With many businesses showing their social responsibility during the pandemic the question now arising is whether companies will still rally to support employees, communities, and each other in the post COVID-19 world, when many find themselves under immense pressure to stem losses caused by fallen demand and costly new safety measures introduced during the pandemic. And, of course, the economic damage the virus is causing is dominating the headlines: The pandemic is set to increase existing inequalities in societies and countries, with job losses being far more extensive in lower income brackets, the World Bank recently stated. The organisation forecast a 5.2% contraction in global GDP occurring in 2020 alone, the greatest recession in eight decades, with companies expected to contract by 7%. And with a potential second wave of virus infections a possible reality in the coming months, worse outcomes may emerge.
However, against this bleak setting, the following examples give evidence that corporates, industry networks and other organisations are committed to further strengthen their focus on social considerations in the “new normal”:
Employees
A recent Willis Towers Watson survey of 177 UK employers found that more companies are looking to enhance their employee benefits than reduce them. Top priorities include wellbeing programmes (60%), mental health and stress management services (58%), annual leave policies (26%) and voluntary benefits (23%). Real estate-company JLL, for example, created an online portal of company resources to guide employees’ mental, physical and financial health, and foster their sense of belonging. They’ve also started to monitor their employees’ mental health via surveys and plan to continue with those engagement tools post pandemic, expecting that more staff will continue to work from home going forward.
To recognise its frontline workers, BT raised their annual salary by 1.5% effective from 1 July 2020, while managerial staff will not receive a pay rise in 2020/21. The telecommunications company also granted £500 of BT shares to all employees in June, equalling a £50m investment.
Customers
In addition to the aforementioned customer services that supermarket chains (dedicated shopping hours for the elderly and for NHS staff), restaurants (take away meals) and pharmacies (free delivery of medicine) and many other corporates introduced during national lockdowns across the globe, companies have started to think further ahead: AT&T, as well as Comcast, Verizon, CenturyLink, and T-Mobile and dozens of other telecom providers pledged to preserve phone-and-internet service for those customers that are unable to pay their bills. AT&T also announced to temporarily upgrade all plans to unlimited data and is launching six new Command Centers to help with increased customer support and bandwidth demand.
Suppliers
In July, global non-profit organisation “Business for Social Responsibility” (BSR) alerted its 250 member companies and other partners that cancelling or delaying purchasing orders may result in supply chain workers losing their livelihoods and accepting precarious work, while, as the economy recovers, last minute orders could create or exacerbate situations of modern slavery in supply chains. BSR called for businesses to engage proactively with suppliers in order to find out how to best support them financially and practically.
Many firms have done just that: The Coca-Cola company for example has pulled together a set of actions to support its suppliers, relying on partnership and mutual engagement. Amongst other measures the firm committed to timely payment of invoices and offers support for its suppliers’ cash liquidity through its
$1 billion supply chain financing program. Coca-Cola also helps its supply chain partners to get back to business more easily by engaging with public authorities and regulators to find safe ways to keep food production, trade and supply chains open.
Likewise, Unilever has offered €500 million of cash flow relief across its supply chain and early payments to small and medium suppliers. The company also said it is extending credit to selected small-scale retail customers.
Communities
Corporate compassion reached new heights during the peak of the pandemic with large numbers of businesses of any size donating to food banks, giving to charity appeals and encouraging staff to volunteer by offering paid holidays to do so.
Going forward, corporates are tailoring their donations and social initiatives to specific target groups within communities: German pharmaceutical company, Boehringer Ingelheim, for example, has launched an €580,000 relief fund to support the global Making More Health (MMH) network of social entrepreneurs in Kenya and India, as well as the communities in which they live and work. The fund will help social enterprises and their activities to sustain a longer period of low economic activity.
British mining company Anglo-American designed a Community Response Plan by engaging with the communities it operates in to understand their needs and ensure it offers the right support at the right time, both during the pandemic and during the economic recovery phase. Anglo-American has made the plan publicly available for other companies to use.
Corporates collaborating with governments
While Amazon joined a coalition of UK companies, universities and research institutions to boost the UK government’s COVID-19 testing capacity by offering to deliver test kits across the UK via its logistics network, the most prominent example of businesses and governments partnering to jointly fight the virus is the partnership of tech giants Apple and Google to develop application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing in various countries, including the UK.
Companies helping other businesses
And there’s more help at hand, with global market leaders offering free support to businesses – another piece of evidence that businesses are taking seriously their corporate social responsibility. Accounting firm, PwC, for example, has created a free COVID-19 Navigator to help organisations understand the impact of the pandemic on every area of their business, including their supply chain. The company has also launched a tool to track tax, legal and economic measures undertaken in countries around the world in response to COVID-19.
Similarly, American software company Salesforce is helping businesses globally plan their response journey to COVID-19, through a variety of scenario planning resources covering the next 18-36 months. Meanwhile, CcHub, Africa’s largest innovation incubator, announced it will offer funding and engineering support to firms developing tech projects which can help to curb the social and economic impact of COVID-19.
Global network initiatives
In addition, there are other global initiatives from industry networks and other organisations. The World Economic Forum for example launched a COVID Action Platform, calling for its members to cooperate in order to limit the disruption to lives and economies around the world during and after the pandemic. It also launched its “Great Reset” initiative, a long-term commitment to rebuild the foundations of our economic and social system for a fairer, more sustainable future.
The global network “Business Fights Poverty”, which brings together companies and people wanting to tackle specific societal issues, published a “Rebuild better Framework” in May this year, which outlines how business can support the needs of their stakeholders, from employees to supply chain partners, customers and communities across three areas of impact: in their lives (health and safety), livelihoods (jobs and incomes) and learning (education and skills).
The investors community equally committed to help with the economic recovery: In March this year, the UNPRI urged its signatories to support sustainable companies through this crisis “even if that limits short-term returns.” In turn, BMO Global Asset Management, together with 194 other investors representing over $4.7 trillion in assets under management, urged the business community in an investor statement “to take what steps they can” and to consider in particular to provide paid leave, prioritize health and safety of their workers, maintain employment, maintain supplier and customer relationships and apply the highest level of ethical financial management and responsibility.