Critically Evaluating Royal Mail's CSR Essay.

1.Analyse its relevance to your chosen organization and how it influences policies and decision-making within your chosen organization or industry-sector.

2.Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s response.

3.Demonstrate some areas for improvement in the response of the organization.  

About Royal Mail

Established in 1516, Royal Mail operates as an international postal service provider in the UK and other European nations. The company offers delivery services for letters and parcel under Parcelforce Worldwide and Royal Mail brands. It also offers services for the collection, arranging and delivery of letters and parcels; and designs and makes philatelic items and stamps (Bloomberg, 2018). The company also offers marketing and media mail services. Besides, Royal Mail Plc carries out ground-based parcel-transport networks in Europe involving the GLS network that takes in 41 countries in Europe through fully-owned and associate companies. In addition, it offers logistic, parcel, as well as express services. The company has employed about 200,000 employees across the group where one in every 185 employment in the United Kingdom is provided by Royal Mail Plc (Royal Mail, 2017).

Corporate social responsibility is about the business involved in sustainability. According to Thomas (2015), CSR is considered as part of organization policy where there are several arguments and studies about nature and value that can be attained through implementing CSR. Corporate social responsibility is, therefore, a developing business model that currently does not have a commonly approved definition. Generally, CSR is about how organizations integrate environmental, social and economic aspects into their business activities, decision making process, values and strategies responsibly and in a blatant manner. When an organization adopts a CSR policy, it aspires to develop a purpose of promoting ethical standards and also respecting different stakeholders. The organization undertakes CSR to observe conventionality with its positive CSR strategy.

 

Source: (LinkedIn Corporation, 2018)

Decision making seems to be an essential element in a business environment (Newton, 2013). As a result, every business decision made affect not only stakeholders but also the environment and the community. Organization ethics basically relates to ethics which are defined as the human performances and behaviours within the business. According to Schwartz (2017), CSR is the business devoted to ethically perform while benefiting the stakeholders and developing the economy as well as the community and society. CSR is, therefore, a crucial element for a company such as Royal Mail to make an effective decision while it is optional to other companies enduring income. Corporate social responsibility helps the company to the employee and retains the desirable staffs and it also plays a big role in the company’s performance (Horrigan, 2010).

 

Source: https://www.ramnathjk.com/blogging/the-importance-of-corporate-social-responsibility-creating-social-value

CSR policy can stimulate decisions, particularly where customers try to make a moral understanding. Consecutively, the Royal Mail Plc uses CSR to make a good income for the company. Evidently, form the organization’s website; the company has been successful for years as a result of its effectiveness in implementing CSR in its operations having an annual turnover of over £8 billion (Royal Mail, 2018). Alternatively, the company uses CSR policies and initiatives to build highly valued and consistent reputation of the firm. CSR gives employees a sense of ultimate incomparable satisfaction. The CSR policies thus reinforce the union among staffs for the Royal Mail. For this reason Chandler and Werther (2013) claim that individuals grows a habit of collaborating with one group in order to assist others.  Basically, the staffs start enjoying teaming up and ultimately become remarkable co-workers.

Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

According to Cube Groups (2018), corporate social responsibility can result in enhanced loyalty and employee retention within the organization. This is the reason Royal Mail has been successful in its operations since it was established. Feeling assertively concerning the firm’s CSR policy has been seen to enhance the objectives of the employees to keep on working for Royal Mail Group. Mullerat & Brennan (2011) asserts that an organization with a rising employee’s loyalty, corporate social responsibility can make organizations appear more attractive to interviewees and prospective workers. Royal Mail has engaged CSR and as a result able to attract specialists over other competitors (Royal Mail, 2018).

Royal Mail adopts CSR policies for the benefit of the workforce. Employee benefit is a developing policy for businesses to implement corporate social responsibility in utilizing sustainability status and product enabling companies to develop protection strategy for employees in the company (Thiele, 2013). The CSR and sustainability policies, engagements and collaborations help Royal Mail to recognize the apprehensions and issues of the stakeholders. It uses these policies to acquire proficient information on the company’s critical issues. Corporate social responsibility benefits Royal Mail since it improves its public status. A business that demonstrates their loyalty to different reasons is seen as more compassionate compared to businesses whose CSR activities are missing (Ahmad & Crowther, 2013).

Basically, a public status of a business is at the goodwill of its CSR policies and how conscious consumers are on these policies. According to Royal Mail (2017), the company holds legitimacy interests theory for its CSR policies. It, therefore, holds CSR policy in it businesses such as human rights, health and safety, sustainability and corporate governance (Royal Mail, 2018). Besides, the company uses CSR in building a firm and lasting relationship with the stakeholders (customers and the community) (Eweje & Perry, 2011). For this reason, Royal Mail Plc builds a strong relationship and embraces corporate social responsibility policies through partnering with a non-government institution in order to uphold product growth.

 

Source: (Legrand, 2018)

In the modern day, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become one of the normal business operations (Newground, 2018). For businesses dedicated to CSR, it implies its status and an improved general reputation of the organization. In general, this is a strong affirmation of what the business bears in a repeatedly cynical business environment. According to Chandler and Werther (2013), the development of a CSR approach is an important element of a business’s competitiveness and something that has to be steered by the organization. This means having policies and procedures arranged which integrate environmental, social, human rights or ethical issues into business operations and fundamental approach is cooperation with stakeholders. Cuvilceva (2012) states that corporate social responsibility is important to an organization as it uncovers to both the customers and media that the business takes an interest in wider social issues that have no immediate impact on profit margins.

Decision Making and CSR

Royal Mail Company has five different corporate social responsibility ambitions including social action, health and safety, equality and fairness, environment and social action. As noted earlier by Bloomberg (2018), Royal Mail Plc is one of the leading companies in the UK, as it recruits over 159,000 people across the Group. Therefore, ensuring employee safety and health is a key priority for the company. This section aims at demonstrating that sustainability/CSR done responsibly is accomplished by identifying a company’s important influences on stakeholders and the environment and through measuring, controlling and changing. According to the Sustain Case (2018), the health, wellbeing, and safety of its employees are an incessant priority for the company. Thus, Royal Mail responds positively to ensure industrial health and safety to the employees.

The company takes necessary measures in preventing accidents within the organization and also evaluate risks and learn from accidents that have previously occurred. In addition, Royal Mail investigates fatal accidents and further support takes care of employees’ health and safety (Royal Mail, 2017). It has transformed into a business into an industry that is more receptive, with employees across all Groups teaming up to enhance the workplace and moderate environmental impacts. Recently, the company has been revealed as the leading edie’s sustainability in the UK magnificent ceremony.  The award recognized the postal service company’s capacity to advance the CSR comprehension of its employees and engage them in enhancing the workplace; with certain involvement activities at a local level supporting the company’s overarching sustainability policy (Royal Mail, 2018).

Since 2016, the company has collected over 8000 recycling states through its operations, trying to add to the amount of waste averted from landfill (Royal Mail, 2018). To reinforce the initial program development, the company has developed a focussed environmental plan in order to keep up common communication with in-house employees across all groups, with the frontier employee involved in designing discarded posters. The recycling program concurs with the design of a waste report on monthly, indicating the performance of individual sites monthly waste. In addition, the company has also designed visual exhibitions and local briefings in order to lead employees to uphold engagement (Royal Mail, 2017). As per the carbon program manager at Royal Mail, the employee engagement at all levels is important for steering the company’s sustainability programme across the organization.

Evidently, from the annual report, the results have been exceedingly positive as per the current statistics (Royal Mail, 2017). In 2016, 47% of the company’s 835 sites in the UK had averted 100% landfill waste. Furthermore, in the same year, Royal Mail diverted 84.4% from landfill, amounting to 4.3% over the overall objective (Royal Mail, 2017). On the basis of friendly environment, the company assigns leaders of environmental pillars with recognizing and driving energy and other environmental effectiveness at the organization level, with ordinary coverage on performance. Therefore, the company strictly reviews program implementation across the operation to help honour the accomplishment of all the individuals involved in the company. For now, success and finest practices are shared through internal means of communication such as a monthly broadsheet.

Employee Loyalty and CSR

According to the 2016-2017 annual report, Royal Mail Plc is focussed on providing improved effectiveness; flexibility and innovation as it deliver fewer emails and more parcels. As are a result, the company is currently collaborating with its unions to concur and execute its forthcoming visions (Royal Mail Plc, 2018). The company is committed to providing a first-class service while, simultaneously, transforming the industry’s operations to reach development opportunities in the parcels marketplace and meet fast revolutionizing expectations for the employees. As earlier noted, the employees’ health and safety is a key priority for Royal Mail and a fundamental part of the company’s fragmentary transformation. Between 2016 and 2017, the company increased its focus on road security and safety by adding RTCFR to the corporate balanced scorecard (Royal Mail, 2017).

Royal Mail Plc value working with integrity as it is important for protecting its reputation and safeguarding the company’s esteemed status in the society. The Royal Place (2017) added that the company trained about 98% of managers across the firm by means of customized anti-corruption and bribery e-learning programs. The company also strictly work with authorities to eradicate illegal activity that uses the postal system. As a result, Royal Mail has introduced a series of measures to reinforce the company’s capacity to halt the issue of scam letter. Besides, the company discusses its CSR activities and strategy with various stakeholders, including the shareholders of the firm. Every two years, Royal Mail engages nearly 50 stakeholders from groups standing in for suppliers, investors, employees and environmental agents (Royal Mail, 2017). Through this strategy, the company achieves a better understanding of the basic issues that is expected of the company to report on and acquire important insight to support decision making for the firm.

One of the major areas of opportunity, risk, and influence is the effectiveness of energy. According to the 2016/2017 annual report, Royal Mail Plc operates a range of processing industries for parcels and emails, and the company is delivering letters and parcels to over 30 million addresses every week (Royal Mail, 2017). For this reason, the company should have a substantial shipping infrastructure and one of the leading task force operations in the United Kingdom. The company should, therefore, focus on fuel and energy as a major precedence. The vehicles used in transportation and delivery of parcels and mails should have in-cab developments using innovative skills to ensure effective fuel and energy use. Since, in such a big company, things take time to be achieved, it is important to understand that one cannot do everything straight away (Thiele, 2013). It is therefore important for the company to crack down on the things that make a difference in a range of work environments.

Environmental Responsibility

Royal Mail plc should thus choose to develop an issue by issue footing, focusing on the needs as they identify them. This implies that the company must be comprehensible about both sustainability and business connection so as to make the perfect choice of priorities and distribute resources suitably. In response to challenges caused by sustainability and CSR within the company, Royal Mail realizes the need for employee engagement. The industry is conscious that without a wider internal corroboration, the opportunity for success is negligible (Royal Mail Plc, 2018). As a result, Royal Mail should protect the employees by ensuring their pleasure in employment can bring about productivity and income since they are the support of the organization.

Delighted employees are likely to exhibit a positive approach and desire to collaborate with colleagues and have greater interests in their performances (Fernando, 2010). The company must also tackle security issues through supporting and coordinating the common communications function as it is thoroughly figured out at the business level. Royal Mail must, therefore, try to embark on these challenges by identifying the likely comprehensible criteria for all activities and developing these challenges into the process of assessment operation. In addition, the company must try to acquire the appropriate individuals so as to improve stakeholder engagement as a key element of CSR and sustainability (Royal Mail, 2017).

There is an increasingly physical and mental demand for the staffs, resulting from both the administrative centre and from demanding and multifaceted lifestyles (Royal Mail, 2017). However, the company wants to offer outstanding work-related health support and uphold a successful and healthy workforce. As a result, it is important for the company to recognize the mental and physical issues arising in the organization and also show the employees that they are appreciated by the company. Royal Mail can also provide employees with the support to deal with the issues they encounter as it makes a good sense to the business. In addition, the company must ensure a more quickly return to work after injury or illness. Labour-intensive handling is one of the leading grounds of in injuries within Parcelforce (Thiele, 2013). So, there is a need for the company to establish a committed safety team in order to help employees pick up and transport things safely.   

The company is devoted to ensuring that the suppliers uphold high standards of ethical, social and environmental conduct. The aim of the company has been on moderating the cost base of the organization (CSRHUB, 2018). However, the challenge has been to do this and at the same time carrying onto ensure that the suppliers act sustainably and in a responsible manner. The company believes that it is crucial to adopt a Supplier Code of Conduct (SCC) to make sure the suppliers are totally aware of the company’s expectations (Royal Mail Plc, 2017). On the other hand, the issue on the environment as a key component of CSR is a major threat to the society (Hopkins, 2016). Thus, Royal Mail aims to ensure that its business activities have a positive influence on the future of the company and a negligible impact on the business environment. Controlling and moderating its environmental impact responsibly will help the company cut costs, compete in an effective way and also continue to deliver outstanding service to the esteemed customers (O’riordan, Zmuda & Heinemann, 2015).

Royal Mail CSR Success Story

Conclusion

It is important for organizations to prioritize where their key issues will be based on particularly when setting up a CSR policy. However, some organizations may aspire to follow social, environmental and physical components but in a substantial manner. Other businesses might primarily choose to follow one or two components of corporate social responsibility and search for different programmes as the initiation develops. As per the report above, CSR is important in an organization in terms of ensuring higher returns among employees, promotes healthy relationship among stakeholders, good reputation in the marketplace and boosting the profitability of the business in the country. Therefore, Royal Mail Group must operate a strong CSR component and sustainability in order to improve and gain a competitive advantage and enable the company to have a lasting success.  

List of References

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Royal Mail. (2017). Royal Mail Plc Annual Report and Financial Statements 2016-17. [Online] Available at: https://www.royalmailgroup.com/sites/default/files/Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts%202016-17_0.pdf

Sustain Case. (2018). How Royal Mail Ensures Occupational Health and Safety. [Online] Available from: https://sustaincase.com/case-study-how-royal-mail-ensures-occupational-health-and-safety-2/ [Accessed 25 April 2018]

Mullerat, R., & Brennan, D. (2011). Corporate social responsibility: the corporate governance of the 21st century. Alphen aan den Rijn, Kluwer Law International.

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Cuvilceva, M. (2012). The importance and significance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting. Munich, GRIN Verlag GmbH.

CSRHUB. (2018). Improve a company’s sustainability performance. [Online] Available from: https://www.csrhub.com/CSR_and_sustainability_information/Royal-Mail-Group-plc

Schwartz, M. S. (2017). Business ethics: an ethical decision-making approach. Chichester: Wiley.

Thomas, R. M. (2015). Business ethics and corporate social responsibility: Cambridge-Gourlay-Trinity lectures.  

Royal Mail Group. (2018). Royal Mail Website. Available at  https://www.royalmail.com/

O'riordan, L., Zmuda, P., & Heinemann, S. (2015). New perspectives on corporate social responsibility: locating the missing link. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

Fernando, A. C. (2010). Business ethics and corporate governance. Delhi, Dorling Kindersley (India), licensees of Pearson Education in South Asia.

Royal Mail Plc. (2017). Royal Mail Corporate Responsibility Report 2016-17. [Online] Available from: https://www.royalmailgroup.com/sites/default/files/Royal%20Mail%20CR%20Report%202016-17_1.pdf

Newton, L. H. (2013). Ethical decision making: introduction to cases and concepts in ethics. Cham, Springer.

Horrigan, B. (2010). Corporate social responsibility in the 21st century: debates, models and practices across government, law and business. Cheltenham, UK. : Edward Elgar.

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Thiele, L. P. (2013). Sustainability. New York, NY, John Wiley & Sons.

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