lundquist csr online awards 2011 austria executive summary

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Lundquist CSR Online AwardsAustria201126 January 2012

Austria’s top companies fall behind European peers in online CSR communications: about half of companies don’t offer a formal account of their social and environmental impacts.

OMV, EVN and VERBUND have best online CSR communications

The CSR Online Awards, conducted annually by communications consultancy Lundquist, comes for the first time to Austria to examine how the country’s largest companies communicate corporate responsibility online.

The study reveals that only a limited number of Austrian companies make corporate social responsibility (CSR) an integral part of their online communications strategy.

The study assessed the corporate websites of the 20 largest companies in Austria using an evaluation protocol of 79 criteria, totalling 100 points. The criteria were drawn up on the basis of a survey of more than 310 CSR professionals, sustainability experts and stakeholder representatives in 37 countries.

The CSR Online Awards Austria 2011, published today, finds OMV as the best company for online CSR communications, scoring 59 points. EVN came second with 53.5 points, ahead of VERBUND in third position with 47.

Rounding out the top 10 (in descending order) were Zumtobel, Telekom Austria, Österreichische Post, Wienerberger, Voestalpine, Raiffeisen Bank and Strabag. The average score was 25.5 points.

Assessing online CSR

communications based on

stakeholders’ needs

3rd Lundquist CSR Online Awards Seminar – VeniceThe 3rd Lundquist CSR Online Awards Seminar held in Venice on 27-28 October 2011, brought together representatives from more than 50 companies across Europe to recognise the winners of the CSR Online Awards 2011. The seminar featured internationally renowned speakers, company case studies and discussion of the future of corporate responsibility on the internet. See the Lundquist website for details and photographs.

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CSR Online Awards 2011:

Europe’s first study of online CSR communications4th edition at European level220+ companies evaluated in Europe: rankings for Austria, Europe 100, Germany, Italy, Nordic region, Switzerland and UK79 evaluation criteria100 points maximum25.5 points average score for the top 20 Austrian companies312 responses to survey from CSR experts in 37 countries


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Results of the research: the challenge of managing, collecting and communicating CSR information

The CSR Online Awards 2011 Austria evaluated how the 20 biggest Austrian companies (based on membership of the benchmark ATX index) use the web to communicate their environmental and social commitment and performance as well as ethics, governance and stakeholder dialogue. The study found that most of these firms fail to report to a great extent on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues: a limited circle of Austrian companies invest in sustainability communications and only a handful adopt proactive and engaging online communications for wider audiences and seek to build relationships through interactivity, ongoing engagement, dialogue and effective use of social media.

“Only top ranking Austrian companies are doing a decent job of inserting a range of social and environmental content into their corporate websites,” said James Osborne, head of CSR communications at Lundquist. “But in an environment of deep suspicion about claims to corporate responsibility or sustainability, all companies need to build a dynamic and interactive relationship with online audiences - even in social media - by providing a candid, credible and engaging account of their activities, updated on a regular basis.”

The average score of the 20 Austrian companies taken into consideration was 25.5 points. This was well below the average of 50 points in the Europe 100 ranking, which considered the 100 biggest companies in the region (members of the FTSE Eurotop 100 Index). It was also lower than the 49.2-point average for the top 30 companies in Germany any 39 points for the top 20 Swiss firms. No Austrian companies were part of the Europe-wide study.

Chart 1: Austrian average and max score in three macro-areas of evaluation protocol

Source: Lundquist CSR Online Awards 2011

CSR Online Awards 2011: evaluating the effectiveness of corporate responsibility communications

The Lundquist CSR Online Awards has examined how Europe’s biggest companies are communicating corporate responsibility online on the basis of the needs of key users and stakeholders. The study found that many firms are failing to build trust in online audiences because they don’t use the web to communicate the critical and compelling evidence behind their commitments to responsibility or sustainability.

The CSR Online Awards has a dual objective: first, to assess how companies communicate CSR to a wide range of stakeholders through the corporate website and, second, to promote a wider and more efficient use of the Internet for sustainable development.

The study comprised seven country and regional rankings – Austria, Europe 100, Germany, Italy, Nordic region, Switzerland and UK – for a total of more than 220 companies analysed.

Each website was assessed using a set of 79 evaluation criteria (vs. 77 in 2010), drawn up on the basis of a survey of more than 310 CSR professionals, sustainability experts and stakeholder representatives from 37 countries. The criteria were grouped into 12 sections and three macro-areas: Contents, User experience and Ongoing engagement.

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CSR Online Awards 2011: facts & figures

220+ companies evaluated across Europe20 biggest Austrian companies assessedEach site evaluated twice (top performers a third time)6 hours on average spent analysing each corporate website1,320 hours of evaluations34,800 judgements madeHundreds of best practice examples identifiedTeam of 7 people dedicated to the research

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Contents

User experience

Ongoingengagement

29.8

11.9

58

18.5

9.2

12

22.5

4.4

8

Maximum score

Europe average (overall average 50/100)

Austria average(overall average 25.5/100)


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The average Austrian score in the all-important content section was 21%, a bit lower than the overall average of 25.5% for the entire evaluation protocol (see chart 1). The highest scores in this area were registered for conventions & associations (30%) and the core environment (24%) and social (20%) sections as well as for reporting (20%). However, many companies lack the critical information that demonstrates an honest and open attitude to corporate responsibility, rather than a more limited, disclosure-driven approach (see boxes).

As regards the two other macro-areas, Austrian companies performed more strongly on user experience (on average 50% of points available). But the greatest weakness (average 20% of points available) was found in ongoing engagement, with a lack of news and resources, interactive functionality, use of social media and information about stakeholder engagement (see box). These aspects are critical to constructing a compelling account of a company’s CSR, building a relationship with stakeholders and providing them with much sought-after regular updates.

Weaknesses in ongoing engagement:

80% of websites have no social bookmarking or sharing tools

Only 10% of companies explicitly present their social media accounts through a dedicated page

No company provides a calendar of CSR events

80% give no evidence of feedback received from stakeholders

“Providing some information about non-financial performance is a great step forward compared with the past, but it’s not enough to build trust among stakeholders,” said Joakim Lundquist, founder of Lundquist. “To be credible online, companies need to be proactive and responsive, reaching out to audiences

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Disclosure-based content provided…

About half of companies publish a code of ethics

50% present an environmental commitment

40% communicate their social commitment through initiatives and case studies

…but critical content missing

70% of firms present no climate change strategy

No company gives social investment data

90% do not show the CSR team’s position within the company organisation

with engaging, multimedia content and opening themselves up to dialogue.”

Challenge for the future: reporting and social media

The CSR Online Awards 2011 found in general that non-financial reporting – whether in a standalone report or integrated into the annual report – has become standard practice for almost all of Europe’s biggest companies.

Among the 100 companies assessed in the European ranking, for example, all provided some form of social and environmental reporting on their corporate website and four out of five had a CSR section at the first level of navigation of their corporate website.

In Austria, the scenario is completely different. Only 40% of companies have a CSR section at the first level of their website. Furthermore, 40% of the top 20 companies don’t publish a non-financial report online (although a few of these present some non-financial information in their annual report); another 40% offer their CSR report only as a PDF with 15% providing an interactive online version (see chart 2).

Only OMV opted for a web-based report, integrated within the corporate site’s CSR section, an increasingly common format among Europe’s biggest companies and an optimal solution that saves users having to navigate both the corporate website and the report.

By contrast, the CSR Online Awards found that a majority of the biggest companies in Europe are presenting their non-financial reports online (as HTML versions or web-based reports), rather than only in PDF.

Top performers in…

Overview: OMV (7.5 points out of 9.5), Zumtobel (7) and EVN (5.5)

Reporting: OMV (10/12), EVN (8) and VERBUND (6)

Environment: EVN (8/8.5), OMV and VERBUND (6.5), Zumtobel (5)

Ethics & governance: OMV (3.5/6.5), EVN (3), Tel-ekom Austria and Voestalpine (2.5)

Socially responsible investment: OMV (2/6) and EVN (1.5)

Interactivity: Österreichische Post and Voestalpine (2/8)

Dialogue & contacts: VERBUND (7.5/9.5) and EVN (6.5)


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Top performers in online CSR communications

OMV, with 59 points, achieved the first position in the inaugural Austrian ranking. The company provides its stakeholders with comprehensive non-financial content thanks to a web-based report and a wide offering of dialogue channels.

Index page of OMV’s Sustainability & HSSE section

www.omv.com

EVN finished in second place with 53.5 points thanks to a well-organised Responsibility section. Useful content includes CSR targets – with information on how far the company got in reaching previous goals – and environmental content. The website presents a high degree of navigability as well.

Index page of EVN’s Responsibility section

www.evn.at

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Chart 2: Breakdown of Austrian non-financial reporting by format (including “integrated” reports)


But the shift in Europe towards online reporting is not always catering to the specific needs of online audiences that have emerged from our surveys of CSR professionals and experts.

A number of companies are greatly reducing the information provided in the corporate website section and focusing their online strategy almost entirely on the HTML version of their report. But this choice clashes with the assumptions behind the CSR Online Awards, such as the need for an ongoing relationship with stakeholders and the integration of corporate responsibility within the wider online communications strategy.

“Given the evidence that few stakeholders read reports and the message we’ve received in our surveys from users of this information, companies adopting this solution have been penalized in our research,” commented Karim Bruneo, CSR consultant at Lundquist. “A once-a-year report is unlikely to be the most effective online channel for a wide range of stakeholders.”

Among changes made to the evaluation protocol in 2011, more importance was placed on the presence of CSR-related corporate social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.).

Among Austria’s top companies, only 40% indicate to website users that they have corporate social media accounts and, of these, only two (VERBUND and Voestalpine) have a dedicated page presenting their social media presence. In Europe, by comparison, 60% of the top 100 companies flag their social media accounts via the corporate website and 22% signal they use some of them specifically for CSR. About a quarter of websites have a social media page.

HTML version (15%) None or report

not presented (40%)

PDF only(40%)

Web-based(5%)

CSR Online Awards 2011: top five in Austria

1 OMV 59 points

2 EVN 53.5

3 VERBUND 47

4 Zumtobel 45.5

5 Telekom Austria 45


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5

VERBUND achieved 47 points to rank third. The company provides its online audiences with broad responsibility content and an adequate level of dialogue and contacts. The website has a respectable degree of usability.

Index page of VERBUND’s Responsibility section

www.verbund.com

Fourth place in the Austria ranking was taken by Zumtobel, which achieved 45.5 points, just ahead of Telekom Austria with 45. Österreichische Post came in sixth position with 30.5 points. Wienerberger achieved the seventh position with 29 points, Voestalpine ranked eighth with 28 while Raiffeisen Bank and Strabag closed out the top 10, respectively with 24 and 22 points.

CSR Online Awards Survey 2011: Building trust in online audiences

The Lundquist CSR Online Awards Survey 2011 was conducted to understand how CSR professionals – people who work regularly on corporate responsibility and sustainability issues – use the internet to get information and exchange views. Following last year’s focus on stakeholder engagement and social media, the 2011 questionnaire examined what elements of online communications help build trust and confidence in users.

A total of 312 people answered the survey, an increase of 22% from 2010 and bringing to more than 800 the number of responses received over four years of surveys. The questionnaire launched on 23 May 2011 drew responses from 37 countries with 58% coming from continental Europe, 14% from the US and Canada, 10% from the UK and Ireland, 7.4% from Nordic countries and 10% from the rest of the world.

A full 71% of respondents worked outside of major corporations, being journalists, sustainability consultants and sustainability rating analysts as well as people working in academia, think tanks, industry associations and NGOs.

While previous surveys have captured the scepticism and mistrust with which many people treat companies’ social and environmental claims, this year’s study sought to identify aspects that make online content more authoritative, credible and reliable in the eyes of its users.

Chart 3: What gives greatest confidence when assessing online CSR information? (% of 166 non-corporate responses, two choices allowed)


Key findings

>> Half of respondents check corporate websites for CSR-related information at least several times a week, more than one in six doing so on a daily basis

>> The most important aspects for establishing trust and confidence in website users is adoption of international guidelines and frameworks, performance data and information about external assurance

>> Although the survey shows how online audiences are diverse with differing preferences, users repeatedly indicated the importance of data, targets, case studies, governance and policies, as well as information about the environmental impact of a company’s products or services

>> Almost half of respondents are very keen to have an ongoing flow of information from companies about their non-financial performance: they are looking for companies to respond to issues in the media or public debate and publish updated environmental data, press releases and case studies and be active in social media

>> There is widespread interest in stakeholder dialogue, how it influences the decision-making process and in hearing stakeholder points of view

>> YouTube is emerging to become one of the most used social media channels for CSR – second after LinkedIn – although Twitter is widely used by the most intense social media users; use of Facebook for CSR is growing too

A summary of the survey results will be sent to all respondents who requested a copy and published on the Lundquist website (www.lundquist.it/research).

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

43%

38%

32%

25%

24%

22%

13%

4%

Guidelines

Performance data

External assurance

Partnership with NGOs

External experts’ perspectives

Quantitative targets

Membership of sustainability indexes

Other


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Methodology and approach

Assumptions behind the research

The CSR Online Awards are underpinned by a series of assumptions about the essential ingredients for communicating on the internet. These “pillars” of online CSR communications are the result of many years’ work with leading European companies on their web strategy and our annual surveys of CSR professionals, experts and stakeholders.

Six pillars of online CSR communications

Comprehensive: A website must satisfy all the requirements of its key users, eliminating their need to go elsewhere for infor-mation

Integrated: A website must work as a whole and communicate a coherent, interconnected story across its different sections (About us, CSR, corporate governance, IR, careers, etc.) and in related off-site channels (in social media in particular)

Open: Website content must be open to feedback, discussion and debate, including via social media, with companies demonstrating that outside opinions are heard and taken into consideration

User friendly: Users must be able to find what they are looking for through intuitive and jargon-free navigation, and content must be organised in an optimal way for on-screen reading

Engaging: A website should employ a range of multimedia tools – including video, animation, images, (info)graphics – to draw the audience in, tell a dynamic story

Concrete: Users want fact, relevant evidence as well as pertinent and credible data, not self-promotion, empty commit-ments and marketing messages

Developing the evaluation protocol

The evaluation criteria are based on a survey sent to CSR professionals, sector experts, stakeholder representatives as well as CSR managers of companies included in the study.

The aim of the annual survey is to identify the essential information these users look for online and monitor trends in the use of website content and social media.

Answers to the 2011 survey (excluding CSR staff and other corporate ‘insiders’) were analysed to revise existing criteria, create new ones and to calibrate the allocation of points so as to reward sites that best respond to user needs.

Feedback from the previous editions of the CSR Online Awards was also taken into consideration when revising criteria.

A total of 79 criteria were used (77 in 2010), divided into 12 sections and giving a total of 100 points. The evaluation protocol was divided into three macro areas:

>> Content (seven sections totalling 46 criteria and 58 points)

>> User Experience (two sections of 13 criteria for 18.5 points)

>> Ongoing Engagement (three sections with 18 criteria totalling 22.5 points)

This split reflects the fact that the most important aspect of online communication is content, but also that success involves using the internet effectively to make CSR information easily available and to facilitate interaction between website owner and user.

An extra point was available to reward useful information or interesting features of websites that were not covered in the criteria.

A penalty point was subtracted in the event of negative aspects that were not adequately penalised in the criteria, including out-of-date information, links to old reports and contorted navigation.

The evaluation protocol used in the CSR Online Awards is the same for all country and regional rankings, meaning that all results are directly comparable.

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Website assessments

The CSR Online Awards judges the quality of online corporate communications of publicly traded companies, organised into a series of national and regional rankings. Lundquist draws on recognised stock indexes to draw up its rankings and no company can opt in or out of its own accord.

In 2011, the focus has been concentrated on Europe with the creation of a new flagship ranking of the 100 biggest companies in the region. After two stimulating and eventful editions, we have discontinued the “Global Leaders” ranking, which included a selection of companies from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

This is because we believe that with the mainstreaming of environmental, social and governance disclosure, CSR information should be provided by all large companies and not be the preserve of a few “leaders”. To maintain a global outlook and capture wider trends, we will also undertake a ranking of top U.S. companies later in the year.

The rankings were defined as follows:

>> In Europe, all members of the FTSE Eurotop 100 Index as of 27 May 2011 (the index contained 106 securities and 100 companies, although Unilever was counted as two separate entities: for the purpose of our research, Unilever was counted as a single company having a single website)

>> In Austria, the 20 members of the benchmark ATX index as of September 2011, according to the Vienna Stock Exchange website

>> In Germany, the 30 components of the benchmark DAX index as of June 2011, according to the Deutsche Börse website

>> In Italy, the 50 largest companies by market capitalisation in the FTSE Italia All-Share Index as of the close of trading on 9 June 2011

>> For the Nordic region, the 40 members of the OMX Nordic 40 Index as of June 2011, as published on the NASDAQ OMX website

>> In Switzerland, the 20 members of the benchmark SMI index as of June 2011, as published by the SIX Swiss Exchange website

>> In the U.K., the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation in the benchmark FTSE 100 Index as of the close of trading on 9 June 2011

In total, about 220 websites were evaluated (+22% from 2010). The criteria were used to evaluate the English language version of the corporate websites of these companies with the exception of the Italian ranking, which evaluated the Italian version of the sites.


Changes to the criteria in 2011

As in past years, substantial changes were made to the evaluation protocol to make it better reflect user preferences and to keep pace with trends in online communications.

Above all, an effort was made to reward those companies providing the most critical information and reduce the weighting of criteria that add less value or have become more common practice.

Eight criteria were deleted from the protocol in 2011 and 10 new criteria were introduced, adding a net two new criteria.

The definition was revised for another 13 criteria while the scoring of a number of others was amended in light of responses to the survey.

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Macro area/Section Criteria Points

Contents

Overview 7 9.5

Reporting 6 12

Environment 7 8.5

Social 12 12.5

Ethics & governance 6 6.5

SRI 5 6

Conventions & associations 3 3

TOTAL 46 58

User experience

Navigability & usability 8 12.5

Visual communications 5 6

TOTAL 13 18.5

Ongoing engagement

Interactivity 7 8

News & resources 6 5

Dialogue & contacts 5 9.5

TOTAL 18 22.5

Commendable information 1 1

Penalty point 1 -1

GRAND TOTAL 79 100


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The seven Italian companies included in the Europe ranking were evaluated in English only.

The assessments were carried out over a period stretching from late June to September 2011, with the official closing date of August 1 communicated to all companies in the research (October 7 for Austria). Each company’s website was evaluated twice by two different Lundquist analysts. Top-ranking companies were evaluated a third time.

The assessment was restricted to the CSR (or equivalent) section of the website to reflect the fact that this is a point of reference for users interested in these issues. Content outside of this area (for example, in corporate governance, investor relations or career sections) was evaluated only if there was a direct link from the CSR section to the relevant page or document.

Although this rule may seem restrictive, it aims to reward those websites that fully integrate CSR-related information, for example with cross-links. Given the size of many corporate websites, users should find the necessary “signposts” to find the information they are looking for. In the same way, the content of mini-sites was evaluated only in cases where users were clearly directed there in association with CSR-related information.

Where companies had more than one section of the website (at the same menu level) dealing with CSR-related issues, all of these sections were evaluated. For example, some companies split their information between Citizenship and Environment sections.

The contents of CSR reports (interactive or in PDF) were excluded from the assessments because the research aims to understand how corporate websites are used to communicate CSR to a broad audience and not to assess reporting per se.

As above, content was evaluated whenever a direct, specific link was provided to the relevant page or pages in the report as a way to guide users to further information (generic links to the report homepage or to entire sections were not considered). PDF documents now allow links to specific pages.

Report contents were evaluated directly only in the case of web-based reporting, when the report was fully integrated within the CSR section of the corporate website: this reporting format involves offering only one online source of non-financial information (hence no conflict between report content and website content and generally no change in the menu structure and page layout, no change in the basic URL of the corporate site, no need to open another window or tab in the browser).

By contrast, some companies are focusing their online strategy almost entirely on the HTML version of their report. In many cases, the content of the website section is reduced to a minimum as a result. In line with our methodology, companies adopting this approach tended to receive low scores in our evaluations: we recognise that that they may have otherwise commendable online CSR reports.

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Classification CSR Online Awards 2011 - Austria

2011 Position

Company 2011 Score

1 OMV 59

2 EVN 53.5

3 VERBUND 47

4 Zumtobel 45.5

5 Telekom Austria 45

6 Österreichische Post 30.5

7 Wienerberger 29

8 Voestalpine 28

9 Raiffeisen Bank 24

10 Strabag 22

11 RHI 17

12 Mayr-Melnhof 16.5

13 VIG 14

14 = Andritz 13.5

14 = Lenzing 13.5

16 conwert Immobilien 12.5

17 CA Immo 12

18 IMMOFINANZ 11

19 Erste Group 10.5

20 Schoeller-Bleckmann 6

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Full disclosure: Lundquist has provided CSR services or reports in the past two years to the following company included in the CSR Online Awards 2011 Austria ranking: Strabag.


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CSR reports & consulting services

Lundquist has supported leading European companies in a variety of industries on their corporate responsibility communications, providing services ranging from CSR-specific benchmarking and action plans to website architecture and content strategy.

CSR Online Awards Report

The complete findings of the CSR Online Awards 2011 are presented in a report (150+ pages) analysing the latest trends in online CSR communications, illustrated with more than 250 best practice examples. The report explains the evaluation protocol’s 79 criteria and provides the results of the 2011 rankings plus complete answers to our survey of 312 CSR experts.

Developing your CSR website

In order to develop your online CSR communications towards international best practice, a tailored analysis draws on the 79 criteria to provide concrete suggestions for improvement, even for companies not included in our 2011 rankings.

In-depth focus reports are available on critical aspects such as online reporting, ongoing engagement and social media. The wealth of data generated by the research allows for detailed benchmarking by industry or country.

Developing your online CSR communications strategy

Stakeholder perception audits

Orientation in CSR communications and online reporting

Page-by-page analysis of CSR site & architecture proposals

Message and content development

Web-based reporting

Copy & corporate voice analysis

Online content creation

Social media strategy

About Lundquist

Lundquist is a strategic communications consultancy specialising in online corporate communications. Our extensive research programmes provide intimate knowledge of international best practice and user requirements, underpinning consulting services covering financial and non-financial content strategy, the corporate website and social media.

Drawing on our expertise in corporate responsibility, investor relations and employer branding, we assist you in managing communications challenges. Ultimately, we support your endeavours to promote transparency and accountability through effective use of the web. Measure, Manage, Change.

Contact

James Osborne Head of CSR [email protected]: (39) 02 4547 7681 / 2

To order a copy of the full CSR Online Awards Report 2011 or for information about a website assessment, write to: [email protected]

www.lundquist.itwww.lundquist.it/blogwww.twitter.com/Lundquist

Extracts from CSR Online Awards Report and assessment

lundquist csr online awards 2011 austria executive summary

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