Employees, Investors

As with environmental issues, so with employee involvement: the narrow agenda of community affairs is being stretched. Previously charitable donations and matched staff fundraising were seen as low-key ways for the company to demonstrate its values and to show it shares employees' cares. That remains very true, but now inclusive companies which follow a stakeholder philosophy need active engagement with staff across a broad range of their concerns. The need is to boost productivity and retain flexibility over the long run, not just from the short-term fear factor of "perform or you lose your job".

This 'social agenda' is running strongly in Europe and the new Labour UK government is instinctively keen to join in. However the process can very easily degenerate into mere systems and rules, with adherence to the letter of the law, not the spirit. In fact, this must be an inherent part of the core values of the firm. No amount of imposed regulation can force a company to engage constructively with staff and respond positively to their concerns. Staff, unlike all other stakeholders, are internal and can see through double standards immediately.

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 34 - June, 1997