Human Resources management is the organizational function that deals with recruiting, managing development and motivating people, including providing functional and specialized support and systems for employee engagement and managing system for fostering regulatory compliance with employment and human rights standards.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the balance integration of social and environmental considerations into business decisions and operations.
Human resource managers are well positioned to play an instrumental role in helping their organization achieve its goals of becoming a socially and environmentally responsible to reduces its negative impacts and enhances its positive impacts on society and the environment. Further, human resource (HR) professionals in organizations that perceive successful corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a key driver of their financial performance can be influential in realizing on that objective. While there is considerable guidance to organizations who wish to be the best place to work and for organizations who seek to manage their employee relationships in a socially responsible way, there is a dearth of information for the HR manager who sees the importance of embedding their organizations CSR values throughout the organization, who wish to assist the executive team in integrating CSR into the organizations. And as high profile corporate failures organizations that pay lip-service to CSR while neglecting to foster a CSR culture run the risk of damaging their corporate reputation if not their demise. Indeed, HR’s mandate to communicate and implement ideas, policies, and cultural and behavioural change in organizations makes it central to fulfilling an organization’s objectives to “integrate CSR in all that we do.†That said, it is important to understand that employee engagement is not simply the mandate of HR. Indeed people leadership rests with all departmental managers. HR can facilitate the development of processes and systems; however, employee engagement is ultimately a shared responsibility. The more the HR practitioner can understand their leverage with respect to CSR, the greater their ability to pass these insights along to their business partners towards the organization’s objectives in integrating CSR throughout their operations and business model.
As human resources influences many of the key systems and business processes underpinning effective delivery, it is well positioned to foster a CSR ethic and achieve a high performance CSR culture. Human resource management can play a significant role so that CSR can become “the way we do things around hereâ€. HR can be the key organizational partner to ensure that what the organization is saying publicly aligns with how people are treated within the organization. HR is in the enviable position of being able to provide the tools and framework for the executive team and CEO to embed CSR ethic and culture into the brand and the strategic framework of the organization. It is the only function that influences across the entire enterprise for the entire ‘lifecycle’ of the employees who work there – thus it has considerable influence if handled correctly. HR is poised for this lead role as it is adept at working horizontally and vertically across and within the organization, so important for successful CSR delivery.
Of course, for effective CSR deployment, it needs to become a Board’s imperative first. Should such an organizational gap exist, the senior HR leader can champion, lead and help drive a CSR approach if necessary. In the coming years as CSR increasingly becomes part of the business agenda and the fabric of responsible corporations, it will become a natural agenda for the HR practitioner.
• HR is responsible for many of the key systems and processes (e.g recruitment, training, communications etc) on which effective delivery depends.
• HR people have relevant knowledge and skills in relation to organizational learning and cultural change
• Managing trust and risk raises fundamental issues about how people are managed.
• Employees are the key stakeholder in any CSR programs (CIPD, 2002, p.15)
Finally, as many business organizations has not yet started the CSR, the Head of HR may propose this matter to their top management through organizing a presentation session, inviting all key decision makers and recommend the need for introducing CSR practice.
