Julnar Asfari Biography

Conducting an assessment of employees or competencies to attract external consultants D ... Today, the CSR is an integral part of the ESG sustainable development concept and is often part of the ESG strategies of companies. Speaking about ESG, we are talking about the unity of the environmental E, social S and corporate G control, in which the company is the most possible involvement of the corresponding calls within the company and on the territory of its presence.

In our studies, we saw that more than a third of the business representatives we interviewed as the main motive for the formation of ESG strategies, a policy of corporate social responsibility or other socially oriented activities in the company called the need for the social responsibility of the business and the search for other meanings, except for profit.

And depending on the severity of the external situation, the companies often turn out to be more flexible and fast in response, without waiting for the state machine to react. For example, during the pandemic, Mars allocated $ 20 million to fight it in the world, and it directed another 50 million rubles to the aid of the most needy categories of the population in Russia, as well as pets and medical workers.

And the Russian playing company Playrix promised to sacrifice up to millions of rubles to combat pandemia in the regions where the company's offices are located. The companies purchased medical equipment, clothes and masks, fed and drove doctors. And, of course, ESG strategies have become an important image history for business, because global processes, such as climate change, poverty dynamics or home violence statistics are also aware of consumers.

When we talk about the CSR, many companies primarily think about the direct financing of charitable projects. Is charity part of the CSR? And what other forms of QSO are there? Charity is part of the CSR, but there is a pyramid of maturity, it includes all available practices, they are located in terms of their complexity and resource intensity. The first thing that most organizations begin with is charitable programs, and then - various partnerships that are more systemic in nature from embedding social and environmental initiatives in the sales chain to the provision of business technologies to social innovators.

The most complex are approaches based on the integration of control processes and impact measurements, and impact-investment as a special case of the latter. With an increase in the variety of opportunities for CSR, the number of companies that have introduced this practice into their corporate culture. Corporate volunteering takes second place in the top 5 of the main areas of the CSR programs is the next step after direct financing of charitable projects by companies.

It is already more complicated, because it requires employees to involve the company's social and environmental projects. One of the employees is engaged in direct volunteering, and someone provides Pro Bono services. Our study shows that the development of corporate volunteering practices is a necessary step to increase the awareness of employees in the company, without the support and involvement of which it is impossible to successfully implement any strategy as a whole, and ESG strategies are especially, since the well -being of employees is part of it.

We saw the wording: corporate volunteering is a kind of tib. A healthy person. Its peculiarity is that it is paid by the company, since the employee is engaged in it during his working hours - for example, a couple of hours a week. At first glance, it seems that it is unprofitable for companies to pay time during which the employee does not fulfill their work duties, but in fact this is not so.

Corporate volunteering is organized at the initiative of managers or employees, with the support of managers, the participation of employees in their free time from work in solving social or environmental challenges. Volunteering can be different: from walking dogs from shelters to landscaping parks. In contrast, in Pro Bono, an employee provides voluntary assistance in the framework of professional activities.

It is also paid by the employer, since it is carried out during working hours, while the responsibilities performed within the framework of Pro Bono do not differ from working tasks. For example, a professional psychologist can assist the victims of domestic violence, and the veterinarian can treat animals in shelters. This practice originates at the end of the 19th century in the United States, where private legal companies began to consult a poorly for free.

If we talk about the directions of corporate volunteering and Pro Bono, then, according to the VTsIOM study conducted in November, in 1st place-assistance to adults and children of orphanages, disabled people, and garbage collection, planting trees and other corporate activity in nature, in the 3rd-educational activities.Moreover, for experts, especially the young generation, the corporate social responsibility of the employer is becoming more and more important.

Millennials are preferred by organizations that contribute to solving social and environmental problems, and this requirement has already expanded to the Zumers - representatives of the next generation. Today's young people are no less concerned with an ESG-fist, and, besides the visible results of the activities of companies, it is important for them to be able to independently participate in processes and practices that help make life better.

Attention is an important emotional component for the young generation. An increase in consumer loyalty today, when society begins to feel the consequences of mass production and saturation of the market with goods, most of which are monotonous, CSR helps brands find their consumers. Among the buyers there are also many people concerned about the ESG manner, so for them the purchase of a certain brand will be not just a consumption, but an act of support for the pro-social activity of the company.

Improving business indicators of a summer longitudinal study of public companies from McKinsey Global Institute showed that business with long-term ESG-orienters is ahead of colleagues for profit, income and investment volumes. According to MorningStar's information and analytical company, funds that invest in shares of companies with a high ESG indicator bring an average higher profitability compared to their traditional analogues.

And the profitability of the company's shares, which, according to the public, have high social responsibility, is higher than that of competitors. Observations show that companies that are holistically responsible for their activities and are concerned about in a good sense with their impact, crises and turbulence are more stable. If we talk about Pro Bono, here, as an example, you can cite the accelerator project for social entrepreneurs, which was made jointly by the resources of Rosbank and Impact Hub Moscow, where Rosbank employees were both mentors and tutors in the program for students.

Corporate volunteering and direct financing of charitable projects are still one of the most popular KSO solutions for Russian business, but some companies begin to integrate non-profit projects in their own business structures: for example, they purchase goods and services from social entrepreneurs, share their know-how with NPOs. As a good example of corporate volunteering, implemented in the territory of the Russian Federation, we can cite the project of the year from Sberbianculation.

The companies included in this ecosystem launched an automated reference service for receiving volunteering applications for the elderly and low-mobility, as well as to inform the population about Covid, the program works using artificial intelligence technology, and thanks to its implementation, the load on call centers operators decreased, and users continued to receive help.

And if this practice fits in global trends, then in Russia with the current economic situation it may be inappropriate. Or does the companies have a reason to continue these projects no matter what? But if we talk about more mundane things, such as the benefit for a particular company, then there will be a reason not to stop. QSO practices help the teams avoid burnout and strengthen emotional ties during a protracted crisis.

According to extensive studies conducted during the pandemic period, the prevailing number of employees consider it important to make socially significant transformations. This also positively affects the mental health of employees, adding additional value to their work. Pandemia has already proved that people are the main asset of business. As a result of this, the company's managers need to build work so that a person can find his calling in the company, was not afraid of changes and saw meaning in his further work in the organization.

A corporate culture in which everyone feels his involvement in something more and can take part in solving global problems is one of the foundations of a strong team. It is important that the approach to employee involvement not only motivates a person to work, but also inspires to do this of his own free will. There are practices that allow employees not only to choose in which direction ESG to realize themselves, but also to make their own proposals.

Moreover, now in the companies of the technological sector, for example, Vimpelcom, MTS have innovative incubators. Thanks to them, today the growth of innovations aimed at solving social and environmental problems, and companies directly associate this growth with employees in the CSR program of the company. It should be expected that this trend will strengthen in the future.

It has a beneficial effect on both the penetration of the CSR and the corporate culture.CSR practices are important for both the surrounding world and the employees themselves, and in the long run become a driver who supports the employees themselves. Corporate social responsibility also sets a tendency to create a whole direction in the field of entrepreneurship, when charitable initiatives become full-fledged elements of business models.

For example, one of the representatives of our BIS card BuySocial platform is an aggregator of goods from social enterprises that business can purchase as corporate gifts. In total, more similar projects are presented on the map.