Giving Thoughts

Senior Leadership Engages with Employees on Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

By Thomas Singer, Principal Researcher, The Conference Board

Last month, The Conference Board released The Seven Pillars of Sustainability Leadership, a key business issue report that looks at how business leaders prepare and steer their organizations for leadership in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. One way is by connecting senior leaders with employees on these issues.

Ideally, companies that have a sustainability champion among senior management also have strong systems in place to engage the company’s employees on sustainability. A CEO’s vision for CSR or sustainability is worth little without support and enthusiasm from employees, which makes having the proper communication and engagement channels an important element of sustainability leadership. The good news is the number of companies actively engaging employees on sustainability issues appears to be increasing. In a sample of large US companies studied by Ceres and Sustainalytics, 40 percent had programs in place to engage employees on sustainability; up from 30 percent in 2012.

The extent of engagement, however, appears to vary significantly, with only a few companies offering company-wide engagement. The following company examples offer some best practices, including the value of having senior leadership drive engagement efforts and the importance of giving employees a forum to discuss and learn about their company’s sustainability strategy (the first two examples are taken from the Ceres and Sustainalytics study):

• The CEO of Baxter International discusses the company’s sustainability strategy during quarterly all-employee webcasts. The company also has a sustainability intranet site to communicate with and engage employees on Baxter’s sustainability initiatives.

• In 2013, Staples created the position of chief culture officer, which includes responsibility for driving employee engagement and championing the company’s sustainability commitments. Quarterly management forums also provide an opportunity for employees to discuss sustainability issues with management and engage on the company’s sustainability initiatives.

• Johnson & Johnson places a strong focus on engaging employees on the company’s sustainability initiatives and rewarding them for their contributions to sustainability innovation. For example, teams who receive Earthwards® recognition (recognition for the company’s most broadly sustainable products) are publicly congratulated and rewarded for their innovations by Johnson & Johnson leadership through established employee recognition programs. As a result, the company increased internal awareness of the Earthwards® process from 7 percent in 2012 to 24 percent in 2014 and increased the percentage of employees that agree that Earthwards® offers value to Johnson & Johnson’s customers from 45 percent to 74 percent.

Ultimately companies need to tailor their engagement strategies to their own corporate cultures. Regardless of the specific engagement mechanisms they use, companies need to begin by ensuring employees view senior leadership as advocates for sustainability. The reality is that typically employees do not consider senior management to be the primary advocate for sustainability. (The State of Employee Engagement in Sustainability and CSR, WeSpire, June 2014) While grassroots sustainability initiatives are important and powerful, they can often be met by management with resistance, reluctance, and skepticism. When sustainability leadership and enthusiasm comes from the top, a signal is sent to employees that these initiatives are important—opening the door for employees to rally behind and embrace a company’s sustainability strategy.

About The Seven Pillars of Sustainability Leadership

What are the key business practices that define leadership in corporate sustainability? What steps can companies take to become leaders in corporate sustainability? This report examines a distilled set of practices that senior executives identify as most indicative of leadership in corporate sustainability, provides background and context for each of these top practices, and offers practical examples from companies that apply them. Because it focuses on a prioritized list of practices, the report can serve as a guide to help company leaders direct their sustainability efforts where they are most impactful and ultimately enable leaders to embed a culture of sustainability leadership within their organizations. Members of The Conference Board can download a copy of the report for free by clicking here.

About the Author:

Thomas Singer is a researcher in corporate leadership at The Conference Board. His research focuses on corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues. In addition to his work at The Conference Board, Singer serves as an independent consultant advising on corporate sustainability strategy. Prior to joining The Conference Board, Singer worked with Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting and SustainAbility, helping clients embed sustainability into their core business. Over his career, he has supported engagements with industry leaders across sectors, focusing on strategy development, opportunity assessment, competitive analysis, and stakeholder engagement. He began his career as a management consultant with Kaiser Associates, advising clients on white space opportunities, competitive analysis, and benchmarking. Singer is a graduate of Tufts University.