Best Practice in Corporate Social Responsibility

A look at the seven best practices in corporate social responsibility CSR. Twitter , LinkedIn , FaceBook. With this in mind, how do companies go about communicating their best initiatives? Recently, Perry Goldschein took the podium at Sustainable Brands to talk about the seven best practices of corporate social responsibility CSR.

As the founding partner of SDialogue LLC , a strategic sustainability communications firm, Perry provided insights on how to engage your consumers and stakeholders. Return on investment has always been a difficult thing to measure. In order to accomplish this in your CSR policy, Goldschein suggests implementing small changes close to home, such as improving employee policies that decrease turnover and improve recruitment.

In order for your company to articulate its values, missions, strategy, and implementation in the creation of your CSR plan, it is important for everyone to be on the same page. Stakeholders can help by partaking in the regulatory approvals process, improving relationships proactively, or solving CSR roadblocks and potential crises.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Best Practices | Diversity Best Practices

Include your stakeholders from the start of the consultation process and sidestep moving forward with developments in which they would otherwise have little influence over or information about. This approach uses interactive maps to help prioritize and narrow down key issues, saving your company time and money during the initial research stage. HUL partnered with three self-help groups, whose members were appointed as Shakti entrepreneurs in chosen villages. These entrepreneurs were women, since a key aim for the partnership was to help the rural female population develop independence and self-esteem.

The entrepreneurs received extensive training and borrowed money from their self-help groups to purchase HUL products, which they then sold in their villages. By , Shakti provided employment for 42, women entrepreneurs covering nearly , villages and 3 million households every month. It is a sales and distribution initiative that delivers growth, a communication initiative that builds brands, a micro-enterprise initiative that creates livelihoods, a social initiative that improves the standard of life, and catalyzes affluence in rural India. What makes Shakti uniquely scalable and sustainable is the fact that it contributes not only to HUL but also to the community it is a part of.

So how does this work? Both address long-term strategic challenges facing the company and help to build creative partnerships that accrue significant benefits to both sides. In , Unilever Tea Kenya started a pilot program in Kericho, in southwestern Kenya, to apply company sustainability principles to the production of tea.

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The initiative focused on improving productivity, sustainability, and environmental management, as well as energy and habitat conservation. For Unilever, growing pressure on natural resources means that securing high-quality supplies of critical raw materials in the long term is of paramount strategic importance. Company leadership felt that higher short-term costs were far outweighed by the long-term strategic edge Unilever gained for its raw-materials supplies and brands.

The best practice in corporate social responsibility is the best practice in corporate governance

In , as a signal of its commitment, Unilever expanded the scope of its sustainable-agriculture program, pursuing certification from the Rainforest Alliance for all Lipton tea farms by For society, the initiative increased farmer revenue through a 10 to 15 percent premium paid above market prices. Additionally, it focused on topics of significant concern for governments and farmers alike, including improving farmer skills, environmental protection, and sustainable production methods such as developing a self-sufficient ecosystem , as well as enhancing local associated jobs.

All these factors contributed to strengthened rural income, skills, and living standards. Start by mapping your current portfolio of CSR initiatives on the framework shown in Exhibit 1 and ask: What are the objectives of our current initiatives? What benefits are being created, and who realizes these?

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Which of these initiatives helps us to address our key strategic challenges and opportunities? Many companies start with pet projects, philanthropy, or propaganda because these activities are quick and easy to decide on and implement. The question is how to move toward CSR strategies that focus on truly cocreating value for the business and society. The accompanying examples suggest three principles for moving toward this goal. Applying these principles to choosing the appropriate CSR opportunities prompts additional questions—namely: What are the one or two critical areas in our business where we interface with and have an impact on society and where significant opportunities exist for both sides if we can creatively adjust the relationship?

What are the core long-term needs for us and for society that can be addressed as a result? What resources or capabilities do we need, and what do we have to offer in realizing the opportunities? In smart partnering, mutual benefit is not only a reasonable objective, it is also required to ensure long-term success. But this commitment must be grounded in value-creation potential, just like any other strategic initiative.

Each is an investment that should be evaluated with the same rigor in prioritization, planning, resourcing, and monitoring. Now you need to define the array of potential benefits for both the business and for society.

This will not always be easy, but a clear business case and story is important if you are to get the company, its shareholders, and its stakeholders on board. Exhibit 2 outlines two contrasting benefit arrays for the Unilever examples discussed in the accompanying sidebars. With Project Shakti, the short-term tangible benefits are extremely clear and powerful, while in the case of Kericho the long-term intangible benefits are strategically critical for both the business and the communities in which it operates.

Remember that it is not essential to have benefits in every section of the matrix. However, if you are struggling with any of the dimensions—for example, there are no long-term or tangible benefits or if most of the benefits are one-sided—go back and ask if this is a real partnering opportunity where significant mutual value creation is possible. As you develop a clear array of benefits, a business case, and a story to communicate to all stakeholders, ask: Do we have a clear understanding of the entire array of benefits and the associated business case, on which we can focus, assess, and manage the potential CSR activity?

Does the activity focus on fundamental value creation opportunities where we can really partner with society to realize simultaneous benefits? Are the opportunities significant, scalable, and supportive of our overall strategic priorities?

Making the most of corporate social responsibility

Partnering, as we all know, can be challenging. It requires planning and hard work to assess potential mutual benefits, establish trust, and build and manage the activities, internally as well as externally. But is it worth it?

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Companies at the forefront of such partnering suggest the answer is a resounding yes, but an additional two principles need to be followed to ensure success:. Go in with a long-term commitment. Leaders who want to partner therefore need to have a long-term mind-set backed up by solid promises and measurable commitments and actions.

Your initiative must demonstrate added value to both shareholders and stakeholders over time. Engage the entire workforce and lead by example. Your workforce can be one of your greatest assets and beneficiaries when it comes to CSR activities. Increasingly, employees are choosing to work for organizations whose values resonate with their own. Attracting and retaining talent will be a growing challenge in the future, so activities that build on core values and inspire employees are key. Unilever, along with other leaders in smart partnering, actively engages its employees in such initiatives, seeing improved motivation, loyalty, and ability to attract and retain talent as a result.

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A CSR campaign occurs in a dynamic landscape. Based on your social media audit conducted at the beginning of the program, you have gained insight about technology use for your stakeholders. While preferred social media channels may remain at the foundation of your communications program, purposefully integrate emerging technologies to advance dialogues.

As the CSR program matures, your community will emerge as a robust source of information and dialogue. You may reward your community by giving it news it can use such as articles, additional facts, CSR program updates and other content. By encouraging it to share this information in the social media environment, you will further propel engagement with your CSR program. Before you speak, write or engage with your community, listen and observe trends. You may utilize social media monitoring tools that will allow you to monitor sentiments regarding specific topics.

The dialogue that you create will become a valuable information resource, as you will learn myths and misperceptions that exist about the CSR program, and you will discern the specific key messages resonating with stakeholders. Utilize the Barcelona Principles of PR measurement and routinely evaluate social media monitoring technologies.

As you endeavor to create a CSR community, the precise timing of messages, use of communications channels and engagement with stakeholders may stall or fail. During the campaign, conduct self-assessment, based on your social media monitoring. Evaluate honestly the success of your community building effort and itemize the sequential steps taken to create your CSR communication best practices. Here are some examples of how Diversity Best Practice member companies are putting these practices into action.

In so doing, PNC has made its community involvement easily identifiable to its own employees, which may be the most important element of any CSR initiative. PNC employees have volunteered more than , hours and donated more than , classroom items as part of Grow Up Great.