Corporate Sector Jobs

Corporate sector jobs may or may not come under a separate section or department concentrated only on CSR. Instead you may have activities involving CSR amongst your job description.

For instance, if you join Colgate you may be part of the project, which conducts free dental checkups for school going children. This however may be under the marketing or brand-building department.

Director, Human Resources, OfficeTiger, Sudhalini Madhusudan told moneycontrol.com, "Our CSR programme is structured with an emphasis on the mandatory participation of employees, who are responsible for all initiatives. The lead team educates and trains the other employees of OfficeTiger to carry out various projects."

On the other hand, there are several corporates who have dedicated teams for CSR. Dr. Reddy's Laboratories which has an active CSR and Sustainability function at the corporate level, which reports to the CEO and COO.

Bhuvaneshwari Ravi, Head, CSR & Sustainability, Dr. Reddy's, explains, "The CSR goals of the company are integrated into business units as well as initiatives beyond business. Each business unit sets its own CSR goals based on the context in which it operates. These goals could range from community support in health, environmental management, education etc for a manufacturing location, to value-added patient education for the marketing division."

However, with globalisation, the CSR function in India is slowly evolving into a distinct entity and is no longer an afterthought. It is instead an integral part of brand building and sustainability effort of the company. Hence jobs in this sector are going to be aplenty in the near future.

From Charity to CSR

CSR has been a part of organisations for a long time, but mostly in the guise of philanthropy.

Says PD Jose, professor of Corporate Strategy and the Environment, IIM Bangalore, "CSR is becoming more relevant to the line of business of the corporate. For instance, it makes sense for an IT company to be involved in designing a website or donating computers or a pesticide company to be involved in the education of environment protection."

Family owned organisations - Singhania, Birla, Tata, etc - run schools, hospitals, clinics and are also involved in the development of the areas, where their factories are located.

CSR-related positions are now available in large corporations, as most now have internal groups that address CSR-related issues from within. These departments can be located in diverse parts of the organisation, whether public relations, philanthropy, community affairs / relations, compliance, or legal divisions and can be called anything from 'community manager' to 'environmental risk expert'.

GRK Reddy, Managing Director, MARG Constructions Limited, says, "CSR functions under corporate communications. MARG works in tandem with NGOs to execute larger projects, as this brings in the NGO's expertise in reaching out to the people."