Defining CSR, One Company at a Time

Over the past decade, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a key element in judging an organization’s performance and influencing perception of same. However, many organizations are not sure how to deploy and/or position CSR as part of their brand.

Prevailing questions include: How do companies select the right CSR partners to work with? What criteria form the basis of the determination? Who leads CSR and what role do employees play? With an obvious commitment to ‘greening’ in today’s business environment, CSR is a means to showcase an organization’s environmental practices. Moreover, CSR can provide the basis for an organization to engage in social programs that help it define the social fabric of its business and true commitment to the local communities in which it operates, while meaningfully engaging employees.

Below, DL Leslie, Director of Branding and Media Relations for Siemens Canada, responds to a series of questions from his colleagues on CMA’s Branding and Strategic Planning Council about what CSR means to Siemens. How do you define (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility? At Siemens we define CSR as a company’s commitment to doing business in an ethical and sustainable manner and enhancing and extending the lives (and the planet) of a current generation without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same. CSR involves philanthropy, community investment and ‘walking the talk’ when it comes to our three company values; responsible, excellent, innovative. We believe in helping others to help themselves - providing a hand up and a hand out. We also view CSR as a major contributor to our brand value and awareness.

How is CSR integrated with your business, brand, and/or culture? Our aim is to make CSR a part of our company culture and a part of how Siemens does business in a sustainable way. We support humanitarian and environmental causes both at home and internationally through disaster relief efforts, because it’s the right thing to do - and because we believe it can be as good for business as it is for employee morale and for the communities in which we operate. In regards to being good for business, to quote our CEO, “Pushing sustainability to the forefront within a company is to make sure that sustainability is not a trade-off to growth or profit or other expectations. It’s really what drives profitable growth. We do this as part of our corporate social responsibility, but also because it’s what drives a profitable business.”

Do you have dedicated/annual resources (people and budgets) to execute programs? Yes, Siemens has an annual dedicated CSR budget and a full-time head within the Communications & Strategy team responsible for developing, executing and growing our Caring Hands [internal brand] program, along with the Caring Hands Employee Committee (CHEC), a group of volunteer employees across Canada. The goal is to increase the budget year over year, incorporating estimates of investments to execute new initiatives. In addition to the dedicated CSR budget, Siemens also contributes financial support, via matching programs, such as employee donations, for both planned initiatives and unplanned events, such as disaster relief.

Do you use CSR as a tool to engage your employees? Absolutely. Our Caring Hands CSR programs are led by the CHEC members and really driven by employees, as they are the ones who support the 50/50 draws, volunteer for Earth Day clean-ups and donate hundreds of toys and non-perishable food items throughout the year. We find small incentive prizes are a great way to increase participation and encourage friendly competition. My experience has definitely been that CSR activities have a positive impact on employee morale and make them proud to work for Siemens. The other most effective way to engage employees is to simply recognize them for their great efforts. On a corporate level we also design and distribute ‘tool kits’ (posters, banners, literature, etc.) to help our CHEC members in their local offices run the programs. In doing this we find that the events are not only consistent from location to location, but participation is higher, because there is less work to be done by individuals. The tool kits have been very well received.

How do you determine (evaluate/criteria) the right organization (cause) to partner with? We look at a number of factors – first we examine their standards of business (compliance), reputation, and donation efficiency (e.g. overhead costs, investment in research to extend or enhance life, etc.). We also look at where our investment can make the biggest difference to a cause that doesn’t receive large share of the limelight. Another key element in helping us determine if we will support/work with an organization is to look at their vision and values and see if we share similar goals and language – it is important to us to realize alignment. Our current charity of record is Cystic Fibrosis Canada and we’re very proud of the 15 year partnership we have with them – it’s a long term relationship that’s build on a shared vision of extending and enhancing life in Canada. But we also work with a number of local charities in various locations, because it makes sense for regional purposes. The key is to be consistent via alignment with shared vision and values.

How do you evaluate the impact of your programs/activities? We look at both quantitative measures (e.g. # of locations/employees participating, funds raised) and qualitative ones (verbal feedback, social media buzz, etc.) and always aim to exceed previous year’s results. We include the topic of CSR in our annual employee communication survey and compare results year-over-year. Consistent measurement for CSR is difficult, so it’s something we are constantly looking at improving and finding new ways of doing. This includes social media properties, not only as communication tools, but as measurement tools too. We’re extremely lucky to have an engaged executive team that believes in and sees the value of CSR. Our CEO, CFO and VPs actively participate in everything from fundraisers to park clean-ups and have even made breakfast for the entire corporate headquarters as part of a holiday giving campaign. Our CEO ‘gets’ CSR and the value it brings to the local community, our employees, the bottom line and especially the brand.

What tools do you use to communicate your CSR activities (both internal and external)? Internally, we use intranet, an e-newsletter and in-house magazine (Dialogue), as well as professionally designed posters, internal meetings and presentations. Externally, we use press releases, Facebook, Twitter, speaking engagements, corporate collateral materials, etc.

Do you have policies and procedures in place that support employee volunteering programs as part of your CSR strategy? Yes, we have a policy and procedure in place, along with sponsorships, and donations. We use an on-line tool called ‘SpoDom’ to enter every program/opportunity in for approval. This also allows for easy tracking and recording (measurement year-over-year). We are now establishing new guidelines for volunteering - specific to the number of hours, time off, etc. We’re currently running a contest called the Greatest Community Supporter contest to recognize employees who volunteer or fundraise in their spare time outside of work - we’re offering three top prizes of a $10,000 donation. The winners will be announced at our annual business conference in December 2011. Our winners will be in attendance and they’ll receive the “Presidents Award” (plus the $10K to the registered charity of choice). One of our priorities for this coming year is to implement employee volunteering during work hours and building relationships with various organizations to support this type of program.

Can you share any examples of what you would describe as best-case practices in terms of your CSR programs and strategy? A good example is Hope for Holidays 2010 - a fundraising and toy drive campaign to assist local communities in the holiday timeframe. Twenty-three Siemens Canada locations from six provinces took part in this hugely successful program that raised $12,000 in cash, 1,350 toys, 40 boxes of food and 484 hats and pairs of mittens to assist 10 Salvation Army chapters and 17 additional independent humanitarian organizations across the country. With regards to disaster relief, as an example, our employees (with corporate matching) raised just shy of a quarter of a million for Haiti, Pakistan and Japan.

Tags: Corporate Social Responsibility, Integration