Download - African Bank

The progress
The corporate social
citizenship management
rating (CCMR)
As the first step in the assessment of its
sustainability model, ABIL commissioned
African Institute of Corporate Citizenship
(AICC) to conduct a study of its current
sustainability practices. The analysis
focused on the management of
corporate citizenship as opposed to
output-based measures of social or
environmental impact. It considered
international best practices and
addressed the transformational issues in
a South African context. The analysis has
four dimensions which are applied across
15 elements of corporate citizenship. The
dimensions consider:
Practices – Current corporate
citizenship activities within the
company
Formalisation – The extent to which
those practices have been formalised
Embedding – The way those
practices are being embedded
across the organisation
Integration – The way all elements
of corporate citizenship are
integrated under one banner.
Elements identified as being relevant to
corporate citizenship cover a wide
spectrum of corporate activities,
including company governance, control
and management, workplace and
employment practices, operational
practices, the supply chain, the market
and the external environment (including
both social and environmental issues).
More specifically, 15 elements were
identified as relevant, and research
(interviews with senior management) was
conducted for each of these corporate
citizenship elements.
Labour/employee relations
Human resource and skills
development
Developmental procurement
Supply chain compliance
Safety and health
Physical environment
Social impact of operations
HIV/Aids
Product stewardship and brand ethics
Corporate governance
Employment equity
Black ownership and control
Corporate social investment
Human rights
Leadership in corporate citizenship
The analysis looked at what activities are
carried out, and how these are
implemented within the group. The
focus is on inputs required to achieve
social and environmental responsibility,
rather than on actual social and
environmental impact, or perceptions.
The composite rating for each corporate
citizenship element and dimension
enables a footprint of corporate
citizenship management performance for
the company. This footprint can be used
in a number of ways:
– Areas of underperformance can
be identified, per element or
by comparison between each
dimension. An action plan can
be developed to address areas
of acknowledged weakness.
– The performance of the
company can be tracked over
time. By updating the ratings in
a year or two, the company can
identify and highlight areas of
improvement.
– The overall rating of the
company can be used to
demonstrate responsible
corporate citizenship behaviour
and planning, both internally
and externally.
– Once the overall sample is
sufficiently large, the company
can benchmark its own scores
against an aggregated total of
other large South African
companies.
The framework will enable the group
to assess its current performance, to
develop a plan of improvement and
implementation of management
systems, to set out reporting schedules
and objectives, and to begin the process
of ingraining corporate citizenship as a
way of doing business.
Extract from the
corporate citizenship
management rating
survey
“Good practices, fairly well
embedded
African Bank fares adequately against
the CCMR. However, there is scope for
improvement in certain areas.
In terms of the four dimensions referred
to above, African Bank performs best on
practices and embedment, indicating
that it is making a concerted effort, in
most areas, to progress its corporate
citizenship practices.
African Bank scores highly in terms of
the extent to which certain elements
have been formalised, but poorly in
other areas.”
“Integrated management
lacking in many areas
As with most organisations using the
CCMR model, African Bank fares less
well when considering all 15 elements as
an integrated approach to being a good
corporate citizen. Although African Bank
displays strong leadership in the
adoption of corporate citizenship as a
business philosophy, responsibility for
formalising and co-ordinating citizenship
activities is not yet sufficiently centralised
within the organisation. The lower
integration score therefore implies that
better synergies could be established
between the different elements of
corporate citizenship.
It is evident that African Bank is
cognisant of its responsibility to be a
good corporate citizen and is making a
concerted effort to further its status.
It was clear from the interviews that there
is a desire to formalise many of the
elements, establishing policies, setting
targets and guidelines, reviewing
progress and embedding an
understanding through awareness
programmes and training among staff.
Such a process should result in a more
holistic management and reporting of
corporate citizenship within African
Bank.”
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African Bank Investments Limited