Once
the ISO26000 is fully understood along with how it links in to other standards
and guidance, the challenge for organistions is where to begin. There are a
number of different steps needed to manage sustainable development and to
measure and improve an organisation’s performance in the area of social
responsibility.
Step
one: Carry out a diagnosis: gain an awareness of the impacts of activities and
decisions made by the organisation on the environment and society; recognise
its stakeholders; measure its strengths and weaknesses and define its
priorities. This could include a gap analysis of the organisation’s performance
against elements of ISO26000.
Step
two: Identify existing initiatives within the organisation - many voluntary
initiatives are specified in the annex of the ISO 26000 Standard and links to
other standards, guidance documents and other schemes are shown in this
document. Step three: Initiate internal training for managers and employees to
ensure that socially responsible behaviours are implemented throughout the
organisation and integrated into the day-to-day business of the organisation.
Step four: Consider an external assessment of socially responsible performance.
Next steps: Build
networks and improve performance. The ISO 26000 Standard can be used as the
basis for an assessment system that defines and measures an organisation’s
performance and improvements in the area of socially responsible behaviour. As
with the Standard this assessment system is suitable for all organisations and
should look at an organisation’s current standing against the framework,
independent of any historical actions in regards to social responsibility. An
ISO 26000 assessment should involve three key areas that relate to the
standard’s clauses and should rate an organisation against each and provide an
overall organisational grading: The overall organisational grading should only
be achieved if all three sections are evaluated. The total score covering the
three areas can then be assigned to a performance level, each of which should
relate to an increasing degree of performance. Ideally an organisation should
first be assessed in the early stages of setting an agenda in social
responsibility. Following that, it would be best applied as a continuous
assessment method, against which to set organisational targets. Improved
performance against ISO 26000 clearly demonstrates the positive actions taken
by an organisation to contribute towards sustainable development. Over time, an
organisation should aim to move incrementally through the associated
performance levels.
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