Recommended actions to foster the adoption of Corporate Social ...

3.2 WorkplaceThe CSR workplace area is not perceived, by SMEs,as relevant for the survival and competitiveness oftheir business in the short term, mainly because ofthe high level of unemployment and informalemployment. However, they think that in the longtermworkplace issues, such as employment policies,child labor rights, health and safety norms, genderpolicies and compliance may affect both SMEcompetitiveness and Colombian economic growth.While the development of activities in theworkplace area, aimed at improving conditions foremployees, has not yet begun in Colombian SMEs,it has begun in other types of organizations such aslarge companies, financial institutions and stateorganizations that are already engaged in humanrights campaigns and in better workplace practices.The efforts of these organizations serve as anexample for society and the organizations often tryto engage SMEs in their programs.Since November 2004, the Government ofColombia has continued to advance the social andlabor agendas. In addition to carrying out actionssupported by the Labor Reform and a SocialDevelopment Policy Loan (World Bank, 2006), newinitiatives have been undertaken in several sectors,most notably in the education sector with greateremphasis on pre-school and post-secondary (nonprofessional)education. The government continuesto experiment with employment programs to supporthard-to-employ workers, and a renewed initiative toidentify and correct the structural constraints.There are only 50 companies in Colombia whosehealth and safety management systems are certifiedagainst OHSAS 18001 (Colombian SecurityCouncil, 2006).3.3 CommunityIn Colombia, the community area of CSR is notperceived as valuable, by SMEs. Their opinion isthat community issues such as public-privatepartnerships are not widespread and are perceivedas affecting only the overall sustainabledevelopment and not SME development at present,or in the mid- to long-term.The research on CSR in Latin American SMEs(Vives, Corral and Isusi, 2005) emphasizes thatColombian CSR activities directed towards localcommunities is low compared to those in otherLatin American countries. For example, educationalactivities (run outside the enterprises) are backed by9.7 percent of interviewed Colombian companies,compared to 23.6 percent overall in Latin America;actions directed towards disabled and poor peopleaccount for 9.6 percent in Colombia compared to26.7 percent in the region; and participation inpublic activities accounts only for 5.5 percent inColombia compared to 18 percent in Latin America.3.4 EnvironmentIn Colombia, SMEs perceive the environment areaof CSR as valuable for their operations. They thinkthat environment issues such as environmentalmanagement, regulation 61 and compliance,monitoring and climate change may affect theireconomic development in the mid- to long-term.In a recent survey of the Andean region, whichcompares Colombia to Ecuador, the researchersclaim that Colombia is by far the country with thestrongest and best-developed environmentalregulatory institutions. The results of regressionanalysis 62 and qualitative responses from firmsconfirm that government regulatory pressure is themost important influence on firm behavior.61 For a complete overview of the environmental regulatory system, see Blackman, A., Hoffmann, S., Morgenstern, R., and Topping, E., 2005.62 www.cid.harvard.edu/esd/programs/urbanmgt/envcost.html70 Recommended actions to foster the adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)