csr operations
Stuart Lowden looks at how the working practices of your contractors can damage your reputation as a caring company.
programme. This manifests itself in many different ways, whether through the engagement of the workforce in local community projects or significant efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. In many respects the CSR stance of an organisation says much about their ethics and their culture.
One thing that is frequently ignored in
forming and applying a CSR strategy is the role that can be played by the many subcontractors and their respective workforces, whether they be caterers, cleaners, security officers or receptionists. Many of those contractors should and will have their own CSR policies which can quickly be aligned to those of their customers. However, the reverse of this coin is a
contractor whose working practices at a customer’s premises might expose to risk the customer and its reputation as an ethical employer.
Duty of care
The recent Corporate Manslaughter Act 2009 places a duty of care burden on a customer not just its contractors. So whereas before there was an outside chance of a customer being drawn into an action under Health & Safety legislation there is now a strong possibility of a dual action where a death on site is concerned, with all the resultant publicity that goes with it.
So putting aside the ethical arguments, and whether companies’ CSR strategy should be more broadly drawn to encompass their suppliers, there are now strong commercial arguments for taking supplier working practices more seriously. A classic example of where working
practices expose customers to risk is the security industry, an industry that is founded on long hours of work at lowish rates of pay. Added to this mix is the prevalence of shift working and this cocktail of factors creates a working
www.pm-select.co.uk l july/august 2010 l Property Management Select l 47
The hidden world of CSR M
any companies, large and small, take considerable pride, and quite rightly so, in a strong Corporate Social Responsibility
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