It's no longer someone else's business! Compliance and CSR affect corporate value
As the environment surrounding companies changes rapidly, the social responsibilities that companies must assume are also expanding, and the importance of corporate compliance is increasing year by year. Compliance here goes beyond legal compliance and includes the fulfillment of CSR.
However, society's scrutiny of companies has become increasingly severe in recent years, and compliance and CSR-conscious management are essential for long-term business continuity. This applies to both large and small companies.
Let's take a look at compliance and CSR once again, as they affect corporate value.
Table of Contents
01What is Compliance?
02What is CSR?
03Background of CSR
Corporate scandals
Growing seriousness of environmental issues, etc.
Globalization of companies
Diversification of consumer values
04What CSR activities do companies actually engage in?
05CSR Advantages
Advantage 1: Enhancement of corporate image
Advantage 2: Diversification of business
Advantage 3) Enhancement of corporate recognition
Merit④ Improvement of corporate profit
Merit⑤ Improvement of employee satisfaction
06Disadvantages to be aware of when engaging in CSR
Demerit 1) Increased costs
Demerit 2) Requires manpower
07CSR and compliance initiatives are essential for business continuity in the future
What is Compliance?
The word "compliance" means "observance of the law. You may be unfamiliar with the term "compliance" and may not have a clear idea of what it means.
For example, harassment such as "sexual harassment," "power harassment," "moral harassment," service overtime, excessive long working hours, and leakage of personal information are all violations of compliance. Isn't this a more familiar problem than you thought?
Compliance in recent years has become more diverse, and is not simply about "observing laws and regulations. Compliance also includes "observing company rules, laws and regulations, and social rules, and conducting appropriate corporate activities.
With the development of social networking services, it has become common to see scandals committed by a few employees spread all at once on the Internet, resulting in a major loss of public trust in the company as a whole.
For this reason, the reinforcement of compliance in companies is becoming more and more important every year, and many companies are conducting compliance training and promoting compliance activities on a company-wide basis.
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What is CSR?
CSR stands for "Corporate Social Responsibility. It refers to the social responsibility that a company assumes in the course of its business activities.
It is the concept that a company should not only pursue profits, but also assume responsibility for its stakeholders at large. Stakeholders include shareholders, management, employees, customers, suppliers, financial institutions, government agencies, various organizations, and other stakeholders of the company.
A company's economic activities are deeply intertwined with its stakeholders, and without a good relationship of trust, economic growth cannot be expected.
Based on this concept, compliance is a fundamental part of CSR. If compliance is the observance of laws and regulations, CSR is, in a broader sense, the concept of responding to the demands and requirements of society.
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Background to the Demand for CSR
In recent years, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have been attracting attention for the following reasons.
Corporate scandals
Increasing number of corporate scandals, such as problems with mislabeling of food production areas and best-before dates, window dressing, etc., have increased stakeholders' distrust of companies.
Increasing seriousness of environmental and other problems
Environmental considerations have become a social responsibility for companies as various problems such as global warming, climate change, and air pollution have become more serious.
Corporate Globalization
With the globalization of corporate activities, stakeholders have also become internationalized, and the impact of corporate activities has increased.
Diversification of consumer value
Consumers are increasingly choosing products not based on price, but rather on corporate philosophy and CSR initiatives.
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What CSR activities do companies actually engage in?
In practice, each company engages in CSR activities that are unique to its own characteristics. Among them, environmental protection is one of the CSR activities that many companies engage in. Specifically, these include reducing CO2 emissions through the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles, and introducing renewable energy.
Some companies are also involved in cultural support such as concerts and preservation of cultural assets, and in the development of the next generation of human resources by holding events where children can have hands-on experience.
CSR also includes a sake brewing company producing and supplying a substitute for alcohol disinfectant when the new coronavirus epidemic began, and many companies have greatly relaxed telecommuting policies for their employees, allowing them to work in a variety of different ways.
Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the companies actively involved in CSR. Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the companies that actively engages in CSR activities.
These activities include contributions to environmental conservation and awareness through tree planting and greening activities in Aichi, Mie, Gifu, Kagoshima, and Indonesia, which are all related to Toyota, transportation services for the disabled and elderly, and factory tours for elementary school students.
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Benefits of CSR
Next, let's review the benefits that a company can gain by engaging in CSR.
Advantage 1: Enhancement of corporate image
Proactive CSR efforts will lead to an improved corporate image. When a company's image is improved, its products and services themselves are also enhanced, and it can win trust as a company.
Advantage 2) Diversification of business
Through CSR activities, companies can gain experiences and connections with people that they would not normally have. This increases the possibility of new business opportunities.
Advantage #3: Increased corporate recognition
When a company actively engages in CSR activities, it can make itself known as a company to people other than its existing customers.
Benefit 4) Enhancement of Corporate Profit
The enhancement of corporate image and recognition through CSR can lead to the purchase of products and services, which can be expected to increase profits.
Benefit 5: Increased employee satisfaction
Employees will feel more confident in their work, believing that their work contributes to society, and their job satisfaction will improve.
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Disadvantages to be aware of when engaging in CSR
So, are there any disadvantages to engaging in CSR activities? The following two are the main disadvantages to be aware of.
Demerit (1) Increased costs
CSR requires costs. Although CSR is beneficial to the company in the long run, it may result in lower sales in the short term because time and expenses are spent on activities that are not part of the company's core business.
Disadvantage (2) Manpower required
CSR activities require manpower. With the chronic shortage of manpower becoming an issue, some companies are unable to provide the manpower to engage in CSR activities.
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CSR and Compliance Initiatives Are Essential for Business Continuity in the Future
CSR is not a charitable activity, but a social responsibility that companies must assume. As such, it requires corporate philosophy, ethics, and transparency. As society's scrutiny of corporate activities becomes increasingly severe, CSR and compliance, which is the foundation of CSR, are essential for corporate development.
If your CSR and compliance efforts are not yet sufficient, why not start with compliance training? Because there is a significant risk of noncompliance, it is important to continuously educate employees about compliance.
Please use the compliance training contents of "learningBOX ON" to inform your employees about compliance within your company. LearningBOX ON" is a service that makes it easy for companies to add essential training content to learningBOX, an e-learning creation and management system. You can easily design your own original learning courses by combining them with your company's in-house content.
Compliance training and harassment training content are available free of charge, so please take advantage of this service for your in-house training.
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