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assessment of social responsibility: business in the community
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Business in the Community (BITC), one of the world's
largest and longest established corporate social
responsibility organisations, is a unique movement of
companies committed to continually improving their
impact on society. The Co-operative Bank continues to be
an active member of BITC and leads the way in many
corporate social responsibility practices. This is an
achievement which BITC recognised by awarding the
bank its 'Company of Year Award' 2001 and highly
commending its Customers Who Care programme in the
Cause Related Marketing category. The bank's pledge of
not resting on its laurels however must be kept in the
forefront as corporate social responsibility is driven up the
corporate agenda throughout boardrooms around
the World.
Ethical Policy The bank's commitment to, and scale
of, stakeholder consultation must be applauded, balloting
over 2 million customers and achieving 60,000
responses. Inclusive stakeholder dialogue is an essential
pillar of corporate social responsibility. This is an
important check for the bank to validate the relevance of
its Policy and ensure that it continues to deliver value to
the bank's Partners. BITC welcomes the inclusion in the
new Ethical Policy of areas that the bank will specifically
seek to support in the future, in addition to the areas
where it will continue to not invest in.
Other highlights The breadth of social
responsibility indicators on which the bank reports its
performance, has once again been extended for 2001.
Anti-money laundering and staff well-being are worthy
inclusions reported on for the first time this year. Coupled
with the bank's contribution to developing Key Social
Performance Indicators for the financial services industry,
this is a commendable sign that the bank is committed to
relevant and transparent reporting. In maintaining this
commitment it will be important for the bank to respond to
the issues raised through this measurement, and set
appropriate and challenging targets for the future. For
example it is important that the bank responds to the
supplier research which has identified both positive and
negative trends.
The bank has successfully grown staff involvement in its
community programme, an area which BITC highlighted
for development in the past. The bank must now ensure
that this momentum is maintained and report on the
number and profile of staff engaged in volunteering, as
well as the number of days and value of this time.
Additionally, the bank's work to encourage and ensure
applications for funding by Black and Ethnic Minority
groups is groundbreaking.
The hardest part about any change process is the length
of time that it takes to make sustainable progress and
embed initiatives. This is true whatever the level of
commitment and enthusiasm behind the drive for change.
The bank must attend to areas highlighted by the BITC
Race for Opportunity and Opportunity Now benchmarking
to achieve its aims with regards to equal opportunities.
Delivering value Overall the bank is continuing its
leading role as a socially responsible corporate citizen and
represents a model many companies would do well to
replicate. The bank must however focus on measuring
and reporting the impacts, and not just the inputs, of its
corporate social responsibility. This will help develop the
ethical and ecological value analysis for this section.
Monitoring impacts in this way is essential for the bank in
ensuring that it continues to deliver value to its Partners in
a socially responsible manner, and should be articulated
as a target for the future.
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Sue Adkins, 6th March 2002 |
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