Corporate responsibility: 10 dos and don’ts

I recently completed an inter-office tour with my CR-expert colleagues to foster dialogue about this topic. The goals were to assess how our clients approach corporate responsibility and to explore how to enhance their efforts in ways that engage employees, satisfy customers, and build brand equity.

Over the course of various meetings, we heard questions, concerns and anecdotes that brought to light several dos and don’ts of corporate responsibility. Following are a few key takeaways:

Corporate responsibility dos

• Do make sure your corporate responsibility strategy is based on sound research and tied to business objectives. My client Bissell Homecare got this one right early on. Years ago, the company identified pet owners as a key customer group due to the inevitable messes pets bring into homes.

Bissell’s commitment to supporting pet owners and advocating for adoption was affirmed when its research revealed that 38 percent of Americans would add a pet to their home if “cleaning up after them” was easier. This statistic (and those showing millions of pets enter shelters in the U.S. each year) reinforces the company’s contributions to animal rescue groups and efforts to teach Americans that pet cleanup can be simple with the right tools.