The European Commission sees corporate social responsibility (CSR) as important for strengthening competitiveness and sustainability of European companies. It defines CSR as enterprises taking responsibility for their impacts on society through legal compliance and integrating social and environmental concerns into their business strategies and operations in cooperation with stakeholders. The Commission aims to maximize shared value creation for companies and society by identifying and mitigating adverse impacts. Its 2011-2014 CSR strategy included enhancing CSR visibility, improving trust in business, developing CSR codes and guidelines, and better aligning European and global CSR approaches. The document emphasizes that CSR becomes most effective when embedded in mainstream business strategies and that human resource managers have a key role in engaging employees and leveraging CSR for recruitment, culture change, and risk management

1. European Commission
policy on CSR
CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY: STILL A
CHALLENGE FOR HR?
22 October 2013, Brussels

2. Why CSR?
• European citizens feel not informed about what
companies do to manage their social and environmental
impacts
• Influential factor in strengthening the competitiveness
and sustainability of European companies
• Socially responsible behaviour of companies important
to the values of the European Union

3. THE INTERNATIONAL CSR
LANDSCAPE

4. Internationally recognised CSR
guidelines and principles

5. OUR UNDERSTANDING OF
CSR

6. A modern understanding of CSR
 Commission definition: "The responsibility of
enterprises for their impacts on society"
 Definition consistent with global CSR instruments
 Positive and negative impacts
 All enterprises have impacts, all have a social
responsibility

7. How should a company meet its
social responsibility?

Legal compliance is a pre-requisite

Process of integrating social, environmental, ethical,
consumer and human rights concerns into business
strategy and operations, in cooperation with stakeholders
For more detailed guidance: refer to internationally recognised
CSR guidelines and principles

8. THE COMMISSION'S
APPROACH –
OUR 2011 – 2014 STRATEGY

9. What is our starting point?
• No prescriptive approach
• Encourage the application of good practices
and support companies to adhere to
international guidelines

10. What’s the aim?
 Maximise creation of shared value, for
company and owners/shareholders, and for other
stakeholders and society at large
 Identify, prevent and mitigate possible adverse
impacts

11. Agenda for action
1. Enhancing visibility (Multistakeholder sector-based
platforms, and award scheme for enterprise-stakeholder
partnerships)
2. Improve and tracking levels of trust in business (consider
measures on greenwashing, and surveys of citizen
perceptions)
3. Code of good practice for self- and co-regulation
4. Enhancing market reward for CSR (consumption,
investment, public procurement)

12. Agenda for action (continued)
5. Legislative proposal on company disclosure of social and
environmental information
6. CSR in education, training and research
7. Importance of national and sub-national CSR policies
8. Better alignment of European and global approaches on
CSR

13. CSR & HR

14. Some remarks
• When CSR is embedded in mainstream business
strategy it becomes a mechanism for unlocking
human potential
• Employees are a key stakeholder in any CSR
programme
• HR deals with recruiting people, managing,
developing and motivating people – CSR can play
a critical role in that

15. •
•
•
•
Human resource professionals have a key role to play to help a company achieve its
CSR objectives. Employee involvement is a critical success factor for CSR
performance. Human resource managers have the tools and the opportunity to
leverage employee commitment to, and engagement in, the firm’s CSR strategy.
High performing CSR organizations foster a culture of CSR and fully integrate CSR
throughout their operations, rewarding and incentivizing CSR decisions and
initiatives.
Employees prefer to work for organizations aligned with their values; thus,
incorporating CSR into the employee brand can enhance recruitment and retention,
particularly in tight labour markets.
CSR can be applied to the HR toolkit, resulting in a roadmap or pathway for human
resource practitioners to follow who wish to contribute to the achievement of their
organization’s sustainability and business aspirations, thereby improving social and
environmental conditions locally and globally.

16. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
“The argument for HR people taking the CSR agenda seriously can be
summarized as follows:
Companies are increasingly required to take account of the impact of their activities
on society
The credibility of CSR is dependent on delivery, not rhetoric
HR is responsible for many of the key systems and processes (e.g. recruitment,
training, communications) 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 a key stakeholder in any CSR program.” (CIPD, 2002, p. 15)

17. •
•
When CSR is embedded in mainstream business strategy it becomes a mechanism
for unlocking human potential.
CSR – HR = PR
If employees are not engaged, corporate social responsibility becomes an exercise in
public relations. The credibility of an organization will become damaged when it
becomes evident the company is not “walking the talk” -- Adine Mees and Jamie
Bonham, Canadian Business for Social Responsibility

18. THANK YOU
Sophie.Mueller@ec.europa.eu
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-business/corporate-socialresponsibility/index_en.htm