2009-11-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

Issue Date: October/November 2007, Posted On: 11/14/2007

Wanted: Socially Responsible Employment

Companies and their CEOs are encountering job seekers who are looking for best corporate citizenship. A blog by Bob Langert, vice president for CSR at McDonald's tracks the trend

By Francis Adams

General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, last week, accepted the Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) on behalf of the company from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a ceremony in Washington, DC.

GE received the award in recognition for its corporate social responsibility efforts, specially its active involvement in Tsunami relief efforts and for employee volunteerism and educational programs.

It is this role of corporate citizenship that seniors among the Gen Y (1978 to 1989), set to enter the workforce in Corporate America are looking for in a potential employer, more than the size and the position of the company. More company CEOs are realizing the importance of "green recruiting" as they ask their company recruiters to explain the company's commitment to the environment and the community to an increasing number of potential candidates seeking socially responsible employment.

McDonald's Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility Bob Langert has highlighted such an experience in his blog "Corporate Citizenship and The War For Talent" in McD's CSR blog called "Open for Discussion".

He writes: "Everyone I know checks out the websites of companies they are interviewing with to see what they do for the environment. It is part of choosing a company."

Net Impact, an international not-for-profit organization based in San Francisco, California and network of more than 10,000 new leaders and MBA students committed to using the power of business to improve the world, recently organized a forum of such students and professionals along with the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. Called "Building a Sustainable Future: What Will You Do Next?" the forum had speakers including Chad Holliday, Chairman and CEO of Dupont.

Langert has also quoted an interesting essay by Bradely Googins, executive director for the Center for Corporate Citizenship in which Googins draws an analogy of today's job seekers to that of free agents from major American sports, saying that today employers are "caught between two contradictory trends and values: Lifetime employment has been replaced by employees as free agents, and business success is tied even more to intense competition for building a strong human asset base - in other words, attracting and maintaining the best and the brightest.".

Langert concludes his blog with what his own daughter feels about CSR and wants to do for a career. He writes: "She told me how she wanted to do something to make a difference in the world. She and her peers are our future. As with any "war"--in this case, a "war for talent" - there will be organizations that are winners and losers. But it is a war I can support full-heartedly."

Bye, bye John Mackey blog?

Whole Foods seem to have put a lid on blogging, including its CEO blog by John Mackey that almost brought trouble to the company. In an updated "Code of Business Conduct" released on November 2, the company has banned any posting on the part of any member of the Company Leadership, unless approved by the Nominating and Governance Committee, not surprisingly, signed with a message by Mackey himself.

Under Online Forums, it says: "To avoid the actual and perceived improper use of Company information, and to avoid any impression that statements are being made on behalf of the Company, unless approved by the Nominating and Governance Committee, no member of Company Leadership (as defined below) may make any posting to any non-Company-sponsored internet chat room, message board, web log (blog), or similar forum, concerning any matter involving the Company, its competitors or vendors, either under their name, anonymously, under a screen name, or communicating through another person. Violation of this policy will be grounds for dismissal. For purposes of this paragraph, "Company Leadership" includes each Company director, Executive Team member, Global Vice President, Regional President and Regional Vice President. For other Team Members, other policies may apply and they should consult the GIG."

However, the company has not yet removed the introduction to Mackey's blog on its web site which invites readers to "Check out our current blogs".

url:
http://www.chiefexecutive.net/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=204E90465C064E93AC40F7F4297EF047

Reducing Carbon Footprint Finds Open Mike

2009-11-18T07:11:00.000-08:00

Issue Date: October/November 2007, Posted On: 10/30/2007

Reducing Carbon Footprint Finds Open Mike

Pitney Bowes Executive Chairman Mike Critelli has a strategy on reducing carbon emissions from vehicles through his blog Open Mike. Chiefexecutive.net felt it deserves the attention of readers

By Francis Adams

More and more CEOs within Corporate America are finally dealing with issues of global warming and climate change that has taken centre stage worldwide. The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark judgment, in April, that said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles and classifying CO2 as pollutant has only helped add fuel to the growing pressure on combating environmental pollution and global warming.

Mike Critelli, executive chairman of Pitney Bowes who has earned praise as an independent thinker, besides his decades of experience as a global business leader feels that "the biggest opportunity to address both the issues in one strategy is the reduction of carbon from vehicle emissions into the air." In "Open Mike", his regular blog launched a few months ago, Critelli offers "Environmental Improvement Strategies" for reducing carbon vehicles emissions and environmental pollution with what he calls as some of the "no-brainers".

He asks: Why not eliminate all toll plazas and substitute either E-Z-Pass-type solutions or photos that capture a driver's license plate number and result in a bill being sent to the driver?

Why not give many more voters the chance to vote by mail?

Why not have more government license acquisition transactions done by mail or over the Internet? And��

Why not have more pharmaceuticals delivered by mail or through a local delivery system serving a number of small merchants, particularly to elderly citizens?

His suggestions though may be open to questions like: will such measures be widely accepted to make them feasible? And how effective will such "no-brainers" turn out to be considering the fact that motor vehicles are responsible for releasing 20 percent of the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Critelli writes that apart from those actions "we need to look at all of our governmental and private sector actions through a different set of lenses."

Pitney Bowes was, last week, honored by the National Business Group on Health for its behavioral health services program that helps employees with behavioral health issues, regardless of cause, to overcome them through early intervention to be able to return to work promptly. In "Adherence to Treatment Plans", Critelli discusses arguments like "How do employers confidentially and optimally encourage employees to be compliant with the treatment plans they develop with their physicians?" and what they can do about it.

CEO Who Loves Going to the Movies

Bill Marriott is arguably the only Fortune 500 company CEO who has made public his love for movies, especially the Westerns. In Marriott on the Move, he even reviews the latest western he saw: 3:10 to Yuma, which has Russell Crowe as the hero.

url:
http://www.chiefexecutive.net/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=D4B1018960BA414C95DD85834B1D3CA7