Boost Engagement Among First to Market with CSR Report

Dawn Conway, Boost Engagement CEO, explains why her organization decided to publish a Corporate Responsibility Report long before most others in her company’s marketplace.

Boost Engagement LLC may be the first private company in the engagement field to publish a Corporate Responsibility Report, but, contrary to what one might think, CEO Dawn Conway says she hope this spurs on other organizations in the field to do the same.

“I really hope we can contribute to the industry in terms of getting more companies to adopt this. It’s great for all of us. This gives us a role and opportunity to help move the needle for the industry. Every company public or private should publish a Corporate Responsibility Report.”

In the coming years, almost all companies with a dozen or more employees will publish Corporate Sustainability (also called Responsibility) reports, in response to growing pressure from public companies, investors, and other stakeholders seeking to do business with organizations that care about people and the planet. (Boost employs 54 people.) These reports outline an organization’s purpose, stakeholders, practices, and metrics related to people and the planet.

Conway brought the idea for publishing this report from a previous position as Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility at LexisNexis. “It is the right thing to do. The company has been giving back, and giving a lot, but it never put its activities into one report. It’s about capturing everything we do.”

The company’s report includes:

• Information on its three-related businesses and international operations.

• Its vision, mission, and core values.

• An overview of its Corporate Social Responsibility principles.

• A compliance statement and overview of certifications.

• What it does to encourage health, wellness, and engagement.

• Community engagement activities.

• Key 2019 people-related initiatives.

Since publishing the first report, Conway reports, the company is seeing an increase in requests for such information from prospects and other stakeholders. “It’s a good feeling that we’ve been doing this for a while,” she says. The 2020 report will be published later in March or April, she says.

Asked about the basis for the report’s format, she explains, “We didn’t follow any model other than leveraging my experience. We want to focus on the community, health and wellness of our employees, and our environmental and sustainability goals.” The report is designed to cover how the company has improved on its goals and anything that happened that year. “Of course, this year, we’ll be talking about the shift to the remote workplace and other changes in our business.”

Her internal team compiles and produces the report based on input from the organization’s various department heads, who work together in a cross-functional team, including human resources, marketing, and facilities management. The report is reviewed by the company’s principals Anita Emoff, Chairman, and Michael, Chief Vision Officer, before publication. “This is not a public relations function. We want to be very clear that this is an authentic effort.”

In addition to displaying a link to the report on the company’s home page, it includes a link to it on the email footers used by employees. “We also use it in any presentations and include it in the appendix of proposals or responses to requests for proposals. The report is very important to our employees, potential customers, and communities,” she adds.

“We are seeing more demand for these reports from our clients. Many are public companies that have requirements on what they must report. We also have requirements in all our supplier agreements,” including, she adds, zero-tolerance for inhumane working practices and the need to respect human rights throughout the company’s supply chain, which includes international suppliers.

For More Information
Dawn Conway
President
dawn.conway@boostengagementllc.com

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