Responsible business: Corporate Social Responsibility - Online best practice

Increasing awareness of environmental and ethical issues has prompted corporate organisations to take account of their impact on society and the environment. With this new trend has come a commitment to transparency and the need to put in place a reporting system which will inform stakeholders - be they clients, employees, partners, investors, the media or social and consumer activists - on how the organisation aligns its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with its business activities.

The website, being available ‘24/7’ and cost-effective to update, has become the preferred and most efficient medium to report an organisation’s CSR policies and activities.

Why put your CSR program online?

Apart from the obvious humanitarian aspects, an active CSR program can bring an organisation business benefits. It is worthwhile therefore to use your website to publicise your CSR policies and activities to the world at large. Some benefits that could be realised are:

• In a competitive market a CSR program can help attract both clients and recruits, both of whom may consider an active CSR program to be a prerequisite in selecting an organisation
• Having a CSR program can promote a “feel good” atmosphere amongst your staff and clients, who will be responsive to a demonstration of ethical values
• CSR can attract “socially responsible” investors. Socially responsible investment (SRI) has experienced a strong surge in popularity among mainstream investors as its ethos combines investors’ financial objectives with their concerns about social, environmental and ethical issues.

Promoting CSR policies and activities online

Many organisations are promoting their CSR policies and activities online, which might include evidence of:

• Corporate support for charities
• Pro bono work and employee volunteering
• Quality of the product and services offered, for example fair trade and organic products
• Selection of suppliers – ethical sourcing
• Implementation of an environmental policy to achieve, for example, carbon neutrality

Promoting CSR policies and activities online may require only a few web pages, or perhaps a more extensive microsite, but the following issues should be covered:

• What are the organisation’s general social and environmental policies?
• What are the specific (positive and negative) social and environmental issues identified by the organisation?
• How is the organisation addressing these issues?

The scope of a CSR program - what you should include and how you would want to contribute to social and environment issues - is not within the remit of this article, but further information on CSR can be found at www.bitc.org.uk and www.csr.gov.uk/bestpractice.shtml. However, several principles need to be taken in consideration before promoting CSR activities online.

Your website should be fully accessible – and useable

Disability access is often part of a CSR program, so your website should reinforce this ethic by being accessible to users with visual, cognitive, mobility and hearing impairments. Further information about Accessibility is available at www.w3.org/wai/resources, but amongst other compliance requirements, images should be accompanied by a sufficient description (‘alt tag’) to enable their purpose to be identified and, in a similar vein, text presented as graphics should tagged – although it is best to avoid text in this form if possible. All users should be able to have access to navigation menus irrespective of the web page they are reading and should be able to increase the font size throughout the site.

The website should apply general ‘best practice’ principles
Best practice principles for website content, usability and design should be followed, irrespective of the scope of the CSR section. Please refer to our article, ROI, Making your website work for general information, but in brief:

• Content is not only about the scope of the information available, but also the quality of written copy. Reading text on a screen takes more effort than on the printed page, so copy should be succinct and uncomplicated wherever possible.
• Always use clear navigation and maintain a clear hierarchy of content. The inclusion of a sitemap aids both navigation and search engine indexing.
• The design should be harmonised with all offline CSR communications, to ensure continuity of presentation.

Other website considerations
If you have CSR brochure, which should encapsulate your entire program, it should be downloadable online for offline reading. Also ensure contact details of the person responsible for CSR within your organisation are available as your audience might want to ask further information.

Do not let your CSR content become outdated as this could affect your credibility on how seriously your organisation is committed to its program. Keep your audience updated with the latest events and projects and make sure you maintain a regular reporting system on how your organisation has achieved its CSR goals.

Some suggestions on other uses of the web to promote your CSR program:

• Christmas e-cards: instead of using paper greetings cards use e-cards, perhaps which have been designed by children in a disadvantaged community. The savings can be given to a charity.
• Online quiz: increase social and environmental awareness of your audience providing a interactive online quiz on environmental issues
• Online fundraising: Use the search engine “Everyclick.com”. Everyclick.com is a search engine that gives half of the revenue it generates to charity.
• Set up an online CSR suggestion inbox
• Implement an e-learning website that removes barriers to learning.

Intendance can provide you all the assistance required in putting your CSR program online. For further information about any of the above please contact us on telephone number +44 208 871 1330 or email charleslouis.moreau@intendance.com

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