Human resources professionals should be well-versed in the value of corporate social responsibility, ensuring employee policies and regulations are supporting the enterprise's efforts to boost its surrounding community. Without a clear understanding of a company's corporate social responsibility mission statement, human resources departments may overlook valuable opportunities to grow and develop the business in a responsible way.
In a piece for Pro Bono News, Jenny Hassam, CSR and communications consultant, explained human resources are not only tasked with managing internal resources, but must know how these decisions impact the bigger picture. The way a company operates internally will affect its impact on the environment or how well it gives back to the local community. As a result, better collaboration between human resources and corporate social responsibility teams will help companies achieve certain goals and growth benchmarks.
One way to create a cooperation between the two departments is to establish focus groups with staff and senior leadership. These teams can identify areas of weakness in internal operations and perceptions of the companies' relationship with the external community. Collecting valuable data from these focus groups and employee surveys will provide human resource professionals with insight that can be shared with corporate social responsibility teams to increase efficiency. HR departments can provide insight on a number of organizational activities such as attracting talent, retaining staff and improving satisfaction. When these efforts are strengthened, it will have a ripple effect throughout the company.