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 The issue of sustainability is starting to make rapid progress up the agenda of individuals and organisations alike. People are coming to understand that they live in a world of finite resources. With this comes the realisation the amount they consume and dispose of has a far wider reach than their immediate environment and community.
The business world has reacted to this situation in a number of ways, all of which fall under the broad umbrella of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Although this tag is no longer strictly accurate, it has such widespread recognition that it would be foolish to attempt to change it all at once right now.
According to the 2008 International Business Report from consultancy Grant Thornton, over half of all UK companies believe that their approach to CSR will differentiate them in the marketplace.
The approaches companies have adopted to communicating that differentiation are many and varied. Some have introduced schemes which address issues in their particular industry while others have embarked upon international certification or upped their charitable giving.
Beware the greenwash
All of these have some merit to them but sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether a company is making a deliberate and conscious effort to behave in a certain way, or whether it’s simply taking facts and reporting them under a green banner.
For instance, British Airways have trumpeted the fact they had donated £6.3m to local and global programmes in 2006/7. This is equivalent to £6.50 for every hour one of their aircraft is in the air, against the net profit of £300,000 the company makes at the same time.
This is the practice commonly known as greenwashing. It’s when a company takes something ordinary, either in terms of effort or investment, and presents it in a manner which implies that the motivation was more than ordinary business practice.
Similarly, Microsoft currently trumpets the fact it’s software is available in languages such as Maori. This, it claims, shows it is supporting minority communities as part of its Good Corporate Citizenship programme.
It’s much more likely the motivation behind providing the software in these languages was taken from a business perspective alone and that it is only the result, not the motivation, which is being reported as being CSR-friendly.
Job seekers lead the way
However, those companies which are thinking of dropping their CSR efforts in the face of escalating operational costs ought to think twice. Today’s consumers have become cynical about companies’ claims to be “the best”. However those same consumers would assume there is something drastically wrong if a company stopped claiming to be the best.
For example, the double glazing manufacturer, Everest, still uses the tagline “Fit the Best – Everest” over 25 years after it was first delivered, simply because dropping it would imply that they’re no longer are the best.
The Grant Thornton International Business Review also reveals that job seekers are using CSR as a differentiator between prospective employers, with more companies citing staff recruitment and retention as a reason for adopting CSR practices than brand building or investor relations.
The correlation is that if a company cuts its CSR programme job seekers will believe it has cut its commitment to tackling and resolving the issues CSR embraces.
Therefore the company will become less attractive to those seeking their next role, making it less likely to be able to recruit and retain the staff it needs to weather the current uncertain times.
Look to the website
With the subject of CSR rated so highly by job seekers some of the most valuable time someone considering their next role can spend is in examining the CSR section of a target company’s website.
This will give a good insight into how the company approaches CSR as a whole. For instance many of the major corporates have appointed a CSR director and some have gone as far as forming a dedicated CSR committee.
However, CSR professionals generally believe CSR ought to be embedded across all a business activities with all divisions taking responsibility upon themselves, much as Health & Safety is now.
There is no right or wrong approach to this issue, but a company’s approach will tell its current and potential staff how it intends to handle the implementation of CSR going forwards.
Similarly, a company wishing to attract the best talent to them would do well to ensure that their website reflects their values and ambitions in this area accurately and fairly.
Recognising the importance
The first thing to look for is a separate CSR section from the company’s homepage. Although commonplace, the existence of such a section and its location within the website is a strong indicator of the company’s attitude towards CSR.
For instance, if there is no headline link to CSR content from the frontpage or navigation bar then you may draw the conclusion the company in question does not give CSR the weight you may be expecting. However what this link leads to is of equal importance.
For a FTSE 100 company such as Cairn Energy to have a single page of links to PDF documents can lead to the conclusion the company is less interested in CSR than an unlisted company like DeVere Venues, which has taken the time to add a page of discussion on the issues it faces.
Similarly, the categorisation of the CSR content can be a powerful indicator of how the company views its integration into its other activities. Freestanding CSR content gives a different emphasis to the issue than content categorised under “Investor Relations” or "About Us".
Presenting the detail
Once the CSR content has been identified its actual detail needs to be examined. How this is presented will give any current or potential member of staff a good insight into how the company views the issues involved.
Again, nearly all large companies now produce CSR reports and these are almost invariable available on the website as PDF documents. However, while PDF is a very good medium for distributing static electronic documents it’s not very web-friendly. Given that CSR reports can run into hundreds of graphics-heavy pages, downloading one to do a little casual browsing can take a long time.
HTML provides for two things that PDF does not: first the easy surfing of data and information in a web based environment, and secondly the easier indexing and retrieval of it by search engines such as Google.
In other words, it demonstrates both the degree to which a company is prepared to be open and transparent about its CSR activities and the amount it wishes to be examined and engaged on the issues the business is facing.
Examining the detail
The breadth of the company’s CSR content also needs to be examined. CSR is generally accepted as being defined as how a company acts in three spheres:
• its employees
• the communities within which it operates
• its natural environment
It is important that a company with a good CSR record is able to give meaningful examples and case studies of how it supports these three spheres as part of its operations.
These examples should go beyond what is commonly deemed to be acceptable. For instance, CSR for employees should cover more than matters of regulatory Heath and Safety issues and gender & ethnic equality.
It should stretch corporate activity into other areas, such as the active encouragement of exercise as part of the working day adopted by the Wales Centre for Health.
Similarly, CSR for the local community should go further than the simple philanthropy of yesteryear. It’s not about the company donating a certain percentage of its profits to local charities, but about them engaging directly in positive community building projects.
Differentiating activities for success
The final point to look out for on company websites are the value added aspects of a company’s presentation. Often, though not always, these will be unique to the company or its industry sector.
For example, BP has interactive tools for mining its CSR data; BAT has a large section dedicated to the health implications of smoking; and Addleshaw Goddard has one of the few online CSR quizzes.
These value added parts of a website don’t necessarily tell you anything specific about the company in question’s activities. They do, however, tell you about the degree of thought a company has given to its CSR operations and the efforts it is making to differentiate itself from its competitors in this field.
This differentiation will be vital in the years to come both as part of a company’s overall public image and in how it distinguishes itself from its competitors when attracting the best employees.
And with a new generation starting to emerge who are more attuned to these issues than previous ones, it remains vital that companies not only embed robust and transparent CSR policies alongside their recruitment and retention campaigns, but maximise the potential of the web to publicise these programmes.
Article sourced from Corporate Eye. All rights reserved.
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