ESG is considered the successor to CSR or corporate social responsibility, as it includes a wider remit of policies. Many of these concern governance: The broad picture of a company’s ethos. This is the focus of our final article on ESG, with thanks once again to Sophie Boyce, who provided us with considerable help and advice in helping us write these guides.

If you missed our first articles, you can find them here: Part 1: Environmental and Part 2: Social!

How to implement governance policies in your company

Some people think of governance as being the most difficult to implement in a company, and for good reason.

Environmental and social policies run the gamut from anything as small and easy to implement as reusable cups and healthy snacks in the break room to the bigger changes like sponsoring career development and hybrid working arrangements. But governance policies are more often concerned with making changes to senior leadership, performance transparency and ensuring the integrity of supply chains. For these measures, buy-in may not always be easy. Here are some steps you can take to encourage the C-suite to take notice:

How to improve corporate responsibility

Corporate responsibility needs two core approaches to ensure accountability: honest, clear and regular reporting of deliverables and transparency, particularly in its hiring practices.  

Prioritise clear and honest reporting

Regular reporting is the bread and butter of corporate responsibility and governance. On top of your quarterly reports about company performance, you should be writing regular reports on the performance of the ESG policies you have implemented.

One effective way to start reporting the effectiveness of ESG is to first write down your sustainability goals. Defining your goals, look at what each policy seeks to achieve. Do you want to remove all disposable cups and kitchen utensils from your site? Do you want to install recycling bins and educate your employees about the need to recycle? These goals are quantifiable and easy to track.

Qualitative goals, like measuring employee satisfaction and development, may be harder to gauge unless you encourage or incentivise employees to write a report evaluating their experiences. In your brief to them, try to include quantitative values.

People frequently use the 5-point Likert scale (completely agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, completely disagree) to measure responses to questions such as:

• I felt this training was a good use of my time
• I felt this training helped me better carry out my work
• I felt this training gave me the tools to rise in my career

Be transparent about your hiring practices

A common complaint from candidates is that hiring practices are not transparent. Two of the top concerns are (1) that companies don’t list the salary, and (2) that companies don’t clarify the kind of interview(s) candidates should expect.

Keeping your hiring practices opaque can come at a real cost, as the best candidates will be hunting around for competitive offers. If you are cagey about the details, you may make the top talent head elsewhere. Similarly, if you don’t actively encourage diverse candidates to apply, you may be stopping yourself from finding your perfect hire.

We are a boutique recruitment agency specialising in London’s vibrant finance & banking sectors and beyond. If you are a professional services company looking to find the perfect candidate for your role, get in touch with us today. We offer a bespoke service to all our clients, ensuring we know their needs inside out before matching them with a shortlist of suitable candidates. We can also help you write job descriptions and ensure your policies and mission stay front and centre.

How to source and procure ethically for your company

Of course, it is important to think about how we work within the company, but we must also think outside of the box. In this case, we mean understanding how everyone on your supply chain is working to similar values you put forward in your company.

Prioritise suppliers who demonstrate sustainability and ethical practices

If you have been reading all three of our articles on ESG, you will know how important it is to look behind the mission statements and see that these companies are acting on their promises. Are they operating as fair-trade, and are their goods sustainably produced? Look to companies like Andersen Corp., Burton Energy Group, and Consumers Energy, “recipients of Partner of the Year environmental labels for their exceptional efforts in protecting the earth” and the gold standard for ethical transparency and sourcing.

For more information on ensuring a supplier’s compliance and certifications, we recommend visiting earth.org, where you’ll find a wealth of information on choosing the right partners.

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We hope you have found this final article in our ESG series useful. If you are looking for ways to implement these policies into your hiring practices, we are here to help. Aldrich & Co is a specialist recruitment consultancy based in London. If you are looking for a consultant who will act as your partner and advisor throughout the recruitment process, give us a call today.