BSkyB is to employ journalistic techniques to explain the company’s social responsibility strategy to staff.
The UK-based broadcaster, which has just published its first corporate responsibility review, is producing a tabloid newspaper to summarize parts of the report, picking out points of interest for its 9000 employees, many of whom work in call centres.
‘We could send a copy of our review to all our employees, but we’re better off not wasting the paper,’ said Ben Stimson, group head of corporate affairs at BSkyB. ‘CSR reports are for a very particular audience, and we feel it’s better to use a newspaper format to pull out points that are pertinent to employees and present them in a language that’s relevant to them. If we can avoid the term corporate responsibility then we will do so.’
The newspaper, which will come out before the end of the year, will be backed up by emails and intranet pages. ‘Our main aim is to give employees a sense of what they can tell a customer about our position on CSR, and what is relevant to them as a staff member,’ said Stimson.
Sky’s first corporate responsibility review lists 23 timetabled targets the broadcaster has pledged to meet, including:
disability awareness training for all employees by January 2004
a regular work placement programme for disabled people
ensuring all its partners adopt its code of practice on interactive gambling.
The unverified document, published in hard copy and on the web, says the broadcaster will review how it can take more account of social and environmental issues in its programming – for example by increasing the presence of disabled people on screen. It is doing this in conjunction with the Broadcasting and Creative Industries Network (EP5, issue3).
The company will review its community involvement programme, which costs £2.5million ($4.1m) a year, and put proposals to its corporate responsibility forum by April 2004. The forum, made up of senior executives, sets company objectives on CSR and monitors progress.
From 2004, BSkyB will move its environmental report, first published in 2002, into the corporate responsibility review.