SII to launch new corporate standard
Standard Institute of Israel launches new initiative calling for increased corporate involvement in local communities by creating SII-10000 – official social standard merit. Companies which meet criteria, says former SII general-directed, can only benefit in the long run
Whether for pure business reasons, as mean to soothe a corporate conscience or from a purely altruistic point of view, many Israeli corporations trying to do their share for Israeli society come across an unexpected problem – the lack of official standards.
The Standard Institute of Israel (SII) hopes to change the situation by creating a new set of "social standards" – SII-10000 – aimed at corporations wishing to prove they operate out of social and environmental responsibility.
SII-10000 will cover, among others, employer-employee relations, work conditions, employee rights, transparency, corporate ethics and environmental preservation.
"Creating the new standard comes from the need to incorporate environmental protection with business ethics," says Ziva Patir, former general-director of the SII, and current vice-president of the International Standards Organization (ISO), who initiated the new standard.
"We want to create a supportive, transparent work environment and ensure women and minorities are duly represented… it's not all about proper production methods, but marketing and advertising methods, the way a company treats its employees and contributes to it community."
'More than contributing to a community'
The overall goal, she added, is to make SII-10000 an international standard, sanctioned by the ISO. "Making a standard international means a company won't be able to take pride in contributions to its local community while exploiting third-world workers at the same time.
"An American factory contributing to a cause in the US while using child-labor in Indonesia won't be able to qualify for the standard," she explained. "This is a core change, making companies responsible for every step of their production procedure."
Carmel Olefins, a provider of raw materials for the plastics industry, is one of the first Israeli companies wishing to be granted the SII-10000; and has spent 10 months preparing for the SII inspection which will determine their eligibility for it.
"We're not just putting our products to the test, were putting our management team out there," said Assaf Nativ, the company's quality manager.
"It's more than contributing to a community it important on its own… social responsibility includes all aspects of employee rights – can they unionize? Are any of them subject to racial or gender discrimination? Can anyone and everyone move up the corporate ladder, etc."
But just what is "social management"? Patir said it more than just allocating fund for charities or obeying the letter of the law: "It's all about what corporate management does beyond that. The law doesn’t require you to teach your employees about business ethics, or to even have an ethics code within the company. It's about what you choose to do, like hiring employees from all walks of life."
The question remains – why should any company volunteer to meet such high standards? "This kind of a decision indicates long-term thinking, which would eventually yield profit," said Patir.
"The standards ensure a company's endurance and achieving the end goal of improving itself. In the end, that's not only the right thing to do, it's also cheaper."
