Employee Social Responsibility

Introduction

From brand activism to employee activism: a blue ocean for organizations

ESR: employee’s central role in defining business strategy

Employee activism and their willingness to participate, if adequately addressed, can bring businesses a competitive advantage: choosing to integrate employees into sustainability decisions represents an opportunity that can result in a more effective sustainable strategy and in a higher level of engagement. However, an evolution of the classic modus operandi is in order when it comes to the social components of sustainability.

First, top-down planning and development of sustainability strategy, as the most adopted way of doing things, is a thing of the past. And top management taking decisions that impact at all levels of the organization, including all kinds of stakeholders, who are left as nothing but passive subjects within the process, can no longer be the normal course of action. Also, the usual duality between external stakeholders (companies, lenders, customers) and internal stakeholders (employees) is the result of a very limited way of thinking that gives only external stakeholders power to influence the economic success of the company, and needs to adapt to the new context;

It is today rather unrealistic to think about internal and external dimensions as separated. On the contrary, a strong interdependence exists between the two, and both have crucial impacts on the company’s economic results.

Considering these new scenarios and the opportunities arising from the direct involvement of employees, as previously discussed, evolving the traditional approach to sustainability into a more participatory model, called the Employee Social Responsibility, has become strategically essential.

Figure 2 shows how the position of employees in the strategy development process changes, as their role evolves, and they start to contribute to the design and development of the overall sustainability strategy.

In the proposed model, listening is of crucial importance as it activates and engages people. By bringing them on board the process at an early stage and by understanding their motivations for wanting to contribute, companies can create a new course of action.

The first step in the roadmap is precisely to understand As-Is’ status and the position of employees with regards to sustainability. Through a survey, we measure the level of preparation and interest of employees on sustainability issues and capture their willingness to put virtuous behaviors into practice and advocate them to others. At the same time, management is listened to in order to define the vision, that is, the positioning of the organization for the future and in relation to social responsibility issues.

The analysis, therefore, starts with an understanding phase to map the situation AS-IS, as well as the feelings of the workforce on sustainability. First, we measure the level of preparation and interest of the workforce with a survey that captures their willingness to actively engage in virtuous behaviors and practices and advocate them to others. Secondly, we define top management’s vision of the future (TO-BE) in relation to social responsibility issues.

This analysis sheds light on a set of company’s priorities. Step two is to define a set of medium-term sustainability goals to focus on, and to design a roadmap to achieve them. Employees are involved in co-design workshops and methodologies to define not only the priorities and actions, but also the communication and engagement initiatives through which the strategy will be implemented.

The engagement initiatives on sustainability encompass a phase in which employees are provided with basic information and communication to generate awareness, and then a second step where they are involved into more collaborative initiatives. For example, in phase one, complex data can be simplified and made understandable by the larger public through information design techniques. Whereas in phase two, a wide variety of engagement activities are implemented: sustainability events, Sustainability Manifesto workshops, engagement or gamified learning paths, etc to enable internalization of the most relevant aspects of the project.

This path of gradual activation reaches its high point when the values of sustainability in the organizational context are made tangible by its people, who spontaneously enact virtuous behaviors, for example by becoming creators of new sustainable solutions (idea generation) and advocates of those values to others (employee ambassadorship).

Conclusion

Organizations are faced with ever-new challenges and opportunities. Among the most significant dynamics today, one cannot fail to consider employees’ desire for active participation, all-around involvement, the stronger the more relevant and heartfelt the issues at stake. Knowing how to integrate the active participation of employees in decision-making processes related to social responsibility constitutes a strategic lever for creating alignment between the organization and its people and for generating engagement, both of which are fundamental elements for facing the present with a spirit of community and moving forward together, in the same direction.

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