10 rules for corporate social responsibility

Filed in archive Ethics on June 8, 2007

I have spent more years than I care to remember examining the approaches different
companies all over the world take to corporate social responsibility (CSR). And I have
come to the view that most corporations don't have a clue what CSR means, or indeed
if it's relevant.

Sifting through annual reports and listening to business leaders talking about it
reminds me of the Hindu story of the blind men trying to describe an elephant - it
depends which part you grab. For some, it's about compliance and philanthropy; for
others it's sustainability. Some talk about the company's impact on society and its
relationships with the community; others put it in a broader strategic framework.

What's badly needed is a framework. Here is mine, put together through a check list of
10 basic rules. The first five set out what CSR is, and the next five define how the
organisation should deal with it to make it more than lip-service and public relations
window-dressing

CSR takes in five areas:

1. Corporate governance and accountability: the company is accountable to

shareholders, government, employees, customers and community. The hard part:
setting targets that would make it accountable to all these stakeholders.

2. Sustainability and environment: this takes in a huge area including greenhouse gas
emissions, water, paper, degradation, supply chain impact, green investment, salinity
and agricultural practices and cultural heritage.

3. Workforce: this covers areas like fair pay and conditions, women and minorities in
management roles, maternity leave and re-entry, people with disabilities, mature aged
workers, disadvantaged youth, long term unemployed and indigenous communities. It
also includes occupational health and safety, training and work-life balance.

4. Human rights: takes in supply chain issues, fair trading, alliances and partnerships
with certain governments and the impact of products.

5. Community involvement: this covers all sorts of areas including meaningful

volunteering programs, staff lending their skills to the boards of non-profit
organisations and philanthropy.

For the organisation, there are five key issues that need to be addressed. If they fail
to do all of these, it becomes a meaningless exercise.

1. Companies need to demonstrate CSR as a value proposition to the board.

2. They need to find ways of getting support from shareholders and consumers.

3. It is absolutely critical for the organisation to develop CSR audit tools so that they
can place a dollar value and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of all their CSR
expenditure.

4. They need to approach it in a business-like way. Good CSR should be good

business.

5. The CSR programs need to be run at a senior level. There is no point fobbing it off
on to the corporate affairs or marketing departments because all that does is create
silos and prevent any impact on the corporate culture.