Covalence News 28.08.2008

[antoine_mach]

Hello,

The following news is available on Covalence website:

Selected news
> Would you vote Pepsi or Coca-Cola?
> Wal-Mart tells employees to vote GOP
> British firms trading in Zimbabwe refuse to sign ethical code
> Drug trials in India under investigation after 49 babies die at leading hospital
> Toyota, others join UN initiative to cut carbon emissions
> Diageo toasts £65m bioenergy distillery
> Brazil Property News: Petrobras to spend eco-friendly

Messages received
> Samsung dans l’onde des technologies vertes
> Nestlé-Cameroun : Les sachets de Nido accessible à toutes les couches sociales
> Tunza for children: Programme de protection de l’environnement pour les enfants, initié par le PNUE et le secteur privé
> RDC : Que gagnent réellement les Congolais des contrats passés avec les Firmes Chinoises ?

Analyst papers

> Un commerce éthique des armes est-il possible ?
> Project as a tool to implement the Corporate Strategy
> Corporate Social Responsibility as a way of improving organizational productivity and forming company’s employer brand

With best regards,

Antoine Mach


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Covalence SA Antoine Mach, Direction & Research
Tel: +41 (0)22 800 08 55 antoine.mach@covalence.ch

Geneva-based Covalence tracks the ethical reputation of multinationals by sourcing information from companies, the media and civil society. EthicalQuote allows you to browse CSR rankings and data and it enables us to offer reputation management products to clients among multinationals, investors and institutions.

Covalence SA 1, avenue Industrielle, CH-1227 Geneva SWITZERLAND Tel: +41 (0)22 800 08 55 ; Fax: +41 (0)22 800 08 56
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email info@covalence.ch ; Covalence SA ; www.ethicalquote.com

[Karl]

This item from the list above provides some very interesting perspectives:

> Corporate Social Responsibility as a way of improving organizational productivity and forming company’s employer brand

What is meant by Social Corporate Responsibility in terms or labour standards?

The notion of Corporate Responsibility closely correlates with the understanding of ethics of Human Resource management in corporations. The ethics of human resource management (HRM) covers those ethical issues arising around the employer-employee relationship, such as the rights and duties owed between employer and employee:

·Discrimination issues include discrimination on the bases of age (ageism), gender, race, religion, disabilities, weight and attractiveness.

·Issues surrounding the representation of employees and the democratization of the workplace: union busting, strike breaking.

·Issues affecting the privacy of the employee: workplace surveillance, drug testing.

·Issues affecting the privacy of the employer:

·Issues relating to the fairness of the employment contract and the balance of power between employer and employee: slavery, indentured servitude, employment law.

·Occupational safety and health.

Forming a good reputation of the company on the labor market is also known as the corporate branding. By definition “corporate branding” can be described as “the image of the organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the minds of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).”

One significant aspect of this report is the surveys cited, which revealed that more than three-quarters of respondents stated that they would rather work for a company with an excellent reputation than for a company with a poor reputation – even if they were offered a higher salary!

As corporate responsibility continues to expand widely into more areas of social and environmental life it will become increasingly important for employing organisations to address corporate responsibility at their most senior levels or face significant reputational risk in the labour market, as recent studies in employment patterns show that more employees, from recent graduates to experienced professionals, choose employers with proven track of corporate social responsibility. Simultaneously, job seekers will have to prove themselves as true 'global citizens'.

It is also proven that most of the graduate job seekers rely on media in their search for companies with good CSR track, so it will be advisable for companies to take good care of the coverage of the company’s good actions in working conditions area.