Career Roadmap

Corporate Social Responsibility

Description of the Field
Corporate social responsibility started out ten years ago as a new buzz word for the business world, but is now developing in a field with substantial and diverse career opportunities. The term "corporate social responsibility" or CSR has been coined to define how companies behave in social, environmental and ethical contexts. Corporate social responsibility is about integrating the issues of the workplace, the community and the marketplace into core business strategies. Driving this emerging field are customers who choose products with a good reputation, investors who put money into a company with an exemplary record and firms which invest in the future or training of their employees and gain loyalty and commitment in return.

Career opportunities in CSR reflect the diversity of the field and incorporate the private, public and nonprofit sectors. One of the first places to look for CSR-related positions is in large corporations, as most now have internal groups that address CSR-related issues from within. These departments can be located in diverse parts of the organization, whether public relations, philanthropy, community affairs/relations, compliance, or legal divisions and can be called anything from 'human rights programs' to 'reputation management' and 'environmental risk'. Also falling within the private sector are the opportunities opening up in the large accounting and consulting firms, many of which are trying to compete with the niche CSR consulting firms and offering their own CSR client services. The growth of interest in socially responsible investing (SRI) has also led to opportunities working for companies which screen firms on CSR issues and produce the stock indices.

The public sector CSR career options can be found mainly in national government agencies, or international organizations. There are now CSR positions in international organizations such as the UN's International Labor Organization and the World Bank (Business Partners for Development). National governments have also started building CSR departments, often in their international development branches such as USAID, UNDP and the US and DFID of the Foreign Office in the UK. The British government has even gone as far as instituting a Minister for Corporate Social Responsibility.

In the nonprofit sector there are a multitude of organizations which monitor and report on corporate practice, serve as think-tanks, develop best practice and advise companies, large and small on CSR issues.

Career Path and Entry Salaries
There is no such thing as a typical career path in CSR. A career in this field could start in big business, working in the compliance department of a firm such as Levi Strauss, and continue in the public sector, designing government policy, and go onto a niche consulting company providing CSR client services.

Entry salaries vary as much as career paths and could vary from the lower end working for a CSR nonprofit to a better remunerated position in the legal department of a corporation.

Demand
While many of the world's industrial giants have been under the environmental and safety spotlight since the 1970's, recent scandals have broadened public and media interest in just how companies go about their business. Consumers are demanding more information on everything from where and how their goods are produced to the environmental record of the companies they invest in. Both Dow Jones and FTSE now produce specialist indices to provide investors with information on which companies score highly on CSR-related concerns. The governments of come countries are even setting new reporting requirements which require companies to assess and monitor their wider social, environmental and ethical performance.

The natural resource extraction companies such as Shell, BP and ExxonMobil were the earliest to address CSR issues and hire CSR professionals, due to the nature of their products and the places they sourced them. Then came the footwear and apparel companies which were first forced to address the problem of sweatshops in their supply chains in the 1980s. Nowadays the spotlight is widening and companies as diverse as Hershey's and Hewlett Packard are looking very carefully at their wider responsibilities, being either forced to because of adverse publicity or because they see the obvious business benefit from the approach. Jobs in CSR have expanded as this spotlight has grown and brightened. Additionally, as corporations become increasingly global entities and are affected by global challenges (like AIDS/HIV and climate change), the need to support communities as expansion occurs becomes more urgent.

As a corollary to the growth in interest of CSR among these companies the large consulting and accounting firms are now offering their own CSR-related services. These include Arthur D Little's environment and risk services, Ernst and Young's environmental and sustainability services, KPMG's sustainability and advisory services and social auditing services, and PwC's reputation assurance practice. Even the large development consulting companies such as Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI) whose clients are usually government agencies are getting in on the game due to the huge impact so many MNCs have in developing world communities.

The demand for people with an interest or experience in the CSR field is growing at a fast pace as communications improve and a demand for increased transparency and accountability in the corporate sector increases. In addition, recognition of the important positive role that the corporate sector can play in the communities it touches has encouraged companies themselves to get involved, spurred on by government and the nonprofits.

It should also be noted that the commitment to CSR and hence supply of related jobs is, at present, more developed in Europe than it is in the US, although the market is growing rapidly on this side of the Atlantic.

Qualifications Necessary to Enter the Field
There are no prerequisite qualifications to enter in this field. Because the field itself is so new, direct experience in the sector is less important than it might be in some other professions. Rather, transferable skills and knowledge is valued, for example a law degree might be necessary for certain human rights positions, or a scientific degree or background to work in environmental CSR.

Sample Group of Employers
ExxonMobil
KPMG
Amnesty International
Hewlett Packard
PriceWaterhouseCoopers
SustainAblility
Reebok International
McKinsey
The Conservation Company
Home Depot
The Calvert Group
The United Nations
Polo Ralph Lauren
Verite Inc.
Rainforest Alliance
Starbucks
CSCC
Green At Work
Procter & Gamble
Cisco Systems
Baker & McKenzie
CERES
Natural Step
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)
International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF)

Online Resources

www.ethicalperformance.com
www.csreurope.org
www.europe.hobsons.com
www.ethicalcorp.com
www.business-ethics.com
www.iblf.org
www.bsr.org
www.bc.edu/corporatecitizenship

Additional recommended Print Resources

"Finding Work That Matters
(The Inner Art of Business Series)" by Mark Albion

"The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back" by William H. Shore

"Common Interest, Common Good: Creating Value Through Business and Social Sector Partnerships"
by Shirley Sagawa et al.

"Managing the Non-Profit Organizations: Principles and Practices" by Peter F. Drucker

Corporate Social Responsibility Career Preparation Timeline