Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR Matters
By: David L. Hertz, SUS Chief Development Officer
In today’s struggling economy it’s harder for corporations to look beyond the bottom line. However, more and more companies are seeing the benefit of doing just that and empowering their employees to give back to the community that they work in.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has evolved over the years. The classic conservative definition was recently expressed in The Wall Street Journal (August 2010): “where private profits and public interests are aligned, corporate social responsibility is irrelevant…in circumstances in which profits and social welfare are in direct opposition, an appeal to corporate social responsibility will almost always be ineffective.”
Companies such as Ben & Jerry’s, Starbucks, HSBC, Vodafone and The Body Shop disagree. They are all adopters of a more progressive definition of CSR; corporate performance= shareholder value + social responsibility + environmental sustainability.
These companies voluntarily go beyond maximizing profits and strict compliance with laws and regulations to achieve positive impacts. The relationships between the corporation and its customers, shareholders, the communities in which it does business, and its employees are defined by their CSR mission.
Promoting a socially responsible workplace moves the company from impacting its employees, to being impacted by its employees. The company supports and recognizes those individuals who- give (philanthropy), act (volunteerism), include (employment), and conserve (environment).
Corporations implementing CSR find that employees report improved job satisfaction, retention rates will be higher, and that they attract a more talented workforce. When volunteering is offered as part of the workplace employees develop skills that they can take back to their jobs, as well as take satisfaction from being able to benefit a non-profit organization. The following is an interesting video on CSR benefits given by the Heads of CSR at a number of large British companies. http://bit.ly/d5um3c
We encourage companies to see how they can empower their employees by connecting with SUS or another non-profit.