CSR for HR: Romania rocks!

I am delighted to announce the first foreign edition of CSR for HR in Romanian which is now available for purchase online and called "Responsabilitatea socială corporatistă în sprijinul resurselor umane". It was translated by Daniela-Giorgiana Arşinel şi Marius Chitoşcă, who had a mammoth task, as my language is often not very conventional (I confess to often making up words as I go along!)

I am grateful to the Post-Privatization Foundation for their idea and willingness to translate and publish this edition. The Post-Privatization Foundation (FPP) is the first Romanian foundation devoted solely to entrepreneurship. Created in 1996 by the European Commission, FPP is a private organization that promotes entrepreneurial education and supports initiatives aimed at the sustainable development of the Romanian business environment – with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. I had the pleasure of meeting the Executive Director, Péter Barta and hearing about the outstanding work the foundation is doing.

"Responsabilitatea socială corporatistă în sprijinul resurselor umane" was launched at the LBG Annual Conference on 12th September, organized by the LBG Representatives in Romania, ARC Romania. LBG is a model that evaluates and enhances community project performance that was mainly designed for companies. ARC, the Association for Community Relations, is an organization which matches corporate philanthropy and capacity building activities with non-profit causes and has been doing magnificent work in Romania for the past ten years. The LBG has six members in Romania including BDR Societe Generale, Lafarge, Orange, Danone, Ursus Breweries and Raiffeisen Bank whose total corporate community investment is equivalent to 14.5 million Euros with a beneficiary group of 720,000 individuals in 2010. Member companies reach an average of 28% employee volunteering which is high by any standards.

During the conference, I was honored to share the stage with a range of impressive individuals such as Toby Webb, Ethical Corporation founder, John Scade, LBG representative in Spain, Adela Jansen, Executive Director of Human Resources at BRD Societe Generale, Ramona Gotteszman, Community Impact Manager at United Way Foundation Romania,  Suzana Gras, CSR Manager at Raiffeisen Bank and more. Catalin Gheorghe, ARC's Communication Director facilitated the conference, and Ioana Satzmari, LBG Program Manager  presented LBG's annual results for 2010.

The conference content was most interesting, ranging from a discussion of the impacts of corporate community investment, to an overview of CSR and regulatory developments, to the way the CSR - HR partnership is practiced in leading Romanian companies and a view of tax developments and corporate tax relief considerations for local companies. I was interested to learn from Toby Webb, who now uses the term "smarter business" instead of CSR, about the forthcoming regulation in the EU which is likely to be law by end 2013, requiring EU countries to regulate locally for CSR disclosure by companies. You can find his presentation here. Adela Jansen and Suzana Gras both made excellent presentations showing that CSR (and HR) can really make a difference in the ways companies work and lead to more sustainable results.

I presented on the subject of my regular mantra, focusing on the partnership that CSR and HR needs to forge in order for both to deliver optimum results.  Here is my presentation:

CSR for HR - why partnership is necessary

View more presentations from elaine cohen.

Finally, the conference ended with great excitement with the launch of CSR for HR in Romanian and a book giveaway by lottery! I am grateful to ARC and FPP for their generous support.

I didn't manage to get see much of the city of Bucharest, though I do think this is probably my most favorite sight:

Tasted pretty good, too. But don't tell anyone .......

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices. Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en