It used to be that business was just all about profits.
Nowadays, from top global brands to mid-level enterprises, companies
are firmly setting their feet on a wide range of activities that span
everything from volunteering in the local community and looking after
employees' welfare, to building homes for poor families in third world
countries, and forest and wildlife conservation projects.
Simply put, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is regarded
as the private sector's way of integrating the economic, social and
environmental imperatives of their business activities. CSR, in other
words, is primarily a conscious effort on the part of corporate
entities to create innovative and proactive solutions to societal
issues which they may have direct or indirect interest either as
stakeholders or beneficiaries.
What's in it for companies? For one, with the recent scandals
rocking major companies they must work harder to protect not only their
reputation but the very markets in which they operate. Moreover, of
late there has been a growing interest, if not pressure, for private
entities to play a more active role in providing services that the
state by itself cannot provide adequately, or in confronting issues
that national governments on their own have not been able to solve.
However, it must be emphasized that CSR is more than just
philanthropy, community service, legal compliance, or public relations.
And as with any process based on collective human activities, CSR is
not a panacea. In different countries and organizations there will be
different priorities and how they value one over others ultimately
determines how business is run.
Among Western companies development projects such as adult
education, anti-HIV campaigns, and giving of aid to local organizations
and impoverished communities in developing countries have become the
most typical approach to CSR. Note, however, that there is also the
fact that a lot of companies which purport to promote CSR are also
notorious for harmful business practices (e.g., oil, energy, and mining
companies for example).
Japanese companies, on the other hand, are more likely to confine
their scope to environmental issues and less likely to address issues
that are outside of its traditional system. Observers imply that this
is due to the existence of a strong cultural resistance (again!) and
the difficulty of coming in terms with the total collapse of the
traditional system.
But if it is any consolation, corporate managers, including HR, are
also finding the business of trying to look good becoming more and more
of a necessity than a luxury. From the HR standpoint, we have seen than
CSR has been used in attracting and retaining talents as part of an
organization's employer-of-choice branding.
There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I believe it is a wise
thing to do so. But HR needs to do its part as well by fulfilling its
pivotal role in CSR. That is, instead of being a mere observer, HR can
do a more active role in telling and living the message of CSR.
In fact, after attending The Faces of CSR Symposium recently hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan or ACCJ (kudos, by the way, to the organizing committee for doing a great job!),
I can't help but realize that CSR can be regarded as an HR issue and as
such, it further supported my belief that HR does need to play a more
central role in CSR.
In that symposium, speakers and panelists
shared their best practices and a number of them are HR-related. As an
example, Shinsei Bank not only uses CSR as a way to attract and retain
talents but it also creatively incorporates the organization's CSR
philosophy into the company's on-boarding programs for new graduates as
well as continuing education and volunteerism programs for their
current employees.
British Petroleum even made CSR as one of the factors in an
employee's performance scorecard and linked its results to the
performance bonus while The Dow Group worked on introducing work-life
balance initiatives, creation of a discrimination-free workplace, and a
more diverse workforce.
The above are just a few examples of how HR can contribute to the
CSR drive and I believe that there are many other creative ways that HR
can come up with. These companies already showed that there is a tie
that binds HR and CSR. The logical next question is, are you, as an HR
professional, ready to further strengthen that tie that binds? If so,
then act now.---JK
To download the full white paper on this topic, click here.