About 86% of the company’s employees are owners of stock in the organization, creating financial incentive to ensure the company’s reputation does not suffer in a highly competitive industry like air travel. “There’s a line of sight between your average employee and what we’re trying to achieve,” Handford says. “When you combine that with the fact that people are able to follow issues and challenges right where they occur, that level of empowerment allows you to impact success.”
Corporate social responsibility represents the fourth and final pillar that typically holds up the edifice of respect. “You have to put your money where your mouth is,” says Telus’ Vincent. “It tends to send the right message back to the communities where folks live.” His employer contributed $62 million in various corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives last year through corporate donations and matching employee contributions toward charitable causes. “People see we’re making a difference. Everybody is a brand ambassador,” Vincent says.
Arlene Dickinson, president and chief executive officer of Calgary-based Venture Communications, believes companies need to ground their giving in a sincere culture of integrity and caring, though. “Being part of the community and caring about the community is critical for today’s business, but you have to do it because you believe that,” she says. “The world’s changing. Big business has an obligation and responsibilities to contribute, but they need to select where they contribute so that it aligns with who they are.”
Telus, for example, has made a conscious effort to invest in areas close to its brand image: technology, youth, sports, arts and culture. It attempts to reach out to the business community and the general public using a mixture of marketing and communications strategies, combined with fostering a culture of community giving, says Vincent. Telus, which was recognized in the categories of community involvement and culture of innovation, has set up “community investment boards” in the areas where it operates.
These boards, comprised of business and community leaders, dictate how and where the company will invest in CSR initiatives. “It allows us to bring that awareness of what’s important back into the discussions of how we invest,” he says. Maintaining close ties to groups that influence the business community is also critical to reaching that demographic. Telus is involved with the chambers of commerce, for example, and business schools across the country, particularly the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
CSR programs are likewise a tool in EnCana’s arsenal, closely integrated with its communications initiatives. “We call it our bank of goodwill,” says Protti. “At any given time you’re adding to it or withdrawing from it; it rarely remains neutral.”
Corporate social responsibility is a way of adding credibility to a company’s message, agrees Dickinson. It also speaks to the company’s values that helped it succeed in the first place. “If you don’t start with who the company is at its core … then whatever you’re saying to the consumer or stakeholder is going to be transparent. They’re going to know right away it’s not real,” she says.
“It appears there is a virtuous circle,” adds business prof Peloza, referring to the interplay of corporate performance, communications strategies, employee buy-in and community investment.
Telus would do well to recharge its own bank of goodwill if public perception is any indication, though. While it ranked among the most respected companies in Community Involvement and Culture and Innovation with the business community, it received a 40% disapproval rating on the public opinion survey.
Still, the company is pushing ahead on its course. Vincent says changing public perception requires a company to look at reputation from all angles. “I don’t think you can sequence it in terms of which one comes first. If you extract one (element), then you’re not going to be successful without the other,” says Vincent.
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