Where do I start - Corporate responsibility.

[Anotherlongdrive]

2 months ago, I started work at a company as a director. The company was a small company but grown massively in the 10 years it has been open.

My role is to integrate new acquisitions and also to support the business in their reporting to board.

They have no form or corporate responsibility charter at all. Environmentally, I think they are quite poor too. But I come from a very environment conscious company, so that could be just me.

Anyway, it looks like I am now also director of corporate responsibility. They especially want to focus working and supporting the local community and improving our carbon footprint. The CEO seems to believe there will be some financial benefit to the carbon footprint reduction.

The local community piece is because mo one in the local area knows us. It's quite deprived, high unemployment. We struggle to find highly skilled engineers, as we are very specialist and the CEO wonders if working with schools would encourage young people to train in what we do. Though it is quite dangerous work, you can being training at college and getting the technical qualifications before training to work in the field. We work across the UK so the plan woild be to start working with schools in this area, the thee areas where we struggle to fine the people we need.

My question is......where the hell do I start with this?

CEO is quite aware I have no clue, but has every faith 'I will work it out'. Nice he has faith, but honestly i am baffled.

Does anyone have an experience of starting this kind of thing from scratch?

Get hybrid or electric cars. Provide charging points. Take the train. Provide showers for cyclists. Don’t fly. Carbon footprint solved.

Local community. Become school governors. Go to careers evenings. Give talks to young people about what you do and what you can offer. Take on apprentices. Sponsor local events and pay for something the locality needs. Just a few ideas!

Many companies have skill shortages. If you cannot recruit, grow your own talent!

Use your apprenticeship levy to fund apprenticeships in the difficult to recruit areas and get involved in local school careers days and fairs. Offer work experience if possible to engage students and schools early on.

you will get good ideas for this on LinkedIn esp if you join groups dealing with this kind of issue, then post a question. People working in organisations will publish thought pieces on this stuff and consultancy firms will run training events / webinars.

You also nd to link in with the company's HR / People function on the links to local community to aid recruitment.

Would the expertise lend itself to assisting with community projects on a voluntary basis, converting organisations and charities to lower energy usage or eco friendly options, engagement activities in schools/colleges, support for enterprise initiatives or small business start ups?

Get hybrid or electric cars. Provide charging points. Take the train. Provide showers for cyclists. Don’t fly. Carbon footprint solved.

Thank you all these ideas are great.

I will be working with HR, the HR BP was the person I shadowed when moving into the company and we work together on a lot. I also came from an HR background.

I suppose I just need to start, get a general plan signed off and then start.

Theres been a big drive by staff wanting hybrid cars. I assume mainly because it would reduce the tax we, personally pay. I think that would be an easy one to pass.

I am really interested in the growing our own talent. One area of the business really struggles to recruit because of how specialised it is.

I really think that we could make a difference in the local community.

Would the expertise lend itself to assisting with community projects on a voluntary basis,

Perhaps. But even if we cant find that, there are things we could do around food banks, funding local sports teams and activities for kids and teens, helping put at local charities etc.

Look at B Corp certification - you can do a free online gap analysis which should give you some good ideas of where to begin.

Look at B Corp certification - you can do a free online gap analysis which should give you some good ideas of where to begin.

Brilliant thank you. I will take a look as soon as I get to my desk

We get one day a year to support a local charity..... so recently we’ve helped with a beach clean / painted city farm / group of women decorated local women’s refuge .... not everyone takes it up, but I think it’s a great thing to offer.

I used to be secretary of a local sports club for teenagers. We tried so hard to get local sponsorship. Even a tiny grant would have made a huge difference and getting a logo on kit isn't very expensive.

Apprenticeships (see Apprenticeship Levy)

Paid volunteering days

A volunteering calendar e.g. decorating spaces in residential care homes

Paperless work environment if possible.

Conference calls to negate distance travel.

Local supply chain.

Match-fund fundraising.

Employability events (practice interview days) at schools, prisons, job centres.

Re the carbon footprint/ environmental targets there are company’s that can help you with this if needed. I can probably help with some near you if you want.

Generally you could do with benchmarking where you are now then committing to a series of car objectives, ideally quantifying the benefit each would bring in terms of carbon reduction. There are loads of options - all new company cars to be hybrids and a change to LED light bulbs/panels are two of ours.

Community-wise you could try...
Outreach days in local schools/colleges
2-5 days each year for all staff members to “volunteer” in their local community

Career coaching, general talks in schools
Linking in for science / engineering weeks
Offering tours / work placements
Ongoing mentoring in schools and colleges
Supporting purchase of school science equipment

Showing and sharing your employees career journeys. If people can see it, they can relate more and make their own path.

Contact your local Further Education college and speak to their head of employer engagement, they will be able to help you and the college will engage with schools to promote pathways into engineering. Could you provide work experience? If so they'll love you!

OP, I've worked in Corporate Responsibility for 15 years, in retail. Happy to advise if you want to PM me but I'd need to understand the exact industry. What form of engineering?

I manage a fleet of vehicles some of which are hybrid

We recommend Toyota Auris's or the Toyota Rav4. They have a 5 year warranty on them up to 90,000 miles.

Thank you all so much.

That's really helpful. I really think we need to live to hybrid. Apparantly we can order a hybrid. But no one does. I inherited a diesel (with adblue) from my predecessor. Which I dislike.

StepAwayFromGoogle thank you, I will dm you.

integrate new acquisitions
Also to support the business in their reporting to board.
looks like I am now also director of corporate responsibility

This sounds like a potential cluster fuck of a role to me. Aside from the specific advice given by pp, your role sounds extremely unfocused, scope creeping to the point where in some orgs it would be ripe for an "underperforming" let go if they suddenly need to claw back your salary from a budget.

I mean, you're talking about operations aspects of new business (that's a specialist role in its own right, and to integrate new units needs you to develop an understanding of your new employer/be involved at overseeing how the new ones will merge), corporate governance in terms of director / trustees, now some vague remit about being on the hook for building up nonexistent csr policies & implementation..?

Is your role primarily strategic or operations or managerial with staff?

I can't figure out why no one is flagging this, there's so many red flags here (esp the "you'll work it out" lack of support).. is it just me??!

@NoraThePessimist honestly, you arent entirely wrong.

It's a business that has grown from a small business and the directors who started it are excellent with technical knowledge. Not so much how to run a large business.

Again, the other directors that were there when before I started all worked their way up. Again, excellent technical knowledge, not really sure on how to run a business.
Myself, and several people with experience in different areas have been brought in.

New finance director, new group sales director etc.

I actually love that it is messy. I received a substantial golden hello and have a contract that I had checked myself to guarantee s very good Golden handshake.

It was a risk taking this job. But it meant I could demand my own terms and demand far more, in monetary terms.

Definitely a career risk. But paying off so far, in all likelihood, I will build this and once it's a big role we will employ someone else.

My role is central to the company as I deal with reporting and acquisitions. So work with everyone coming into the company and every department already in it.

The owners are lovely guys (one who I have known professional for nearly 20 years), but far more interested in the technical side. The role is strategic, but I work with the operations closely. Especially scince everything I change impacts them and their reporting.

I spoke to my team today and they all love the idea of us, at least starting this off.

It's just going to be a case of baby steps.

They dont even have recycling bins

You can carbon offset the company quite easily by paying for trees to be planted

Could you say what the industry is? If it's dangerous, are there charities you could support as a company - the Lighthouse Club for construction for example.

Yes it is dangerous. That's a very good idea. I really like that. Very relevant to our staff and their families.

My DH has a scheme where they give an allowance towards cars and stipulate Hybrids. They don’t tell staff what cars they must have. So some have smaller and some a bit bigger. Helps with retention.

Woodlandwitch that's a good idea. I would like if staff were able to participate in the planting

@BubblesBuddy ibwoildbhave preferred a car allowance to be honest. It's what I have always opted for before.

Generally, we arent told what car we must have. But my car had only been delivered 16 weeks before started. My predecessor, took delivery and hand their notice in 4 weeks later. So I got that one. Our fleet director is looking into wether I can relinquish it early.