International barometer: where do organisations stand on CSR?

The Cegos Group, international leader in professional and continuing training, has just unveiled its latest barometer on CSR and its role within organisations. The survey, carried out in May 2023 among 3,802 international employees and 566 international CSR Directors or Managers, provides a number of key results and figures.

Key figures from the study:

Commitment and convictions, but only half-hearted involvement

• - While 73% of international employees are aware of CSR, 46% do not know what it actually means and 37% do not know whether their company has a dedicated CSR function.
• - According to 85% of employees and 98% of CSR managers, CSR is a major challenge for companies.
• -59% of employees declaring themselves to be "promoters" or even "militant" in this area.
• - More than half of employees are not directly involved or do not feel involved in the company's CSR policy, while CSR managers face a number of difficulties in implementing their actions.

Organizations are under pressure with ever-increasing internal expectations on CSR

• - 77% of international employees acknowledge their company's commitment to CSR, even though 33% of them believe that this is a forced commitment.
• - Only 33% of employees believe that this commitment meet the major global challenges facing us today.
• - Conversely, 55% of them expect their company to make a stronger commitment to meeting these challenges, and 38% even consider the CSR initiatives implemented by their organisation to be ineffective.
• - For 72% of employees, their direct manager is not committed to the topic of CSR: only 28% of them consider their direct managers to be active (24%) or transformer (4%) in this area.

Communicating, training and supporting to increase the effectiveness of CSR policies

• - While CSR Managers consider that employees are well informed about their company/organisation's CSR approach (average of 8), the feeling is very different among employees (5.7).
• - 82% of CSR managers claim that their organisation offers training on the subject, whereas only 38% of employees declare to be aware of this.
• - Health, safety and quality of life at work, as well as environmental issues (impact reduction, regulations) lie at the heart of employees' training expectations. In fact, these are the training courses that are most frequently delivered by companies/organisations.
• - More than one employee in two expects further action and support to become more involved within the company; for 55% of employees, their organisation should support local managers to help them better embody and steer CSR issues with their teams.

You can find the results of the study here