Business in the Community Ireland
Focus on a Partner - May 2008
In this month's interview, Tomás Sercovich, Senior Corporate Responsibility Consultant at Business in the Community (BITC) Ireland, CSR Europe's Irish national partner, informs us about the CSR movement in Ireland and some of BITC Ireland's programmes and activities, particularly the Laboratory on Employment of People with Disabilities.
What are in your view key CSR topics on the agenda for Irish companies?
The current key CSR topics for Irish companies range from environmental awareness to expanding community outreach programmes and managing the balance between CSR and business imperatives such as downsizing and outsourcing.
The Irish economy is heavily based on services and export industry of high added value goods, mainly in the areas of ICT and pharmaceutical. Global phenomenons such as a slowdown of the US economy can have a huge impact here, where a large number of American multinationals are based.
In this sense, we have experienced businesses reducing their operations or transferring manufacturing sites to other countries, which has a huge economic impact in local communities. There are very good examples of best practice in terms of responsible change management and this is a learning curve for many companies.
With regard to the environment, more and more Irish companies are trying to improve efficiencies and today environmental awareness is not only about cost-efficiency but also reputation management and product and service development. Most large companies have internal programmes on environmental awareness and a number of products and services have appeared in the market, from green mortgages to hybrid cars, carbon neutral accountancy firms and many more.
Finally, in relation to community involvement, there has been a change towards more sustainable engagement programmes beyond the “chequebook charity” model, to a system where companies aim to make an impact on pressing social issues such as education or social disadvantage providing their resources but also their time and skills.
How does BITC Ireland engage with its members on these issues?
BITC Ireland is supporting member companies through our dedicated services in this area. We offer strategy development on CSR, toolkits for baseline assessments and support in the development of CSR communications. We also develop stand-alone community involvement programmes for our members based on their needs and areas of interest.
We are also involved in running four Laboratories with our members on: Measuring a Company’s Ecological Footprint, led by Coillte Teoranta; Employment of People with Disabilities, led by O2 Ireland; Corporate Community Involvement as a HR tool, led by Savills Hamilton Osborne King, and Measuring and Reporting Corporate Responsibility Performance, led by Vodafone Ireland.
Recently, BITC Ireland launched a new programme called Employment for People from Immigrant Communities (EPIC). Can you tell us a bit more about this initiative and the Irish context?
EPIC was launched as a pilot programme in 2007. The programme was looking at a model to support former refugees and asylum seekers that were given a “leave to remain” in Ireland after legislation on citizenship was changed. This meant that a group of parents of Irish born children needed to become financially independent within a short period of time in order to be able to stay in this country with their children.
EPIC worked mainly with single parents, most of which were African women who were finding it very difficult to secure permanent employment due to a lack of recognition of professional qualifications, lack of childcare facilities and in some cases poor English skills.
But there was a bigger problem, which was a stigma of discrimination that needed to be challenged. Programme participants are offered a series of training courses in business English, IT, CV preparation and mock interviews. Training and employment officers work with clients on a one-to-one basis to look for employment opportunities or further training.
The programme has been very successful and this year funding was secured to expand the offering to any vulnerable immigrant, regardless of whether they are EU or non-EU. It is a fantastic programme and member companies like BT Ireland and CPL Resources plc are actively engaged in providing IT training and HR coaching to our clients.
National governments in Spain, Germany, Italy and other countries are starting to adopt CSR strategies and in some cases establish CSR departments. How CSR is being perceived by the Irish government?
In Ireland, the debate about CSR is quite new. The government clearly identifies CSR as a business issue and supports a voluntary approach to CSR as long as minimum standards of compliance are applied. There are various government departments that have a responsibility for CSR, led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment. For the moment the government’s role in this area has been to monitor the implementation of CSR and support specific initiatives such as the sponsorship of CSR awards.
At Business in the Community Ireland we believe that there is a role for the government to play in promoting and encouraging businesses to adopt socially and environmentally responsible practices. We feel that government should also be a leader in this area, showing a positive example through its procurement practices as well as environmental and employment practices, as any large organisation. We would also like to see the government support small and medium sized enterprises implement CSR practices.
BITC Ireland is facilitating a CSR Laboratory on Employment of People with Disabilities, led by O2 Ireland and with participants such as Access Ability, AIB Group plc, Bank of Ireland Group and Diageo Ireland. Could you tell us more about this project?
Last year, shortly after the launch of the European Alliance for CSR, BITCI launched a series of Laboratories on key issues as chosen by member companies. The Lab on Employment of People with Disabilities came about because there was a group of member companies that were looking at ways in which to address this issue.
O2 Ireland, through the O2 Ability Awards, raised awareness among major businesses on the business case for inclusivity and employment of people with disabilities.
Despite businesses making physical changes to their facilities and training staff in this area, still a small number of people with disabilities are employed. The Lab brings together major businesses and NGOs that work in this area. A series of meetings that took place last year discussed different approaches and models for integration of people with disabilities to the workplace as well as discussed government supports available in this area.
More information
Read more about BITC Ireland at www.bitc.ie.
For more information about CSR Europe's national partner network and its activities, contact Jani López, jl@csreurope.org.
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