Businesses today have to face a plethora of ethical and social issues in the quest to become, and be seen as, a socially and ethically responsible business.

Social inclusion and diversity, environmental responsibilities, working in the community and employee volunteering are just some of the areas where organisations can make progress towards becoming a responsible business. Motivations vary from sector to sector, but this much is clear: this issue is not going to go away.

According to Business in The Community (BiTC), more than 80 cent of FTSE 100 companies and 60 per cent of FTSE 250 companies have ethical policies. This is often a direct result of pressure from the investment community, concerned about the impact of weak ethical credentials on company value and, therefore, dividends.

For many organisations, responsible business is intrinsically linked with risk management and reputation – areas which growing organisations can ill-afford to ignore.

In a service-led economy, employees are organisations’ primary competitive differentiator and most important asset. Responsible business has become a central issue for candidates considering a career move, so it is vital that organisations move beyond lip-service and implement genuine responsible business programmes to help to recruit and retain the best talent.

In our experience, employers increasingly come up against interview questions about ethical, socially responsible and environmental conduct. Business leaders say that the graduates they hope to recruit often demand to know exactly what their company is doing on issues such as community work, diversity and climate change.

Social responsibility is now firmly on the mainstream agenda and businesses that ignore it will end up in a weak position talent-wise, against more agile, forward-thinking competitors.

Companies cannot afford to close the door to the talent that will drive their business forward, so responsible business must be incorporated into the DNA of an organisation.

Whatever the motivation for creating a more responsible business, it should be at the core of a company’s programmes and strategies, not a bolt-on to operations.

Debbie Hockham is a director of forum3

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