On 25 June we were guests at Friesland Campina to give a workshop for ICA (Inter Company Association), an association for young professionals from the fifty top employers in the Netherlands. The theme of the evening was the responsibility of companies for their impact on society, in other words: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). More than forty employees (millennials) from companies such as FrieslandCampina, a.s.r, ASML, VolkerWessels, Aegon, Randstad, Tennet, Aon, Arcadis, Eiffel, Royal HaskoningDHV and EY participated in our workshop “CSR Essentials”.

CSR, the new normal for companies

Nowadays at almost every large company you can find a CSR-report on the website. Initiatives such as B-corps, The Shared Value Initiative and The Circle Economy are growing every day and help companies to deal positive with the impact they have on society and the environment. In short, CSR is indispensable for most companies.

The importance of CSR was also confirmed by the young professionals who all agreed that companies have a responsibility for their impact on the world. But on the question whether their company itself is active in the field of CSR, other answers were given. For example, 20% of the people in the room felt that their company was totally inactive in the area of CSR. As many as 52.5% of the people indicated that their company is active but not active enough. And only 27.5% people can proudly say: my company is super active!

How do millennials choose their employer?

Research from the Reputation Institute Benelux shows that ‘Innovation’ and ‘CSR’ account for more than 55% of the ‘drivers’ of a company’s reputation. But do the young professionals of today also choose for an employer with a high CSR standard?

An European study by YoungCapital in collaboration with the University of Utrecht shows that millennials increasingly choose a fun job with a modal salary over boring work with a top salary. What stands out in the research is that CSR’s policy falls outside the top three of what young people consider as the most important when choosing an employer. learning new things, the salary and clear expectations of the employer all go above the performance on CSR. Still 58% of Dutch respondents say CSR is an important subject for choosing a job

How green is the ‘green generation’?

The millennials are sometimes called the ‘green generation’. But is this title true? Research from Milieu Centraal shows that in practice this is very disappointing. A reason for this is the insufficient knowledge and motivation to make the right sustainable choices.

During the workshop we ask the question whether the young professionals have sufficient knowledge about CSR. More than half said they miss knowledge! Often the millennials are interested in CSR but they have a lack of sufficient knowledge to ensure that CSR comes on the agenda of their business. We believe that more knowledge can lead to a perfect match between CSR and millennials!

CSR something  for  you?

CSR  Essentials workshop is  for  (young) professionals  who  are passionate  about  making a  positive  impact (just  like  us!), and  want  to learn  more  about how  to  get started  with  CSR in  your  organization. This  is  the perfect  workshop  if you:

• Want to  get  smart on  the  basics of  CSR
• Area  board  member, manager  or  employee of  a  company that  is  not yet  very  active on  CSR  and you  want  to drive  the  change
• Areworking  at  a company  that’s  already doing  a  lot with  CSR  and you  want  to get  in  on the  action!

Are you interested in a CSR training? Send an  e-mail to  hello@theterrace.nl and we’ll  get  in touch  with  you ASAP.