Participating in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities provides more benefits to an organization than just giving back to the community and “doing the right thing.” The latest research suggests that an organization’s active participation in corporate social responsibility efforts has a significant influence on employees’ engagement levels and views of senior management.
Among the six surveyed countries, the research indicates that working for an organization where employees positively view CSR efforts has a significant, favorable impact on how they rate their pride in the organization, willingness to recommend it as a place to work and overall satisfaction. Furthermore, those employees with favorable opinions of their organizations’ CSR activities are more likely to say they intend to stay relative to those who have unfavorable opinions of their organizations’ CSR efforts.
Across all six countries, employees who believe in their company’s CSR activities also have more favorable opinions of their senior management. They are much more likely to feel that senior managers demonstrate employees are important to the success of the company, that management has the ability to deal with company challenges and provides employees with a clear picture of the company’s direction. In addition, these employees are also more likely to believe that senior management supports and practices high standards of ethical conduct and is more trustworthy.
Favorability regarding their organization’s CSR initiatives varies notably among the countries studied. Workers in India are the most favorable while workers in Germany are the least favorable. In India and China, the oldest workers have the most favorable views of their employer’s support for CSR, while in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States it is the youngest workers.
Executives and senior management were notably more favorable of their company’s support of CSR activities in all of the surveyed countries, with the exception of those in India, where professional and technical employees were the most favorable.
“Corporate social responsibility is gaining traction as a strategic corporate initiative. Those organizations that have a clear CSR policy set themselves apart from the competition in terms of employment brand. Partaking in CSR activities not only has positive societal effects, but also increases an organization’s competitive advantage when recruiting, especially younger workers,” said Jack Wiley, executive director, Kenexa Research Institute.