Two 2015 news stories bring out an important lesson or two for all of us interested in corporate responsibility.
The first, a list of 37 companies that failed to pay the minimum wage. Amongst the culprits were H&M. It neglected to pay £2,604.87 to 540 workers. And Welcome Break: it neglected to pay £1,318.70 to 19 workers.
The second, news that AB InBev’s payment terms to small suppliers were so onerous that one supplier could no longer afford to take orders from them. The drinks giant demands 120 days to pay from the end of the month the invoice is issued.
So what are the lessons?
I’ve argued before that paying people properly is corporate responsibility 101. That time it was about interns, but ultimately it’s about supporting livelihoods. Paying the appropriate amount in an appropriate timeframe is pretty basic. Not causing unnecessary hardship is an old but important mantra.
The second is about publicity. Bad news sticks. Good reputations take years to build. Avoidable, relatively minor transgressions (in terms of overall workforce/supplier spend respectively) take time and resource to overcome. No one will care about your corporate responsibility activities if you can’t get the fundamentals right.
Businesses can make positive impacts. News like this makes it difficult to shout about it. You need to do right by those who depend on you most, first. Not being able to shout about it holds back corporate responsibility initiatives and ambitions. And we get stuck in a tedious vicious cycle.