Taking care of business

With big business comes the big responsibility of taking care of the community and the environment. Increasingly, university leavers are seeking graduate jobs at firms taking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seriously. Sara Newman talks to one global firm to find out what CSR means to them and their graduate employees.

‘We want to succeed in business but we also want to change the world for the better. Why do these two things have to be mutually exclusive? The answer is they don’t,’ says communications graduate Stephanie Struh, who took part in The Prince’s Trust Enterprise at Proctor and Gamble (P&G).

‘The world is waking up to what an impact corporations can make on this planet - whether through a fundraiser or utilising marketing muscle to run cause-related marketing campaigns and I’m excited to see what we can do together,’ says Stephanie.

As a brand led company, several of the P&G brands have significant CSR programmes that graduates working in those brands can get involved in. ‘A graduate could start as a Pampers Assistant Brand Manager, for example, and they would be very heavily involved in our programme linked with UNICEF,’ says Kirstie Hawkes, UK Sustainability Affairs Manager.

‘In this programme to help children, we donate one tetanus vaccine with each special pack of Pampers sold and together we are working with an objective of eliminating maternal and neonatal tetanus by 2012,’ says Kirstie. ‘To date in the UK alone we have already donated 23 million vaccines.’

Getting involved

With P&G viewing social responsibility as key in tacking world sustainability challenges, their employees are also encouraged to think about CSR whatever their role or activities are on a day-to-day basis, and to get involved in the community where they live and work.

‘Volunteering their skills, training and energy is really encouraged. Last year 700 employees were actively involved in various CSR activities and community projects, both in their own, and their work time. We encourage our graduates to take part and we try to immerse them in the culture of CSR from the beginning. Many of them then go on to be CSR leaders in different projects.’

In fact, within three days of starting at P&G the new graduates who arrived this September got involved by gardening at The Children’s Trust. Before long, graduates are encouraged to initiate their own activities. This year the new graduate team in business development chose to support The Prince’s Trust and aim to raise £20,000. They are currently on track, having organised everything from cake sales and balloon races to auctions.

‘It was definitely a challenge outside of our day jobs, but a great opportunity to contribute to a good cause and have some fun along the way,’ says chemistry graduate Rachael Long.

Skills required

Another way that new graduates may get involved is through Young Enterprise. ‘We have an amazing programme called Learn to Lead, which is a skills development programme for school students in the community,’ says Kirstie.

‘Our new graduates will help train students in selling skills, or organisational and presentation skills. Graduates will also gain leadership skills, collaboration skills, and how to communicate effectively with people. Teaching people also helps reinforce teach a skill to yourself so that can be extremely useful, and it can show initiative - these are all really important career skills to have.’

Jemisha Solanski, a business and marketing graduate from Coventry University found the programme really inspiring. ‘Being part of Young Enterprise is something that I’m passionate and proud of.  It’s great to be part of a company that can have such a focus to drive programmes like this, which help develop and grow our future potential leaders. 

‘I also love that in my role of Marketing, I am still able to stay in touch with these future leaders and do my best to help them succeed in what they are thriving to do. The young adults I work with are inspiring with the new talent they bring and are refreshing to be around,’ says Jemisha.

Suggestions to editorial@prospects.ac.uk