A CSR executive at a major bank has planted a question about corporate social responsibility at his company’s annual meeting in an unusual bid to raise staff awareness of its policies in the field.
Chris Sykes, who oversees the CSR programme at Standard Chartered Bank, said he did so to generate internal publicity about the fact that the bank had published its first environmental report last year.
He told a London conference on communicating CSR: ‘I got a friend who is a shareholder to ask a question about whether the company had an environmental report, and when the chairman mentioned it at the AGM it became a much higher priority with staff.’
Sykes argued that those responsible for communicating CSR must be innovative if they are to get their message across and contemplates CSR awareness training for all of the bank’s new staff.
Standard Chartered, which employs 30,000 staff in 52 countries, mainly in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, is working on a number of CSR initiatives.
Its board recently signed off a human rights policy and its group risk committee now has to consider social, ethical and environmental risks in its terms of reference.
It is also planning to extend the ‘Staying Alive’ campaign which supports staff with HIV and Aids in Africa, to its employees in Asia.
Sykes said the bank had come to realize its market position had given it special responsibilities. ‘Our business is largely in the developing world and emerging markets, and we believe it’s there that CSR really matters.’