The importance of CSR shows no sign of abating in 2008. For a startprime minister Gordon Brown is calling on the world's largestcorporations to focus on the crisis of poverty this year. Meanwhile,negotiations for the successor agreement to Kyoto will also start during2008. But what does CSR mean to human resources?
HR guru Dave Ulrich says communities are well served by HR as firmsbuild reputations for social responsibility and service. In the Yearbookthat accompanies this issue, he adds: "Contribution, an emerging areafor talent, means that employees find personal abundance at work. Thismeans focusing on meaning, purpose, identity, and other disciplines thattouch employee's hearts and souls."
At Human Resources we believe CSR is a competitive advantage and that HRhas a vital role to play - and for this reason we kick off 2008 with ourfirst ever campaign - Make a Difference. We want to encourage you, ourreaders, to take a leadership role in CSR in your organisation and toengage employees in this area in a meaningful way. We have four aims: toraise awareness of CSR among HR professionals; encourage you to get moreinvolved in this area; to develop an action plan for HR to implement;and to share best practice in this area.
Over the coming 12 months we will debate the latest thinking and showwhy CSR and HR are likely bedfellows. We hope to engage you in a numberof ways throughout 2008 and will be working with partners in excitingways. Most importantly, we will show why this makes good businesssense.
So turn to pages 7 and 23 to find out more. Resolve to Make a Differencein 2008 - to your business and in the process to the world around you.This is our call to you.