Corporate Social Responsibility suggests that a company should be responsible for its activities in society in the form of social, legal and environmental aspects. This modern line includes three key features: obtaining sustainable yields at the same time, reducing environmental (planet) footprints and balancing these objectives with the people involved, from workers to society in general.
What is CSR?
CSR, also called Corporate Social Responsibility, is a set of ethics and duties that commit any company to analyze its impact on society and evaluate its responsibilities towards society and shareholders. In restaurants, CSR depends on the legal and functional duties that they have to perform for the benefit of society.
According to a research:
Corporate social responsibility can be defined as: “The conduct of an organization that makes it profitable, legal and useful to society. (Carrol 1983).”
CSR for a restaurant:
The restaurant industry is one of the fastest emerging service sectors in the world. This industry employs unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled people in different designations. It also allows building and enhancing personal skills by providing training to workers. In this way, they can create a perfect and friendly atmosphere and serve the community.
In the restaurant industry, CSR is still a new thought; there are a large number of multinational food chains that are involved in CSR related activities. Many financial and social benefits can be found from developing a CSR policy within a hotel. The restaurant industry has carried out various voluntary actions to get involved in the development of society and the owners. This initiative represents the devotion of the restaurant staff and owner towards sustainable growth. You can also introduce different programs like quality programs, environmental improvement initiatives, benchmarking, etc. to play a vital role towards the welfare of society.
There are many problems for a restaurant such as waste, labor disputes (equal pay, women’s rights and unions), energy consumption. Although restaurants are taking initiatives to intensify their corporate social responsibility efforts, they are still lagging behind other companies.
The restaurant industry may need to focus on the following if it has to formulate CSR policies:
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Waste management
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Water consumption
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energy use
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Employment opportunities
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Training for workers
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Environmentally friendly activities, etc.
Some benefits of developing CSR policies are:
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Improves a restaurant’s reputation and brand image by ensuring that it is following legal and social conduct.
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It helps the restaurant to improve customer relations, since CSR encourages innovation and helps to manufacture products that are beneficial to all of society.
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It clarifies the business objective and provides holistic data to restaurant owners, helping to create long-term relationships between staff and owners.
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Promotes labor rights, so that staff feel safe and perform well.
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It also helps to keep the environment clean and friendly, which creates a good image of a restaurant for its customers.
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He works for the welfare of the society in addition to increasing the profits of the restaurants.
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Help a restaurant comply with legal, ethical and social duties.
The concept of CSR is new to restaurant owners and not so easy to understand. Research is needed to find the best practices that can be executed in restaurants, so that they can meet the requirements of the CSR policy.