The steady rise of CSR and diversity in the workplace

The purpose of this article is to show how two specialist advisers from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) provide practical advice on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and diversity.

The article includes two best practice guides based on the experience and quantitative and qualitative research of the CIPD. The first half focuses on CSR, what it means in the workplace and how HR professionals can implement or encourage its take up in a strategic and meaningful way. The second half tackles diversity, explaining its role in the workplace and its importance to HR professionals in helping organizations gain competitive advantage.

The strategic importance of both issues provides HR with an opportunity to demonstrate its strategic value to the organization. People policies and people management are at the heart of CSR and diversity.

CSR and diversity are similar, in that they both have to be approached with serious intent that results in effective delivery. Purely paying lip service, or poor implementation, is most likely to have negative implications for the business. There are also differences between the two, a key one being that there are best practice approaches to guide HR professionals in approaching CSR, whereas diversity is a more complex concept that relies on approximate reasoning.