Lgt3107 Incorporating Corporate Social Responsibility (csr) into Warehousing and Materials Management

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies

Warehousing and Materials Management (LGT3107)

Individual Essay

Topic: Incorporating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into Warehousing and Materials Management

Name: Kwok Kim Wai

Student ID: 18091439D

Date of submission: 30th November, 2018

Word count: 1010

Introduction  

Nowadays, Corporate social responsibility is getting more and more attention from practitioners and public. Incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into warehouse management is a new concept in business management. As warehousing is play an important role in the overall supply chain process, maintain and develop the sustainable warehousing can help a company to achieve cost savings and cost effectiveness in the operation. According to the European Commission (2002) CSR is about companies should take responsibility for their impact on society and CSR are integrating social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. It brings a lot of benefits such as positive brand reputation, building a positive workplace environment, customer relationship, cost savings and customer loyalty and more.

(Epstein-Reeves, 2012) Therefore, logistics companies can achieve competitive advantage through the implementation of CSR to warehousing and materials handling sectors.

Scope of Operation

For the scope of operations, companies should improve their productivity by focusing more on employee’s satisfaction than on minimizing operating costs. For an example, adding the new facilities and provide safety environment workplace for assist operation or reduce the overtime for workers. Therefore, Worker satisfaction and productivity will increase (Revesencio, 2015)

Scope of Stakeholders

For the scope of stakeholders, the companies can build a positive brand reputation by using environmentally friendly materials in the production or packaging process or giving away the lost-value products to poor people. Customers are more willing to buy goods from companies with good brand image, so they will create and maintain customer loyalty (Susan, 2018)

In my essay, I would like to discuss about two dimensions in CSR as environment and employee to understand how to coordinate warehousing activities to achieve sustainability of warehousing management and the employee’s safety and proud of CSR.

Environment

With rapid increase in transportation services, so demand for logistics services has increased significantly. Despite strong growth, environmental issues are expected to continue to plague the logistics industry. In view of this, it is very important to adopt new methods to keep the warehouse environment-friendly. Two green warehousing practices are recommended for implementation. First, the key step in making green warehousing is about reduce the consumption of packaging materials. In the case of insufficient packaging, it is common to see excessive use of packaging materials for protection purposes which ends up to become waste. Therefore, it is important to carry out measures to deal with the problem. Companies are advised to implement reusable packaging instead of one-way packaging such as paper and cardboard for achieve sustainable development. It is made of durable materials, including wood, metals, steel and other plastic materials, which is designed for re-use, it is easy to use, easy to repair and fold. (LeBlanc, 2016) Reusable pallets, pallet collars and reusable handheld containers are main types of reusable packaging used. Comparing with one-way packaging, use reusable packaging can reduce the negative impacts on environment. Second, it is about recycle materials to reduce waste. The aims are to recycle the materials used to package the items, do not discard them and pollute the environment, the best thing is to send them to a recycling facility. And Warehouses must recycle cardboard, plastic and paper materials to make their equipment more environmentally friendly. Thus, two green warehousing practices which are able to reduce negative impacts to environment.

Employee

For employees, it is recommended that companies to pay more attention employee’s satisfaction in terms of benefits and employee safety. According to the study research by authors Santiago Melián-González, test about the relationship between employee satisfaction on productivity performance. The data shows that employees who have a more empowered and more satisfying relationships with their employers are "more motivated to perform." (Andrew,2017) It shows that satisfaction is highly correlated with business productivity. According to a study, nearly 60% of employees who are proud of their company’s social responsibility are engaged at their jobs. Moreover, according to research carried out by consultancy Global Tolerance, nearly 42% of the workforce wants to work for an organization that has a positive impact on the world. Besides, most of employees are more willing to work for a company that cares about them. Therefore, a successful CSR program must consider the needs and wants of workers thoroughly. In terms of benefits, 94% of workers are desired for traditional benefits like health insurance and 92% are preferred for a competitive financial package. 74% of workers believe that it is more enjoyable to work when they are given opportunities to work on social and environmental causes. In terms of employee safety. It is very important for every company because every worker has the right to work in a safe and healthy environment. (Martin, 2011) An unsafe environment will make workers feel unappreciated. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance by the Labor Legislation, companies should hire workers with sufficient qualification or license on special equipment handling. For existing workers, I would like to suggest that train the employees on proper warehouse safety practices, employee of warehouse safety training should be the company's top priority. All existing employees should receive regular training to maintain a strong workplace safety culture. In addition, companies are advised to arrange for safety and health related to the use, handling, storage or transportation of plants or substances to reduce worker injuries.