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This page last updated
8/12/07
Corporate Social Responsibility
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small business, sme, csr, business responsibility business practice, save money, increase profits, principles processes products, activities
action plan business benefits of csr
Corporate Social Responsibility
small business, sme, csr, business responsibility business practice, save money, increase profits, principles processes products, activities
action plan business benefits of csr
Corporate Social Responsibility
small business, sme, csr, business responsibility business practice, save money, increase profits, principles processes products, activities
action plan business benefits of csr
Corporate Social Responsibility
small business, sme, csr, business responsibility business practice, save money, increase profits, principles processes products, activities
action plan business benefits of csr
Corporate Social Responsibility |
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Corporate and Social Responsibility - CSR for smaller businesses
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Corporate Social Responsibility for SME’s
‘CSR is it not about philanthropy, but about fundamental business practices’
Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, speaking at the United Nations Global Compact Summit, Shanghi, China, 2006 |
Corporate Social Responsibility (or more recently social responsibility) has increased in importance around the world. Much of the content of the reports focus on large company’s and statistical analysis – all very well but for small lean business like mine and yours we need a different approach.
This page aims to explore CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility
from the practical stance of the smaller business. For CSR to be adopted as a principle, it needs not only to be understood, but practical steps provided to make this valuable concept accessible and sustainable - in other words - you as a manager needs to
know what and how you can do this easily and today.
Is CSR important to SME's?
Yes CSR is important, and yes it can help us be more effective, efficient and most importantly more profitable.
In 2002 a survey of Small-Medium sized Enterprises (SME) attitudes to CSR conducted by MORI sponsored by the DTi, it found that:
- A large number of SMEs were already engaged in social responsibility where defined as a contribution to the community, relations with employees and protection of the environment
- Training, employment and education were the top priorities for SME investment
- SMEs were not yet defining social responsibility as an issue that could be integrated into all core business activities.
So why is it relevant?
Managers and owners in smaller businesses are often heard asking...
- ‘I am increasingly being asked for information on environmental and community issues as part of tendering for contracts and from larger clients and I don’t know where to start.’
- ‘My business is struggling to recruit, motivate and retain good staff.’
- ‘How can I ensure that I run an environmentally friendly business without costing me a lot of time and money?’
- ‘I have a business to run with limited resources, so how can my business benefit?’
Corporate Social Responsibility – a definition:
A responsible business is achieving commercial success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people, communities and the natural environment. These businesses minimise any negative environmental and social
impacts and maximise the positive ones.
Approaches
- There are several approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- The Three-P Approach to CSR:
- Level 1: Principles of social responsibility
- Level 2: Processes of social responsiveness
- Level 3: Products (or Outcomes) as they relate to the firm's societal relationships
We need to adopt these as appropriate for our business. For many of us we will only work at level one with some elements of level 2.
What does a sustainable and responsible company look like?
- It is run for and can be seen to be run for the benefit of profit, people and planet.
- It integrates responsible business practice so that it is built in to business purpose and strategy rather than being a bolt-on to business operations.
- Employees value it as a great place to work.
- Customers and suppliers value it as a good business to do business with.
- The community values it as a great neighbour.
- Investors and financiers value it as worth investing in.
- It has a good health and safety record.
- It has environmentally friendly premises.
Keeping it simple and adding value:
11 simple things you can do today to apply CSR principles to your business
- Recycle printer and toner cartridges – or use continuous ink systems
- Buy and use fair trade products – tea, coffee, etc
- Buy materials and from suppliers that use sustainable sources
- Look at how your staff travel to work – walk, drive, bus, cycle etc
- Ensure Lights, computers and other equipment are switched off when not in use
- Pay staff, suppliers and creditors on time
- Turn the heating or air conditioning down a degree
- Replace lighting with low energy bulbs – and turn off at night
- Print and photocopy only when necessary and double-sided – only print the first page of emails
- Encourage support for local not-for-profit and community based organisations.
- Set up flexible working
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Benefits for your business
The business benefits will vary depending on the business, the
specific actions proposed and the effectiveness with which
they are implemented. Often, the kinds of business benefits
which other smaller companies have reported, include:
- Attracting, retaining and developing motivated and
committed employees.
- Winning and retaining consumers and business customers.
- Improving business reputation and positive publicity.
- Maintaining and improving their licence to operate
from the local community.
- Cost and efficiency savings.
- Networking and speaking opportunities.
- Anticipating future legislation and protecting yourself
Why get started?
- The need to increase profit
- The need to reduce costs
- The personal values of the owner manager/CEO
- Questions being asked by large business customers
- Developing a new or revised business strategy
- Writing a business plan
- Newspaper/trade magazine article
- Talk at a local chamber of commerce or business club
- Employee’s suggestion
- High utility bills/costs
An ACTION plan for Social Responsibility
A simple approach to introducing CSR in a structured way.
A |
C |
T |
I |
O |
N |
| Assess |
Commit |
Tell |
Integrate |
Organise |
Nurture |
Whatever you do should be
relevant for your business as
well as society.
Think about the issues that affect you, your staff and your business and what you can do to help support these.
Assess where you currently are so you have a benchmark to measure future progress against.
This may be formal or informal.
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To a statement of what
being a responsible business
means to your business and
to clear ethical values from
the top down.
Appoint a champion/s to
ensure the commitment is
followed through. You need a
champion who walks the talk.
The champion, like any boss,
has to model the behaviour
they want to see in their co-workers
if they are going to
be credible.
They also need
to be given the authority to
make any necessary changes. |
Set out your ethical and
business cases, communicate
them and promote them at every opportunity.
Make
responsible business an
agenda item on all team meetings.
Communicate to staff, clients,
customers, suppliers and
others what you are doing.
It is not boasting to tell people
what you are doing. Establish
effective, two-way dialogue
with your key stakeholders
(those who can affect or are
affected by your business).
There are real business
benefits to informing people
through local/trade press,
notice boards, newsletters,
websites and achieving awards. |
Responsible business
behaviour across different
functions and activities within
the business.
Identify issues that are affecting your bottom line and how responsible
business practices can help address these.
Prioritise things which you can do as:
(a) early wins; (b) things that will need to take some time to prepare; and
(c) long-term goals.
List the risks that your
company faces or might face
and the actions you need to
take to address these.
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The project management, the details, relevant business resources and set targets.
Look at one off, individual and team building activities.
Look at building a long term relationship with community organisation/s.
Communicate the aims and boundaries to all staff and stakeholders.
Collate the results and thank any staff for their involvement.
Make sure all staff know
about and are able
to get involved in your
responsible business
practices/opportunities.
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Involve your clients and supply chain. Once your programmes are established you can have greater impact
and raise your profile by widening your resources.
Clients and suppliers will be
surprisingly grateful you asked and usually very willing to get involved.
Measure and report what you are doing and feedback
the learning into your business planning.
Measuring the benefits you
have made to the business
and the wider community
helps motivate staff, customers and investors.
Reporting can be done informally through word of mouth, staff team briefings,
presentations to business networks or more formally
through management
systems and achieving relevant standards.
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If you integrate responsible
business practices into the way you
run your business and proactively
communicate what you are doing, you
not only increase your business success
but the benefit to society as well.
By communicating what you do to a wider
audience and by giving your business a
voice, you will find that you inspire many
others to do the same and your example
could lead to much bigger impacts. By
keeping quiet about what you do, you
might be missing out, so shout about it
and you might be surprised at the results.
Effective Promotion
Promoting that you are approaching your business in a CSR way can enhance your business opportunities, doing this is one thing... telling others about it is quite
another.
| Internally |
Externally |
- Make sure your staff know about what you do and can talk about it. They are your best sales force.
- Use the intranet, website, newsletters, meetings, staff award schemes and community corridors to showcase your activities and events
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- Generate positive publicity through local, regional or even national media.
- Get your story into relevant trade magazines.
- Tell your customers, suppliers, investors and other stakeholders what you are doing.
- Enter relevant award schemes.
- Commit to achieving relevant standards that you can then tell people about.
- Benefit from speaking opportunities that arise from your story and attend networking events.
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Areas to focus on:
Policy:
Business Principles, Defining your Purpose, Innovation, Know the law, Managing risks, Measuring success, Sharing good practice
What are the theories and business principles which drive successful businesses?
Here you can dip into information on the law and its implications for your business. There is also information about how to measure the intangibles e.g. how can you measure increased customer loyalty? Plus you'll find useful signposts and pointers as to where you can find more information on each topic.
Practice:
Better payment, Developing skills, Diversity, Equality, Health and safety, Managing resources, Marketing with a cause, Minimising waste, Volunteering
If you want to save money through managing waste more effectively how do you go about it? What about health & safety? In a recent survey* 60% of small and medium sized business owners said that they had been asked about their practices in this area by a large corporate customer. Make sure you're one step ahead of the game and start by reading the guide to health and safety contained within this section.
Stakeholders:
Employees, Customers, Suppliers,
Communities
Stakeholder is an umbrella term, which covers every group of individuals you deal with as a business.
Here we focus on four stakeholders- your employees, the community, your customers and your suppliers. By listening and talking to these groups on a regular basis you can really improve your business's reputation and it doesn't cost a fortune.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Corporate Responsibility is about managing your business to achieve both commercial and social benefit. In essence it's about managing your social, community and environmental impacts to help you improve results, reduce risks and enhance your reputation. It is also about growing your business in a way that has value for everyone connected to it.
Measuring Success
For the majority of SME’s and small businesses, it is not about copying what the ‘big companies’ do, but to use these principles in the way we work. This means treating them as principles, not yet another administrative burden. So measure them…no!
Useful pages
http://www.csr.gov.uk/pdf/2002_report.pdf
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Corporate social responsibility
csf small business sme
practical
using CSF for competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
csf small business sme
practical
using CSF for competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
csf small business sme
practical
using CSF for competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
csf small business sme
practical
using CSF for competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility
|
