A Report on the Corporate Social Responsibility of Wesfarmers Group

This report provides an analysis of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs implemented by Wesfarmers, a leading Australian organization. It highlights the various activities undertaken by Wesfarmers to contribute to the society and communities in which it operates, emphasizing the company's commitment to its stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, customers, and suppliers. The report details Wesfarmers' significant investments in CSR initiatives, amounting to 147.50 million Australian dollars, which are allocated to areas such as people, community, suppliers, ethical sourcing, environmental sustainability, and governance. The company's efforts in promoting diversity, supporting local communities, ensuring ethical supply chains, reducing environmental impact, and maintaining robust governance policies are discussed. Ultimately, the report concludes that Wesfarmers' strong emphasis on CSR not only contributes to the sustainable growth of the business but also sets a benchmark for other companies in Australia.

Running head: CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF WESFARMERS
Corporate Social Responsibility of Wesfarmers
Name of the Student
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Executive Summary
The aim of the report is to analyse the corporate social responsibility programs of
Wesfarmers group, which is one of the leading organisation of Australia. The report explains
the different activities that Wesfarmers perform to serve the society and the community in
which operates its business. The reasons for which the corporate social responsibility
programs of Wesfarmers become so popular in Australia has also been explained in the
report.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Corporate social responsibility of Wesfarmers..........................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

3CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY OF WESFARMERS
Introduction
The corporate social responsibility becomes an integral part of the corporate world. It
is the responsibility of the organisation to serve the stakeholders of the company in return of
the benefits that the organisation get from them. The key stakeholders like shareholders
employees, customers, suppliers, and the society expects that the organisation will render
some special services for them while carrying its operations. The CSR policies of the
organisation should be framed in such a way so that it can satisfy all the requirements of the
stakeholders and fulfils the compliance that is necessary to be followed by every corporate
bodies.
Discussion
Corporate social responsibility of Wesfarmers
Wesfarmers being a leading organisation of Australia is well known for its social
activities. The organisation always give preference to serve the society and to look after the
needs of its employees and shareholders (Zentes Morschett and Schramm-Klein 2017). The
company contributes 147.50 million Australian dollars for its corporate social responsibility
programmes. The corporate social responsibility programme of Wesfarmers is classified in to
the following parts:
People:
Australia being a country of versatile population there exist a mixed socio cultural
economy. People of different culture and background make it difficult for the organisations to
manage their workforce. Wesfarmers has achieved success in this area their hiring rate has
increased 24 % in the financial year 2018 which indicates that people wants to join this
organisation and wants to stay long with the company. The facilities and benefits that the

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company provide to its employees has made it possible for them to achieve the award of the
largest employer of indigenous Australia (Popovic, et al 2017).
In the financial year 2018 50percent of the recruitment of the were filled by the
women and 39 percent of the managerial position were occupied by women in both the
situations the number of women employees increased by 2 percent in comparisons to last
year. This indicates that the company always give priorities to promote women empowerment
in their company (Alejo Vázquez Pimentel Macías Aymar and Lawson 2018).
Community
The company has made a record investment of 147.50 million to serve the community
out of which 86.60 million has been directly invested in the corporate social investment
programmes. The wealth created by the company in the year 2018 is 69.90 billion which they
distributed to their stakeholders in different forms.
Beside the monetary help, the organisation, also provide philanthropic supports to
different organisations. The board of Wesfarmers approves partnership with on five-year
basis with medical research and health, indigenous programmes, education and training
programs for employment creation. The total value of contribution made by the company is
nine million the majority of which are made with west Australian based organisations
(Richards Kjærnes and Vik 2016).
Wesfarmers also contribute in the cultural life of the community on long term basis.in
2018 the company provide sponsorship of 3.3 million dollars to support the activities of the
top 14 art organisation of Australia. Some of the name of the reputed organisation are
national gallery of Australia Perth festival art gallery of west Australia.
Suppliers

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Wesfarmers is always committed to build a strong and respectful relation with its
suppliers. Nearly 18000 suppliers of the company get more than 80 percent of their dues from
the company in this fiscal year. The company has spent 47 billion Australian dollars to set off
the dues of the suppliers. The company always strive for the better efficiency in the supply
chain to ensure continued competitiveness (Ferguson and Scott 2016).
Ethical sourcing and human rights
Wesfarmers impart training on ethical sourcing to the third part auditors and suppliers
so that they can understand the ethical sourcing risk and the standards that is expected from
them.in this financial year more than 4000 factories of the company has been covered under
the audit program(Islam Jain and Haque 2016).
Environment
Wesfarmers always take positive steps to reduce the pollution level that has been
emitted from their business operations. The organisation manage the risks associated with the
climate change for which the organisation provide significant economic, social and
environmental benefits. This year the company emitted 3945 thousand tonnes of carbon
dioxide, which was three percent lower than the last year (Sullivan, R. and Gouldson, A.,
2017).
The organisation also take initiatives to manage their waste and water use
efficiently.in the year 2018 the organisation used 13422 mega litres of water which is less
than 19 percent of the water consumed in the previous year. This year Wesfarmers also able
to reduce the waste to landfill by 4 percent to 154 thousand tonnes and decreased the waste
recycle by 6 percent to 351 tonnes.
Governance

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The organisation maintains strict governance policies in I all their business. The
management of the Wesfarmers limited is committed to provide a satisfactory return to its
shareholders and to comply with all the corporate governance policies to satisfy the interest
of the stakeholders (Grimmer 2018).
Conclusion
Therefore, in conclusion it can be stated that the company gives more emphasis on
their corporate social responsibilities programs. The company has invested lump sum
amounts in their different CSR programs, which enables the company to serve the community
and society in which it operates its business. The organisation by serving the community
helps in the sustainable growth of the business as well as the development of the society,
which enable the organisation to get the leading position in the business world Australia. The
Wesfarmers, become a benchmark for all the other companies in Australia regarding the
setup of CSR policies.

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References
Alejo Vázquez Pimentel, D., Macías Aymar, I. and Lawson, M., 2018. Reward Work, Not
Wealth: To end the inequality crisis, we must build an economy for ordinary working people,
not the rich and powerful.
Ferguson, A. and Scott, T., 2016. The determinants and market reaction to O pen B riefings:
an investor relations option and evidence on the effectiveness of disclosure. Accounting &
Finance, 56(3), pp.803-843.
Grimmer, L., 2018. The diminished stakeholder: Examining the relationship between
suppliers and supermarkets in the Australian grocery industry. Journal of Consumer
Behaviour, 17(1), pp.e13-e20.
Islam, M.A., Jain, A. and Haque, S., 2016. A preliminary analysis of Australian
Government’s Indigenous reform agenda ‘Closing the Gap’and corporate accountability.
In Key Initiatives in Corporate Social Responsibility (pp. 341-354). Springer, Cham.
Popovic, T., Kraslawski, A., Barbosa-Póvoa, A. and Carvalho, A., 2017. Quantitative
indicators for social sustainability assessment of society and product responsibility aspects in
supply chains. Industrial Ecology-Submitted.
Richards, C., Kjærnes, U. and Vik, J., 2016. Food security in welfare capitalism: Comparing
social entitlements to food in Australia and Norway. Journal of rural studies, 43, pp.61-70.

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Sullivan, R. and Gouldson, A., 2017. The governance of corporate responses to climate
change: An international comparison. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(4), pp.413-
425.
Zentes, J., Morschett, D. and Schramm-Klein, H., 2017. Corporate social responsibility.
In Strategic retail management (pp. 207-226). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.