How to Develop a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

Every corporation needs to develop a social responsibility policy that defines the limits of their activities. Corporations like Enron and Mattel have encountered issues of corporate responsibility that highlight the need for clearly defined ethical boundaries. You need to seek input and perform due diligence when creating a corporate social responsibility policy.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Focus groups
• Surveys

Implement a Responsive Company Policy for Social Responsibility

1. Research corporate social responsibility policies from competing companies as you develop your own ethical standards. Your company should seek higher standards when possible to become a leader in ethical measures.
2. Conduct a survey of employees at all levels of your company to assess the ethical standards they want in a new policy. Your employees have an intimate knowledge of your products and services that can give you invaluable insight into areas of weakness in the current policy.
3. Account for sustainable production and environmental cleanup standards in your corporate social responsibility policies. These standards capture the attention of an environmentally conscious public while recycling resources during production.
4. Move toward honesty in advertising as you project your company's social responsibility policy. You should install a review process for each advertisement to meet legal and industry-enforced disclaimer requirements.
5. Address transparency in corporate finances and accounting as you develop guideline for your social responsibility policy. This aspect of your ethics policy will appease stockholders and investors, which can increase share worth in the future.
6. Connect production safety and risk management tasks to your corporate responsibility policy in its early stages. Risk management is critical to an effective ethical policy because it ensures compliance with state and federal labor laws.
7. Test out public reaction to your standards of corporate responsibility by using random surveys. You can send out invitations to past customers to attend focus groups and send their thoughts via mail to get an outside perspective.
8. Review requirements for corporate social responsibility reporting as you expand your business into foreign markets. There is a growing trend toward legislation in European and Asian countries that requires companies to submit these policies before selling their first products. You should increase your ethical standards to meet the strictest legal standard within your global holdings.

Tips & Warnings

• Promote your corporate social responsibility policy to potential applicants at job fairs and advertisements. These advertisements may sway professionals who encounter the choice between your company and a competitor without a clearly defined policy for social responsibility.