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Training departments have a key role to play in their organisations' corporate social responsibility initiatives. It's a win-win. With corporate social responsibility (CSR) now government-monitored – it comes under the 2006 Companies Act, as well as the Pensions Act Amendment – it's clear that many companies have yet to harness this broad topic. For anyone still at the head-scratching stage, CSR is the management of a company's positive impact on society and/or the environment, says Jo Appleby, a business development executive at Impact International, a company that runs programmes in sustainable enterprise. "It can cover a multitude of things – from company operations through to the products and services it supplies," she says. "This also extends to how a business interacts with its key stakeholders – ie, the supply chain, customers and, most importantly, employees." Bigger priority According to an online survey conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit on behalf of The Economist magazine (conducted between November-December 2007), 68.9% of the 1,122 respondents – 42% of which were based in Europe – said CSR is now a bigger priority for their business than three years ago, with 25.7% ranking it a 'very high priority'. The top three effects of implementing CSR-related policies were identified as: having a better brand and reputation (52.9%) making decisions that are better for the business in the long term (42.4%) and being more attractive to potential and existing employees (37.5%). The obvious benefits of being an organisation that people want to work for – with a better brand and reputation – make CSR a desirable achievement, although the confusion that surrounds it leaves many companies with a non-cohesive programme. Lesley Muir, who lectures on CSR at the London School of Economics and runs a PR firm, says businesses should divide it into three elements: strategic – enlightened self-interest, which is win-win on both sides ethical – where you make sure the company abides by employment regulations and altruistic – activities such as painting the local school. According to Muir, some people argue against the altruistic approach because it doesn't add value to the firm, but she claims