What Hong Kong firms should know about CSR and charity

Company after company, executives in Hong Kong are happily promoting their company’s "good citizen" reputation. May it be in giving to charities, mobilizing staff to do voluntary services, partnership with nonprofit organizations in cause marketing campaigns and a lot more.

But after browsing their websites, reviewing their press releases and other corporate communications materials that are publicly available, it is not difficult to conclude that quite a number of such good citizens do mostly or even solely on giving to charities or working with them on something. So my underlying question is: Has CSR got anything to do with charity?

The Economist has recently held an online debate on “CSR has nothing to do with charity”. The motion is upheld with 75% of voters in agreement and 25% against.

Although it may sound a bit unfair and incomplete, the reality is that there are still a portion of executives in town who believe CSR is equivalent to supporting charitable organizations.

For sure, I am not excluding the importance and positive contribution of supporting charities; it is in fact full force CSR programmes go far beyond than just that. Corporate Social Responsibility should be a strategic thing rather than an operational consideration or even face-lifting exercise.

In addition to giving to charities, regardless of money, manpower, material, time, expertise and etc., companies have to review their whole business model and operation to see how and where they can make a positive impact to the society as a whole.

In the highest level of CSR, it is about creating lasting positive impacts on the society, for example empowering youths through policy reform advocacy, supporting underprivileged families by job creation (in a meaningful way) or investing in developing of renewable and sustainable energy.

However, to achieve so requires huge amount of resources and determination. Since the majority of business entities in town are SMEs which might not able to invest so much, they can then consider taking another avenue by working to minimize or eliminate negative impacts from their operations, such as reducing pollution output or consuming less of the nature resources.

Alternatively, there is always one easy opportunity by looking inwards in reviewing their staffs’ well being. From my observations and discussions with executives over the years, I was convinced that while some companies claim to be responsible by making regular donations, they are indeed not paying much attention to its internal community.

A very common scene is that companies pay almost no consideration to their staff's health and physical well being. How many companies have taking into account of whether the physical environment of the workplace are safe and do no harm their colleagues, this is particular the case for office workers.

I had once worked for an organization which has regular audit on lighting, seat, workstation setting and alike of each staff and have them adjusted in case it is likely to hurt their eyesight, backbone and etc. How many companies, profit making and nonprofit alike, have considered and respected their staff’s role outside of the office, i.e. being a husband or wife, father and mother of their offspring, being sons and daughters of their parents?

Have companies allowed them to perform such role in a meaningful and respectful way? I am not rallying on legislating of maximum working hour, I am fully aware that there are situations that require long working hours but I’m afraid it shouldn’t become a norm, a must for every single working day. Give staff some room for breathing will in turn help boost their productivity.

Another interesting observation is the company’s volunteer team or should I label it “voluntold” (being told to volunteer). I am not saying all of these teams are no good and I am aware that many companies have their volunteer teams very well organized and structured with very clear strategic directions.

Yet, there are still many employees at other companies participating in their company’s volunteer service just because they were being told (or even instructed) to do so as part of the company’s drive to project a good corporate citizen image. If staff were being told to do volunteer work on weekends that was against their will, is this something back to the prior argument that their employers are occupying their family time unnecessarily?

Even with these simple, unadorned examples, one can easily tell that CSR has nothing to do with charities. Companies can still be good citizens even if they do not donate to charities at all provided they have contribution in other ways.

Of course, being a fundraiser in the nonprofit sector, I am more than willing to welcome financial support from companies. But it is worthy if executives should rethink how they could contribute positively in a broader and strategic way in social advancement while being a good corporate citizen.