The modern insurance consumer expects more than just a competitive price and a good customer experience. They want to do business with a company whose values and ethics match their own; a company who is determined to make a difference in the world, not just their industry.
Corporate responsibility policies and strategies play an integral role in ensuring that organizations follow through with their good intentions and make a societal difference that matters. For
RSA Canada, corporate responsibility has always been a fundamental part of how the company operates, but since the organization’s ‘transformation’ in early 2015, corporate responsibility initiatives have been taken up a notch.
“Organizations have to be aware of where they are doing business and then work out ways to do good things for the environment and people in those areas,” explains Paula Bernardino, Communications Manager, Corporate Responsibility & Engagement at RSA Canada. “Corporate responsibility has evolved. You have to make sure you incorporate sustainability in everything you do and that you consider all social and economic factors.”
In recent times, a large percentage of consumers have lost their confidence in corporations, feeling that these organizations are somehow at fault for the economic issues that impact our societies. Corporate responsibility strategies give organizations the ability to be transparent and show that increasing profits is not the sole objective.
RSA has launched a series of staff engagement programs which encourage employees to give back to local communities, and any donation that an employee makes, RSA will match. “We also have unique regional programs across our 12 main offices,” Bernardino says. “Every January, the employees of those offices vote for the top three causes they want their office to support for the year and then fundraising activities are planned. It’s a way for employees to create local relationships, and it helps the community realize that the employees really do care.”
Nowhere were the impact of RSA’s corporate responsibility efforts more evident than in the aftermath of the Fort McMurray wildfire. In the first few days of the wildfire, the company deployed 50 extra employees from across the country to support the workers on the ground. “We also kept the offices open throughout the Mother’s Day weekend,” Bernardino says. “We wanted to be there for our customers as much as we could.”
As part of a matching donations program created for those affected by the wildfire, RSA matched 399 staff donations. “Those donations represented $25,000 from the employees and $25,000 from RSA, and we also gave the Canadian Red Cross an additional $100,000,” Bernardino says.
“When the fires had stopped burning, our marketing team created re-entry handbooks which addressed the main concerns clients would face when going back to their homes. We got some really good comments from consumers about our efforts, I think they really appreciated everything we did.”
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