"Social responsibility" has financial institutions laughing all the way to the bank, but it's not just a marketing ploy. Banks have genuinely pulled their socks up when it comes to community care, a Queensland University of Technology study has found.
QUT business researcher Dr Jennifer Bartlett said bank customers were now entrusting their money to institutions that support cancer research, advocate human rights or campaign for the environment.
"Less than a decade ago, banks were perceived as uncaring, money-grabbing machines, but then banks realised that the bad publicity was costing them staff and customers," Dr Bartlett said.
"If an organisation is getting a lot of negative press it not only deters customers, it also affects the employees who are essentially the business' ambassadors.
"Now banks work hard to keep a positive profile in the community and to keep staff happy."
Dr Bartlett said the financial industry was the first to be put under political and social pressure to become "socially responsible".
Her study tracked how people's perceptions of banks' responsibilities changed over time and compared this to the initiatives banks put in place.
"A decade ago, a bank director would fly into a rural town, have coffee and cake with the elderly ladies to get a bit of publicity and fly back to Sydney, convinced that this was good community relations," she said.
"Now they spend time engaging with Greenpeace, farmers and local organisations."
Dr Bartlett said all businesses risked scepticism from people who believed they were simply promoting themselves as responsible without implementing any genuine initiatives behind the "greenwash".
"What this study found was that staff and customers want their bank to promote their social responsibility practices and not keep them hidden," she said.
"Is it just a marketing ploy? They need to promote it, but at the same time they must be genuinely doing it for the marketing to work."
Media contact: Rachael Wilson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 4494 or rachael.wilson@qut.edu.au.
**High res image of Dr Jennifer Bartlett available
