I recently had the pleasure of talking to Gina Connell, CMO of law firm BP Collins about CSR and how the firm had integrated it within their marketing activity.

Before we delved into the marketing aspect of CSR, we had the chance to discuss the differences between CSR and ESG and the impact of the differences. However, we made a mistake at the outset by not defining what Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment, Social, Governance are and assuming everyone would know what the acronyms meant. We did however discuss, and agree, that CSR is the framework that a business needs to establish in order to firstly maximise the benefits of CSR across all areas of the business, including;

• Building the business profile
• Recruiting staff
• Retaining existing staff
• Attracting new clients
• Improving the effectiveness and productivity of the business

And secondly, to ensure that they can deliver the ESG reporting that may be required by some of their clients and will almost certainly become a legal requirement in the next few years.

BP Collins has always been a community led business and as Gina explains, see themselves as an integral part of the community and not just providing legal services to both businesses and individuals alike. What is particularly interesting to hear is the commercial benefits to the business as well as the positive impact on the whole workforce.

Have a listen to the full conversation and if you would like to know more about how to establish a CSR framework please contact me or read more.