Business

In-corporating responsibility

5/06/2011 Office of Road Safety

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Looking for a way to positively influence the community through your work? How about working some corporate social responsibility practices into your workplace?

What is corporate social responsibility?

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defines corporate social responsibility (CSR) as “the continuing commitment by companies to behave ethically and to contribute to economic development, while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as the local community and society at large.”

In short, the company adopts practices that give back to the local community, its employees, customers and suppliers. A socially responsible company or organisation also works to reduce any practices that negatively affect the environment and the community. Before you neatly file the concept in your too-hard basket, here are a few basic ideas:

• Assess and improve or develop a comprehensive workplace occupational health and safety plan.
• Encourage staff and customers to embrace more environmentally friendly practices (for example, many stores only give plastic bags when asked and encourage the use of their discarded stock boxes to carry goods).
• Sponsor a local community event, sports team or school activity.

What’s in it for your workplace?

There is no denying that one of the primary responsibilities of most businesses is to continue to turn a profit and provide wages for their employees. Thankfully the concepts of CSR and bringing in the bacon don’t have to be mutually exclusive – in fact the opposite can be true. Mission Australia comments that employees place value on good and ethical conduct so having CSR policies and practices can help recruit and retain quality staff. Building social responsibility into your brand can also attract more customers.  

In case you’re not quite convinced, the Australian Institute for Corporate Responsibility has a few facts and figures to support the value of taking on social responsibility:

• 93% of Australian business professionals surveyed believe companies have an obligation to act ethically even if doing so occasionally harms their profits.
• 80% of Australian business professionals surveyed are willing to put in extra effort at work if they know their organisation is run ethically.
• 64% of UK consumers said they had avoided a product or service because of a company's behaviour.
• 60% of UK consumers said they had chosen a product or service based on a company's behaviour.

Want to learn more? Visit www.accsr.com.au or www.corporatesocialresponsibility.com.au