Lundquist CSR Online Awards Austria 2011
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AWARDS measure . manage . change 2011 Lundquist Assessing CSR Online Awards online CSR communications Austria based on 2011 stakeholders’ needs 26 January 2012 Austria’s top companies fall behind European peers in online CSR communications: CSR Online Awards 2011: about half of companies don’t offer a formal account of their social and environmental Europe’s first study of online CSR impacts. communications 4th edition at European level OMV, EVN and VERBUND have best online 220+ companies evaluated in Europe: rankings CSR communications for Austria, Europe 100, Germany, Italy, Nordic The CSR Online Awards, conducted annually by region, Switzerland and UK communications consultancy Lundquist, comes for the 79 evaluation criteria first time to Austria to examine how the country’s largest 100 points maximum companies communicate corporate responsibility online. 25.5 points average score for the top 20 Austrian companies The study reveals that only a limited number of Austrian 312 responses to survey from CSR experts in 37 companies make corporate social responsibility (CSR) countries an integral part of their online communications strategy. The study assessed the corporate websites of the 20 largest companies in Austria using an evaluation protocol of 79 criteria, totalling 100 points. The criteria were drawn up on the basis of a survey of more than 310 CSR professionals, sustainability experts and rd stakeholder representatives in 37 countries. 3 Lundquist CSR Online Awards Seminar – Venice The CSR Online Awards Austria 2011, published The 3rd Lundquist CSR Online Awards today, finds OMV as the best company for online CSR Seminar held in Venice on 27-28 October 2011, communications, scoring 59 points. EVN came second brought together representatives from more than 50 with 53.5 points, ahead of VERBUND in third position companies across Europe to recognise the winners with 47. of the CSR Online Awards 2011. The seminar featured internationally renowned speakers, Rounding out the top 10 (in descending order) were company case studies and discussion of the future Zumtobel, Telekom Austria, Österreichische Post, of corporate responsibility on the internet. See the Wienerberger, Voestalpine, Raiffeisen Bank and Lundquist website for details and photographs. Strabag. The average score was 25.5 points. Lundquist - www.lundquist.it - [email protected] 1 lundquist. CSR ONLINE lundquist. AWARDS measure . manage . change 2011 CSR Online Awards 2011: evaluating the Results of the research: the challenge of effectiveness of corporate responsibility managing, collecting and communicating communications CSR information The Lundquist CSR Online Awards has examined The CSR Online Awards 2011 Austria evaluated how Europe’s biggest companies are communicating how the 20 biggest Austrian companies (based on corporate responsibility online on the basis of the needs membership of the benchmark ATX index) use the of key users and stakeholders. The study found that web to communicate their environmental and social many firms are failing to build trust in online audiences commitment and performance as well as ethics, because they don’t use the web to communicate governance and stakeholder dialogue. The study the critical and compelling evidence behind their found that most of these firms fail to report to a great commitments to responsibility or sustainability. extent on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues: a limited circle of Austrian companies invest The CSR Online Awards has a dual objective: first, to in sustainability communications and only a handful assess how companies communicate CSR to a wide adopt proactive and engaging online communications range of stakeholders through the corporate website for wider audiences and seek to build relationships and, second, to promote a wider and more efficient use through interactivity, ongoing engagement, dialogue of the Internet for sustainable development. and effective use of social media. The study comprised seven country and regional “Only top ranking Austrian companies are doing rankings – Austria, Europe 100, Germany, Italy, Nordic a decent job of inserting a range of social and region, Switzerland and UK – for a total of more than environmental content into their corporate websites,” 220 companies analysed. said James Osborne, head of CSR communications at Lundquist. “But in an environment of deep suspicion about claims to corporate responsibility or sustainability, all companies need to build a dynamic and interactive CSR Online Awards 2011: facts & figures relationship with online audiences - even in social media 220+ companies evaluated across Europe - by providing a candid, credible and engaging account of their activities, updated on a regular basis.” 20 biggest Austrian companies assessed Each site evaluated twice (top performers a third The average score of the 20 Austrian companies taken time) into consideration was 25.5 points. This was well below the average of 50 points in the Europe 100 ranking, 6 hours on average spent analysing each which considered the 100 biggest companies in the corporate website region (members of the FTSE Eurotop 100 Index). It 1,320 hours of evaluations was also lower than the 49.2-point average for the top 34,800 judgements made 30 companies in Germany any 39 points for the top 20 Swiss firms. No Austrian companies were part of the Hundreds of best practice examples identified Europe-wide study. Team of 7 people dedicated to the research Chart 1: Austrian average and max score in three macro-areas of evaluation protocol Each website was assessed using a set of 79 evaluation 58 criteria (vs. 77 in 2010), drawn up on the basis of a survey Contents 11.9 of more than 310 CSR professionals, sustainability 29.8 experts and stakeholder representatives from 37 countries. The criteria were grouped into 12 sections 18.5 User 9.2 and three macro-areas: Contents, User experience experience 12 and Ongoing engagement. 22.5 Maximum score Ongoing 4.4 Austria average engagement (overall average 25.5/100) 8 Europe average (overall average 50/100) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Source: Lundquist CSR Online Awards 2011 Lundquist - www.lundquist.it - [email protected] 2 lundquist. CSR ONLINE lundquist. AWARDS measure . manage . change 2011 The average Austrian score in the all-important content with engaging, multimedia content and opening section was 21%, a bit lower than the overall average themselves up to dialogue.” Top performers in… of 25.5% for the entire evaluation protocol (see chart 1). The highest scores in this area were registered Overview: OMV (7.5 points out of 9.5), Zumtobel (7) for conventions & associations (30%) and the core and EVN (5.5) environment (24%) and social (20%) sections as well Reporting: OMV (10/12), EVN (8) and VERBUND (6) as for reporting (20%). However, many companies lack the critical information that demonstrates an honest and Environment: EVN (8/8.5), OMV and VERBUND open attitude to corporate responsibility, rather than a (6.5), Zumtobel (5) more limited, disclosure-driven approach (see boxes). Ethics & governance: OMV (3.5/6.5), EVN (3), Tel- ekom Austria and Voestalpine (2.5) Socially responsible investment: OMV (2/6) and EVN (1.5) Disclosure-based content provided… Interactivity: Österreichische Post and Voestalpine About half of companies publish a code of ethics (2/8) 50% present an environmental commitment Dialogue & contacts: VERBUND (7.5/9.5) and EVN (6.5) 40% communicate their social commitment through initiatives and case studies …but critical content missing Challenge for the future: reporting and 70% of firms present no climate change strategy social media No company gives social investment data The CSR Online Awards 2011 found in general that non- 90% do not show the CSR team’s position within the company organisation financial reporting – whether in a standalone report or integrated into the annual report – has become standard practice for almost all of Europe’s biggest companies. As regards the two other macro-areas, Austrian companies performed more strongly on user Among the 100 companies assessed in the European experience (on average 50% of points available). But ranking, for example, all provided some form of social the greatest weakness (average 20% of points available) and environmental reporting on their corporate website was found in ongoing engagement, with a lack of news and four out of five had a CSR section at the first level of and resources, interactive functionality, use of social navigation of their corporate website. media and information about stakeholder engagement (see box). These aspects are critical to constructing In Austria, the scenario is completely different. Only 40% a compelling account of a company’s CSR, building a of companies have a CSR section at the first level of their relationship with stakeholders and providing them with website. Furthermore, 40% of the top 20 companies much sought-after regular updates. don’t publish a non-financial report online (although a few of these present some non-financial information in their annual report); another 40% offer their CSR report only as a PDF with 15% providing an interactive online Weaknesses in ongoing engagement: version (see chart 2). 80% of websites have no social bookmarking or sharing tools Only OMV opted for a web-based report, integrated Only 10% of companies explicitly present their social within the corporate site’s CSR section, an increasingly media accounts through a dedicated page common format among Europe’s biggest companies and an optimal solution that saves users having to No company provides a calendar of CSR events navigate both the corporate website and the report. 80% give no evidence of feedback received from stakeholders By contrast, the CSR Online Awards found that a majority of the biggest companies in Europe are presenting their non-financial reports online (as HTML versions or web- “Providing some information about non-financial based reports), rather than only in PDF. performance is a great step forward compared with the past, but it’s not enough to build trust among stakeholders,” said Joakim Lundquist, founder of Lundquist.