Survey Reveals Consistent Corporate Support for Social Responsibility Programs
Provided by the career experts at Robert Half Management Resources

Corporate social responsibility programs have been in the public spotlight in recent years, but a new survey suggests these initiatives have long been popular with companies. More than three-quarters (84 per cent) of chief financial officers (CFOs) polled said programs that support charitable giving or community involvement are important to their organizations. The results mirror a similar survey conducted in 2002.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Management Resources, the world’s premier provider of senior-level accounting and finance professionals on a project and interim basis. It was conducted by an independent research firm and includes responses from 270 CFOs from a stratified random sample of Canadian companies with 20 or more employees.

CFOs were asked, “For your firm, how important are social responsibility programs, such as charitable giving or volunteer community service?” Their responses:          

                            

		2007	2002
Very important	.......................	37%	35%
Somewhat important	.......................	47%	39%
Not at all important	.......................	13%	*21%
Don’t know/no answer	.......................	3%	5%
		100%	100%

                                                                                          

* For 2002, the “not at all important” category combines the “not very important” and “not at all important” responses.

“Even though businesses have long recognized the importance of giving back to the communities they serve, growing interest in corporate responsibility efforts may be prompting firms to become more sophisticated at communicating their good works to employees and the larger business community,” said Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources.