Over the past few months, I have been working to understand how people look at Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and what that means. Essentially this is a company’s initiatives to assess and take responsibility for their impact on environmental and social wellbeing. I was shocked to find that many of the largest companies in the US don’t understand how to implement or focus on the areas that impact people the most. Recent studies by various organizations show that over 67% of the community is concerned about a company’s CSR initiatives. These same people make purchases based on a company’s ability to convey their efforts. In general, even those not “concerned” agree by an overwhelming 82%, that the most important aspect of CSR is human rights.

What is the result? These companies that do track and manage the human rights across the globe make more money!

Fair labor has been around for a long time and companies are failing miserably. The top companies that do focus on CSR score less than 50 on a point scale of 100 in a study called the Fashion Transparency Index. Levi’s scores the highest with a 77 in the same study. Some of the worst are companies like Prada, Aeropostale, Chanel and Burberry just to name a few.

Why they fail? Companies don’t understand how to manage the human rights aspect of these efforts. They are taking the avenue of solar panels and green initiatives to eliminate waste and paper because that is what they feel they have control. Please don’t misunderstand, those are great goals and efforts. But what matters most in this life is people. Our relationships and people are what make the difference. Our desire to impact the world, NO my desire to impact the world is around people, education, cleanliness, fair treatment, and health. I hope everyone shares that same sentiment. We can spend millions of dollars on solar panels but when children and adults alike are mistreated, underpaid or working in horrible conditions simply because people have not found a way to manage that process it pains my soul. To be fair this is a very hard task and I get that, but since when did those of us at these companies known for innovation shy away from these challenges? WE DON’T and that is the point. Stop running from this challenge. Search for and find a solution that can solve the challenge by providing you good resources with configurable systems to meet your process and needs. Involve the people necessary to track those items and make the difference.

Here are some things to look for to get started:

• Workflow setup and automation
• Manage multiple 3PA’s in one system to unify the audit results and report together
• Track communication and solve scheduling issues for auditors
• Reporting for remediation
• Trend analysis to see if certain areas pose more problems
• Track all corrective actions and open issues
• Scoring and rating systems
• COC, Regulatory, and KPI info can all be managed
• All of this needs to be in one unified system

Not only can we make a change together in the world, each person leads the charge in making it happen. About the Author

Curtis Brinkerhoff is a Senior Account Executive at RizePoint. He brings more than 10 years of experience leading, selling, and developing sales organizations. He has a particular interest in government relations, corporate social responsibility, and supply chain sourcing.