Data Watch

Corporate Social Responsibility and Job Seekers’ Decision-Making

A new study shows that a potential employer’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) bears little on a job seeker’s ultimate decision to accept a job offer. Only a small percentage of job seekers have rejected employment at any company because the firm lacked a CSR program.

Although 75% of U.S. workers think companies have responsibilities to the community, 70% do not consider a prospective employer’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program very important when it comes to evaluating job offers, according to a survey of 2,000 U.S. workers by Hudson. In fact, only 7% of today’s work force claims that they have ever rejected an offer based on the lack of a company’s CSR program.

Even so, 46% believe it is very important for an organization to have such an initiative. Workers appreciate opportunities to invest in the community when they are given the chance. For instance, 46% of workers work for an organization with a CSR program, and of these employees, 64% participate. Only 20% of workers state that their employer allows them paid time off to volunteer, but of those, 70% take advantage of it.

Formal CSR programs are more prevalent at large companies. Nearly three-fifths of respondents who work for a company with 500+ employees state that their firm has a CSR program. This compares to 45% of all workers. About one-third of workers at companies with less than 100 employees say the same, and, whereas 82% of workers at large companies indicate that the organization arranges volunteer activities, the same is true for just 70% of all workers.

Exploring the attitudes of all job seekers, the Hudson survey reveals little correlation between their decisions to accept job offers and the potentially employing companies’ CSR records. But past findings from the Wall Street Journal–Harris Interactive Business School Survey have indicated that more than 80% of corporate recruiters rank an MBA job candidate’s orientation toward CSR as "very" or "somewhat" important.

Recruiters who know that their companies’ CSR programs may be of little use in wooing potential employees will quickly turn to alternative incentives. Furthermore, recruiters who themselves place a high importance on an MBA’s penchant for CSR will do well to remember that even the candidate best groomed for CSR may place little priority on the potential employer’s CSR record.