Page 32 - Economy_CSR

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c. Recruiting a person because she is a woman: This statement is a bit reductory. Gender balance in a
company is important but you should recruit a person first and foremost based on his/her suitability for
the position. Nondiscriminationmeans that a worker is chosen on the basis of their skills, competences and
suitability to the job and there is no distinction, preference or exclusion based on other grounds.

d. Organizing team building actions: Team building is rather an informal tool to stimulate communication
and cooperation between workers and foster better management and professional practices. A CSR
strategy is made by formal actions and commitments. In all cases, even if we consider that team building
falls out of the scope of CSR, it is a great tool in a HR and management strategy.

e.Giving your employees chocolates from time to time: This statement is reductory. First of all, because it
is an informal and punctual action. Also consider an important aspect of well-being: health. Chocolate can
make people happy and attract their sympathy but on a long term basis it can higher their sugar levels. A
CSR action can be to offer employees a healthy breakfast on a daily basis. But then again, you should be
careful about the cost of your CSR actions.

f. Improving the comfort of chairs: If you work in an office where employees spend half of the day sitting,
improving the comfort of their chair has a direct and long term impact on their physical well-being and
even on their health preventing minor injuries such as back pain.

2. False. Philanthropy can be one of the actions in your CSR strategy but they are not synonymous. There
are many ways to achieve community engagement beyond philanthropy : pro bono actions, volunteering,
offering free trainings, creating mutual help communities etc.

3. See page 2. Definition by UNIDO: CSR is generally understood as being the way through which
a company achieves a balance of economic, environmental and social imperatives
(“Triple-Bottom-Line- Approach”), while at the same time addressing the expectations of shareholders and
stakeholders.

4. Only response a. Is false (see chapter 5)

5. False. If national states usually target multinational in their accountability and transparency guidelines,
those elements are also essential to SMEs as they build trust and strong partnerships. This report by the
Global Reporting initiative (GRI), also available in section 7 gives advice to policy makers on how to enable
corporate sustainability reporting for SMEs.