Consumer preferences are changing. Today, consumers pay much more attention to whether a company matches their values.
One reason for this is the availability of goods and information: as more and more products are available and the internet allows detailed comparisons, an established brand alone is no longer a purchase criterion. The result: brand loyalty has declined.
Attitude counts
The b4p Trends study found that 77 percent of all consumers surveyed want a brand with a "responsible social attitude". This includes, for example, environmental protection, sustainability and working conditions.
Among women between the ages of 16 and 29, as many as 87 percent of respondents see it that way. The authors of the study therefore advise companies to place their brands "in a socially relevant context".
What applies to the external effect counts just as much within the company. A marketing-survey found that 67 percent of the companies surveyed reported an increase in overall performance after the company committed itself to responsible behavior.
64 per cent reported an increase in productivity, 62 per cent reported increased new customer wins. Employee satisfaction increased in 75 per cent of the companies surveyed.
So, the numbers clearly show: companies with an attitude fare better.
Challenges
Two challenges arise in this context:
First, how do you credibly communicate that your company is committed to social responsibility?
Secondly, how do you effectively monitor that the good intentions are put into practice in your own company?
There is a simple and cost-effective solution for both: an internal reporting system.
whizzla
Our solution is whizzla, a digital whistleblowing system. Employees and outsiders can use the system to report wrongdoings anonymously and easily in the company, for example unethical or illegal processes.
Since December 2021, companies with 250 or more employees are obliged by the EU Whistleblower Directive to introduce such systems. Smaller companies are not yet obliged to do so. But there are massive advantages for them as well.
On the one hand, a whistleblower system communicates internally and externally that the company is serious. Anyone can talk about morals and decency, but in the end, it is the implementation that counts. A whistleblower system shows that serious steps are being taken to avoid wrongdoing.
On the other hand, a whistleblower system gives management an instrument to check compliance with ethical and legal requirements in practice. It is impossible for management to always be up to date on everything. But the staff knows very well what is happening in the company.
A strong signal
With a reporting system, companies send a strong signal to their staff, customers, suppliers and the public that values and attitudes are lived in the company. And that non-compliance with these principles has consequences.
With whizzla, companies also receive a cost-effective all-round solution that they can implement in a very short time. The system also includes a connected case processing area to enable the compliance department to process all reports in a timely manner.
Don't save in the wrong place. Companies with an attitude use whizzla.