By Joakim Lundquist

Gruppo Hera, the Italian utility based in Bologna, has been a pioneer in Italy in providing timely and complete online investor relations information. In particular, Hera was one of the first Italian companies to present its annual reports not only in PDF, but also in HTML simultaneously in both Italian and English before the annual general meeting (AGM). Many companies in Italy struggle provide timely symmetric information in English and Italian, never mind publishing the interactive reports in time for the AGM.

A few days ago Hera presented its six-month results. We were curious to find out how it went from a communications point of view so we had a chat with their director of IR, Jens Klint Hansen.

Jens, how are things going?
Pretty well indeed since all Italian peers have just published first-half results so a seasonal peak of work is now behind our shoulders.

On Thursday August 26, during the last days of the Italian summer break, you presented your six-month results. How did it go from a communications point of view? In the past you have managed to present all disclosure in Italian and English in record time. Did you manage do keep the commitment also this year?
This year we managed to make available the information on results in all our usual formats straight away, in real time just 30 minutes after their approval by the BoD. The information was uploaded in a mini website created for H1 financial results which contains:

• Press release
• Video message
• The quarterly newsletter (addressed to retail investors)
• All data in Excel format
• Interactive tools to compare historical with historical H1 data through charts and graphs
• Analysis of analyst consensus on H1 results
• Analysis of macro-economic main KPI trends

First half results mini website

The only document made available later was, as usual, the management presentation uploaded on the HTML in the afternoon just before the conference call organised with top management to discuss results with investors and analysts.

How did you use the website during the presentation of the results?
We used it to make available the web-casting of the management presentation.

How did you improve the online communications compared with last year?
We provided the press release related to first-half results by sending the link to the HTML format of the financial report via e-mail. We think that supplying in real time a “full set of info-formats” increases the effectiveness of all information provided. The video message for example meant it was possible to better comprehend immediately the press release and promoted a “warmer” image of the Group.

What is the secret behind the results?
The sensitivity and passion of people working within the organisation. That helps to get the support from different departments and to obtain in record time the information in a “ready-to-use” format. This allowed us to coordinate effectively the work of many people engaged to pursue the goal.

A few days have passed since the online publication of the results. Have you gotten any feedback yet from analysts or investors? Have you looked at the user statistics?
We are happy with the feedback. The number of accesses to H1 results within the first 2 days from publication increased by about 70% to last year. Furthermore, people “spontaneously” expressed their satisfaction for the communication provided.

Any other lessons learned?
Relatively low budgets and market capitalisation can be by-passed in the medium to long term building up the right culture within the organisation.

Thanks a lot and all the best

by Sara Rusconi

In order to help our readers stay informed of changes to corporate websites and the launch of new sites, we are setting up a dedicated “column” in our blog that will track four main areas:
1. launches of new websites
2. significant improvements to the overall structure and design (restyling) of a site
3. launch of new sections
4. innovative website initiatives (content, applications, interactivity, social media etc)

Thanks to the H&H Webranking annual survey and the Lundquist CSR online Awards and Employer Branding Awards classifications we have a bird’s eye view of the many improvements and new launches that have been accomplished in the first half of 2010.

In this column we will present regular updates on developments of corporate websites throughout Europe. We invite companies to share with us news and updates on how they are developing their corporate online communications. This can include the launch of a new site, improvements to the overall structure and design, the launch of a new section, or the strengthening of their social media presence. We will also present case studies on valid initiatives as well as interview professionals within those companies that have been engaged in developing the projects.

There are many recent examples of new website from across Europe. To start off, here are some of the latest developments in Italy and Switzerland:

In Italy, just two weeks ago, Edison launched a new website that boasts a stronger social media presence. Other examples from Italy in the last few months include the private equity firm DeaCapital, the defence company Finmeccanica, the construction group Impregilo, the publishing groups L’Espresso and Mondadori, and the scooter manufacturer Piaggio.

In Switzerland we have seen new websites launched by the chemical companies Clariant and EMS Chemie, the pharma group Galenica, the global food company Nestle, the construction materials producer Sika, and the reinsurer SwissRe.

di Sara Troiano

Negli ultimi tempi molte voci critiche si sono levate contro la Responsabilità Sociale d’Impresa (o CSR), denunciandola come una trovata marketing e nulla più, un paravento pubblicitario che le grandi aziende utilizzano per distinguersi dalle altre, guadagnare fette di mercato o nella peggiore delle ipotesi mascherare pratiche poco “responsabili”. Eppure, fino a un paio d’anni fa nessuno avrebbe messo in discussione i vantaggi della CSR come nuovo modello di business. Perché questo cambiamento nell’opinione pubblica? Cos’è mutato da quando amministratori delegati, consumatori, ONG, accademici e politici trovavano un punto d’incontro sulla CSR, zona franca di discussione costruttiva?

Possiamo senz’altro ricercarne le cause in un progressivo allontanamento delle strategie CSR delle imprese dai loro stakeholder più vicini, primi fra tutti i clienti. Al giorno d’oggi, molte sono le aziende che si vantano genericamente di rispettare l’ambiente o di aiutare i bambini nella pressoché remota Africa. Molte meno quelle che offrono programmi concreti per aiutare i propri portatori d’interesse diretti.

Facciamo un esempio pratico: i consumatori vulnerabili. Nel 2007, l’implementazione della Direttiva Europea sulle Pratiche Commerciali Sleali ha acceso i riflettori sulla carenza di protezione per i consumatori vulnerabili. Con questo termine si vogliono indicare tutte quelle persone che per problemi di salute, finanziari, culturali o logistici risultano svantaggiate rispetto ad un comune consumatore. La Direttiva ha messo in luce situazioni spinose fino ad allora volutamente ignorate: persone che non possono permettersi forniture elettriche o medicine dalle quali dipende la loro sopravvivenza; clienti con poca educazione finanziaria ai quali vengono proposte soluzioni svantaggiose; abitanti di località remote che non hanno l’amplia scelta dettata dal libero mercato.

Qual è stata la risposta delle aziende? Nella maggior parte dei casi, nessuna. Poche hanno fatto lo sforzo di comunicare al mondo qualcosa di più di una generica “attenzione per il cliente”. Ancor meno quelle che hanno presentato iniziative concrete a favore dei consumatori vulnerabili. Eppure questa categoria appartiene alla vita di tutti i giorni degli stakeholder di qualsiasi impresa. A chi non è capitato di conoscere una persona anziana, portatrice di handicap o con problemi finanziari? Una politica CSR che prenda in considerazione anche queste situazioni ne guadagnerebbe senz’altro in credibilità.

Qualche buon esempio degno di encomio ci è dato da compagnie energetiche e istituti finanziari. E-On e RWE, ad esempio, presentano una pagina dedicata ai consumatori vulnerabili, descrivendo progetti specifici di pricing strategy e volontariato volti a garantire una fornitura continua di energia ai clienti in difficoltà finanziarie. Anche l’italiana Hera ha recentemente presentato una simile iniziativa per i lavoratori cassintegrati. In particolare, la credibilità dell’iniziativa sta nel fatto che, invece di proclamare sensazionali donazioni, queste imprese si concentrano sul proprio business, offrendo i servizi propri dell’azienda stessa (fornire energia) a condizioni vantaggiose per questa svantaggiata categoria di clienti.

Stesso approccio da parte di Unicredit e BBVA : anche queste due aziende si concentrano sui servizi specifici del loro business volti ad aiutare le condizioni dei clienti che mancano di educazione finanziaria, e sono perciò facilmente soggetti a frodi o alla sottoscrizione di condizioni svantaggiate.

Speriamo che questi esempi possano essere di qualche utilità a quelle imprese che stanno attualmente lavorando per accrescere la credibilità delle proprie politiche CSR. Suggeriamo loro una carta vincente: tendere la mano ai loro clienti, in particolare a quelli più svantaggiati, attraverso concrete iniziative di business.

Per provare come la CSR non sia solo l’ennesimo paravento.

 

August is coming to an end which means that H&H Webranking, the annual survey on corporate websites, is approaching its final stage. The evaluation process of more than 900 companies is about to be completed.

If your company is part of the 900 and has made significant updates during the end of July or August this is your final call to send us an update indicating what amendments have been made. This will ensure the rankings are up to date when we close the process.

The final date to send us these updates is Wednesday August 25.

Please send Italian, Swiss and Austrian ranking updates to Cristina Urban: cristina.urban @ halvarsson.it.

For updates regarding all other countries, please liaise with our colleague in Stockholm: sofie.berglund @ halvarsson.se.

The timing of the publication process will be posted here.

By Eric Sylvers

Did we need another indication that social media has gone mainstream as it takes over all aspects of media and communications? Well, we have it. As of last weekend the highbrow Sunday insert to Il Sole/24 Ore (Italy’s influential financial daily newspaper) is tweeting.

Il Sole made the announcement in an article where it printed the responses of businessmen, writers and politicians it had queried asking for their recommendations of what people should read this summer and why. The recommendations had to be done respecting Twitter’s 140 characters per tweet rule, obviously. A few of the 63 recommendations follow (translated) and here you can find the Il Sole article.

Rosellina Archinto (editor): Homer’s Odyssey – Trip focused on the marvellous, horrible, monstrous, magic and craziness. The true strength of Ulysses is intelligence and hunger for knowledge

Giorgia Meloni (Italy’s minister of youth): JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (she cheated, that’s really three books) – I might sound like a fanatic, but in that book there is truly everything: adventure, spirituality, ecology, civic duty, individuality

Carlo Petrini (founder of Slow Food): Paul Roberts’ The End of Food – Excellent analysis of the global food economy: why the golden age is over when it seemed food was becoming ever more abundant, secure and nutritious

Fabio Salviati (chairman of Banca Popolare Etica): Mahatma Ghandi’s The Story of My Experiments With Truth – To reflect on values that today are still fundamental, topical and to be rediscovered

By Eric Sylvers

Having completed our ranking of how the 100 companies with the most valuable brands use their corporate websites for online employer branding, we are now able to draw a few conclusions.

The research will be published in September and presented to the public as part of our Employer Branding Awards 2010. In the meantime, we thought it would be interesting to have a series of blog posts where we concentrate on one particular aspect of the corporate careers section and give some best practice examples. For the inaugural post in this series we’ll look at the FAQ (frequently asked questions) page.

Our online employer branding questionnaire found that 43 percent of people would like to find a FAQ page in the careers section that lays out in an easy to digest manner answers to questions regarding the application process. Of the 100 companies we looked at, about a third have a FAQ page. There are many interesting variations that respond to the differing needs of the companies that use them.

For a very comprehensive list of questions, Shell has one of the best FAQ lists. It can be a little clunky to use and it takes more clicks than is perhaps necessary to find what you are looking for, but the wealth of information is impressive. While there is certainly a way to make this more user-friendly, the structure of the FAQ list is intuitive.            

A much more simple approach is achieved successfully by AXA, which has a single page with a list of questions. The answers open up once you click on the individual questions, allowing the page to maintain a clean appearance. This clearly would lose its effectiveness if the FAQ list went much longer than what AXA has in the example below.

There are also variations on each of the two examples above. Perhaps the most common is to have a presentation like AXA, but to have all the answers immediately visible. This saves some clicking, but can also lead very quickly to a page with an overwhelming amount of text. EDF does this and though you have all the information on one page, a large amount of scrolling is necessary.

Here’s a key date for all your diaries: the 2^nd Lundquist Global Seminar in Online CSR Communications will be held on Thursday, 21 October 2010.

The event will be held at the UniCredit Conference Hall in Via Tommaso Grossi, 10 in central Milan. It will start at 10:30 a.m. and close with an aperitivo at 6:30 p.m.

What to expect:

• International keynote speakers
• Thematic workshops
• Case studies by best practice companies
• Expert discussion on all aspects of online CSR communications from online reporting to social media
• Networking opportunities
• Presentation of the CSR Online Awards 2010

Please note that the workshop sessions will be open only to company representatives. Further details will be announced nearer to the date. But you can find a summary of last year’s event with video, photos and documents in our news release.

Like last year, the event is free of charge, thanks to the generous support of a number of sponsors.

For more information about the seminar or to register, please write to csr @ lundquist.it.

Gli appuntamenti socialmente responsabili nelle prossime settimane in Italia.

28 luglio 2010
Bando responsabilità sociale d’impresa (scadenza bando)
Camera di Commercio di Milano
Per informazioni: http://www.mi.camcom.it/show.jsp?page=411716

31 luglio 2010
II Premio Edilizia Sostenibile (scadenza bando)
Ancitel Energia e Ambiente in collaborazione con Gruppo Saint-Gobain
Per informazioni: http://www.premioediliziasostenibile.it/

6-15 agosto 2010
Festambiente - Festival nazionale Legambiente
Legambiente Enaoli Rispescia (Grosseto)
Per informazioni: http://www.festambiente.it

5 settembre 2010
Premio Economia Verde Emilia-Romagna (1° ed.) (scadenza iscrizione)
Legambiente Emilia-Romagna, Coldiretti Emilia-Romagna
Per informazioni: http://www.premioeconomiaverde.it/

9-11 settembre 2010
“Which Values for Which Organisations” - Conferenza annuale Eben
(European Business Ethics Network)
Eben Trento
Per informazioni: http://www.eben-ac2010.it/

17-18 settembre 2010
Third Italian conference on Social Environmental Accounting Research Csear (Centre of Social and Environmental Accounting Research), Università di St. Andrews (Scozia), Università di Bergamo, Università di Bologna, Università di Catania
Catania
Per informazioni: http://www.economia.unict.it/Csear/

21-22 settembre 2010
Management socialmente responsabile – corso post-diploma/post-laurea (progetto Giovani & Impresa)
Fondazione Sodalitas Milano
Per informazioni: http://www.sodalitas.it/giovaniScuola/giovani_e_impresa.aspx

23 settembre 2010
Il bilancio integrato - Incontro del CSR Manager Network Italia
CSR Manager Network Italia
Milano, Altis-Cattolica
Per informazioni: http://www.csrmanagernetwork.it/?fuseaction=Proxincontri&id=8

24 settembre 2010
Premio Innovazione Amica dell’Ambiente (scadenza iscrizioni)
Legambiente, Regione Lombardia, Confindustria
Per informazioni: http://www.premioinnovazione.legambiente.org/section.php

24-26 settembre 2010
Il web 2.0 per la sostenibilità. Strategie, crowdsourcing e comunicazione.
Zoes (social network equo-sostenibile)
Podere dell’Aia Santa di Vicchio (Firenze)
Per informazioni: http://www.zoes.it/it/content/filepdf/come-iscriversi-il-web-20-sostenibilit-strategie-crowdsourcing-e-comunicazione

28 settembre 2010
“Executive women, executive directors?” – workshop del progetto “Ready-for-board women”
Professional women’s association, Osservatorio Diversity management Sda Bocconi
Milano, Università Bocconi
Per informazioni: http://www.sdabocconi.it/it/about_sda_bocconi/eventi/2010/09/executive_women_effective_directors.htm

28-29 settembre 2010
Dal dire al fare – Salone della responsabilità sociale d’impresa (6° ed.)
Fondazione Sodalitas, Milano Metropoli Agenzia di Sviluppo, BIC La Fucina, Provincia di Milano, Regione Lombardia e Koinètica
Milano, Università Bocconi
Per informazioni: http://www.daldirealfare.eu/

29 settembre-1 ottobre 2010
Ravenna 2010. Rifiuti, acqua, energia. Buone pratiche. Economia ambientale.
Labelab Ravenna, centro storico pedonale
Per informazioni: http://www.ravenna2010.it

30 settembre 2010
Premio Rsi Provincia di Modena (scadenza candidature)
Camera di Commercio di Modena e Provincia di Modena
Per informazioni: http://www.responsabilitasocialedimpresa.mo.it

By Eric Sylvers

Thank you to the more than 400 people who took the time to fill out our employer branding questionnaire.

The results have proven to be priceless and the data collected were taken into consideration when we developed our 58-part protocol used to rank the online employer branding of the world’s most valuable brands. The results of that research will be published in September, the same month that we will begin ranking Italy’s biggest employers. Rankings for Swiss and Austrian companies will follow.

The global and Italian rankings are part of the Lundquist Employer Branding Awards 2010 that will assess how companies communicate their values, ethics and corporate culture to current and potential employees

The responses to the questionnaire showed that job seekers use corporate websites not only to apply for jobs and find basic information about a company, but increasingly also as the primary spot where they expect to be informed about details on everything from training programs to job mobility, vacation policy and compensation.

Ninety-five percent of those surveyed said they look at the corporate website of a company before deciding whether to apply.

A third of the people ranked the corporate website as the most important source of information for a job seeker; only word of mouth ranked higher (40%). If one considers that most people won’t have the luxury of having somebody on the inside giving them information than the fundamental role of the website is even more evident.

With an average age of about 33, the 424 people who responded to the questionnaire represented 37 countries with 80 percent living in mainland Europe.

Only 73 respondents were unemployed when they responded to the survey yet 262 said they had looked for a job in the past year. This would indicate that many people who are employed are contemporaneously looking for a new job, highlighting the importance of the retention part of employer branding.

More than half (57%) want to know if and when they can expect a response back yet the vast majority of corporate sites don’t provide this information. About 40% want to know what the steps are in the evaluation process once they have sent in the application and this too is surprisingly hard to find on a corporate site.

Given the chance to air their views beyond checking off boxes, respondents were clear about what they are after: simplicity, clarity, real information and interaction with real people.

We are preparing a document summing up in more details the results of the employer branding questionnaire and, as promised, it will be sent out to the people who indicated on their questionnaire that they wanted to see the results.

Wirtschaftsblatt, Austria’s leading business daily, published an article Tuesday about our research looking into how Austria’s biggest companies are represented on Wikipedia.

The article (PDF version) begins by noting some of the more surprising findings of the study, including that 19 of Austria’s largest 45 companies do not have a Wikipedia page in English.

To see an executive summary of the Austrian research, click here or for the full series of Lundquist research, click here.