E-Magazine
Supplied by Institute of Business Ethics
Companies with strong ethical commitments have historically outperformed the average: an index of the World’s Most Ethical Companies showed that these organisations outperformed the Standard & Poor 500 and FTSE 100 every year from 2005 to 2010.
http://ethisphere.com/wme2010/
Kelly Services Survey statistics (interviewed around 100,000 people in 34 countries around the world) – 2009 survey
• 88 percent of respondents are more likely to want to work for a company that is considered ethically and socially responsible.
• 56 percent say that in deciding where to work, an organization’s reputation for ethical conduct is ‘very important.’
• 26 percent would be prepared to accept a lesser role or a lower salary to work for a firm with a strong environmental and community conscience.
A total of 48 percent of baby boomers would be prepared to take a pay cut or a demotion in order to work with a socially conscientious employer, followed by Gen X at 28 percent and Gen Y at 24 percent.
http://www.easyir.com/easyir/kellyservices/KGWI_Global_Social_Responsibility_final10-26-09.pdf
Sirota survey 2007
http://www.sirota.com/pdfs/Corporate_Social_Responsibility_June_2007.pdf
Respondents outlined these benefits of an effective and comprehensive CSR program:
• Good for the bottom line (87% of respondents)
• Generates a greater sense of employee pride and results in greater employee engagement (85%)
• Enhances customer loyalty (84%)
• Attracts new customers (80%)
• Minimize the costs and consequences of regulatory activist pressures (65%)
A study of MBA students asked them how much pay they would be willing to forgo in order to work for a company that 1) cares about employees 2) cares about stakeholders beyond shareholders and 3) committed to sustainability.
90% said they would accept a lower salary in order to work for an employer that cares about its employees, and 94% said they would give up some pay to work for an employer who cares about all three aspects. The actual amount they were willing to give up is as follows: they would forgo around 8% of income to work for an employer committed to its employees and would give up 11.9% to work for a company that exhibited all three characteristics.
2009 IBE Attitudes of the British Public to Business Ethics Survey: 52% of the British public thought that UK business behaved very/fairly ethically, a small increase from 2008 (51%). There was a slight rise of 2% (to 31%) in the number of respondents thinking that business is behaving more ethically than ten years ago http://www.ibe.org.uk/publications/Briefing_13.pdf
Edelman Trust Barometer: 67% of the UK population trust business less than they did at the same time last year. When asked whether we trust business to do what is right the figure is the same in 2009 as it is in 2008 – 45%. Full report is here: http://www.edelman.com/trust/2009/docs/Trust_Book_Final_2.pdf
The Ipsos MORI trust in professions survey: In 2009 business leaders were amongst the least trustworthy (25%) just above journalists (22%), government ministers (16%), and politicians generally (13%). This was a significant fall from 2008 – minus five percentage points.
http://www.ipsos-mori.com/DownloadPublication/1305_sri-trust-in-professions-2009.pdf
According to research carried out by the Co-Op, 30% of consumers say they always make an effort to buy products and services from businesses that behave responsibly. While this number has fallen from 36% in research conducted in 2006, there is an increase, from 19% to 25%, in the numbers of people willing to pay a little extra if they know that the business behaves responsibly. 73% rate treatment of staff and suppliers as the most significant determining factor for what makes a responsible business, with other significant markers being honesty and transparency (69%) and senior management behaving with integrity (69%).
http://www.co-operative.coop/upload/27969812/Ethical%20Consumerism%20Report.pdf
Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2009 says that 77% of respondents refused to buy products or services from a distrusted company, while 91% chose to buy from trusted companies (more info can be found in the IBE surveys briefing http://www.ibe.org.uk/publications/Briefing_16.pdf)
56% of people are still willing to pay a premium for products that meet higher ethical standards, and 53% would choose to work for a company that was ethically and environmentally responsible given the choice (source: report from seewhatyouarebuyinginto.com 2009).