Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is no longer a fad

Socially responsible business is not an addition to business, but a form of doing business. CSR has to be authentic and cannot be just a marketing fad.

Among companies it is believed that CSR is not important to consumers. As much as 71 percent of them is of the opinion that consumers choosing products or services do not take into account whether or not an enterprise is socially responsible, and 63 percent are convinced that consumers do not even know what CSR is – research carried out by French-Polish Chamber of Commerce shows.

Meanwhile, as experts note, awareness of a Polish consumer, their way of looking at products and services, changed in the course of the past few years. In their choice, apart from quality and price, they are guided by brand image. Poles’ awareness of their rights and obligations has increased. This translates into their expectations – highlights an advisor from Pracownia CSR.

Big companies have been communicating information on social actions on their websites for a long time, while when it comes to smaller entities, many of them, as experts note, conduct CSR activities, without even knowing about it. Thus, they do not communicate their activity in this area, as they do not even know that through supporting a local school or support centre they run a socially responsible business. This is why estimating their number is extremely difficult.

There is the opinion that CSR would be more popular in Poland if basis barriers disappeared. First of all, this is about money. Usually, there is no separate fund for realisation of tasks in the area of corporate social responsibility. Financing, ad hoc, depending on the needs, usually comes from the HR or marketing budgets.

In companies, the knowledge about the advantages corporate social responsibility activities may bring is increasing.

In Poland, like elsewhere around the world, companies engage in corporate social responsibility to improve their image. Better perception of a brand usually has effect on the loyalty of clients, employees or suppliers, which in turn may translate into company turnover. Although, there are many for whom strong motivation for CSR actions are top-down directions and global policy of the group. With this one difference, that in our country this still takes place through engagement in social programs, most often such that improve relations with local community or market management.

The changes happening in the economy enforce corporate social responsibility as well. A lot is being said about work conditions, the minimum wage which the government tries to increase. Because of this, companies have to care about good relations with employees if they want to secure reliable personnel.

This is not a secret to anybody that improving image increases the competitiveness of an enterprise, creation of new products and services that allow the company to earn even more profits. Companies see challenges as new possibilities that will translate into their financial results and thus continuous company development.