency and are investing in processes that can add visibility to their CSR policies and activities. Method that are gaining increasing popularity is the use of well-grounded training programs, carbon audits, team challenges, major Continuous Improvement events to promote carbon Culture Change, where CSR is a major issue.

Climate Change Bill & Legislation

A core driver of CSR is the role of particularly the government, in ensuring that organisations are prevented from harming the broader social good including people and the environment.

Such legislation is the proposed Climate Change Bill soon to go through the Scottish Government.  The issue is now on the agenda will we see more Government’s  setting the agenda for social responsibility by the way of laws and regulation that will allow a business to conduct themselves responsibly.

Denmark made a law on CSR on 16 December 2008, the Danish Parliament adopted a bill making it mandatory for the largest Danish companies, investors and state owned companies to include information on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their annual financial reports and this became law on 1 January 2009.

Summary

Organisations are increasingly motivated to become more socially responsible because their most important stakeholders expect them to understand and address the social and community issues that are relevant to them.

Understanding which causes need to be addressed are important to employees is usually the first priority because of the many interrelated business benefits that can be derived from increased employee engagement (i.e. more loyalty, improved recruitment, increased retention, higher productivity, reduced waste, design of efficient processes). Key external stakeholders include customers, consumers, investors (particularly institutional investors, regulators, academics, and the media).

To find out more about how we can help you structure events contact Philip Atkinson philip@philipatkinson.com