Our ESG Survey

The Purpose Of Our ESG Pre-Built Survey

The purpose of our ESG survey is to give organisations an understanding of how their people feel about the organisation’s ESG efforts. It is not designed to provide an official ESG rating.

Rather than measuring ESG compliance, our latest pre-built survey allows you to really understand how your people feel about your organisation’s ESG strategy. It is important because investors, employees and customers alike are focusing on ESG more than ever. If your people don’t understand what you are doing, or aren’t buying into your ESG efforts, you’ll be losing out on all of the benefits it can bring. Read this helpful article if you'd like more information on why ESG is important.

How We Created Our ESG Pre-Built Survey

The primary source of research for the ESG survey came from MSCI. The MSCI ESG ratings provide an assessment of the long-term resilience of organisations to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Their ESG Industry Materiality Map is a representation of the current key ESG issues and their contribution to an organisation’s ESG Ratings. It is part of their ESG ratings transparency initiatives, through which they have made ESG ratings of organisations and funds accessible to the public.

When reviewing the MSCI ESG criteria we identified the common themes. We used those themes to create a framework for the pre-built survey. The framework included the following areas:

Environmental:

How an organisation safeguards the environment.

• Environmental sustainability: In the ESG assessment, organisations are assessed on their impact on climate change and the organisation’s environment management systems.

• Waste: Organisations are evaluated on the amount of waste they create, e.g. paper, water, etc. and their efforts towards recycling.

• Energy efficiency: Assessments are made on the energy consumption of the organisation and look at an organisation’s use of green tech, renewable energy sources and their plans for reducing carbon emissions and the carbon intensity of their products and services.

Social:

How an organisation treats employees (including health and safety concerns), suppliers and the communities around it.

• Health and safety: Organisations are evaluated on their management of workplace safety.

• Labour diversity: Here organisations are assessed on their ability to attract and develop a skilled and diverse workforce.

• Sourcing/supply chain human rights: In this theme, organisations are assessed on the management and transparency of their supply chain, e.g. Anti Bribery and Corruption and Modern Day Slavery policies.

• Employee personal data protection: Assessments are made on the volume of personal data being held, how it's held, whether there are any vulnerabilities and the potential for a data breach.

• Community: Here organisations would be assessed on their relationships with their local community and whether they are giving back to the community.

• Pay and benefits: This section is not solely about salaries and bonuses, organisations would be assessed on other benefits such as access to health care.

More about the S in ESG here.

Governance:

How an organisation handles issues such as leadership, internal controls, and transparency of communications.

• Trust in leadership: Organisations are evaluated on the ethics of their leadership team and organisation.

• Transparency of communications: Here organisations are assessed on transparency of their actions and communications.

• Leadership governance: In this theme, organisations are assessed on the oversight measures in place to ensure the leadership team is delivering the organisation’s strategy.

• Transparency in the financial health of the organisation: Assessments are made on the transparency of the organisation in relation to its revenue generation and costs.

With the framework in place, our team of ESG specialists, HR professionals and survey experts crafted our 18-question survey.

How Our Survey Helps YOU!

By fully understanding how your people think AND feel about your ESG offering, you'll be able to tweak your programme and your communications to fully realise the investment you're making in this area. There are so many benefits to an effective and efficient ESG programme, and we're committed to helping you measure and track them!

Here's a helpful webinar about the role of HR in delivering an organisation's ESG agenda.