Based on a literature review, we designed the dimensions and criteria for corporate commitment contained in CSR, then determined the specific dimensions and hierarchical structure of corporate commitment, through expert interviews and questionnaire surveys.
4.3. Discussion
In terms of the degree of importance, the three dimensions were ranked by experts in descending order: occupational safety, employee training, and growth and care. The experts had all pursued HRM for many years and accumulated experience in planning and implementation of corporate governance and CSR. During the questionnaire survey, the experts made a comparison between different dimensions and criteria. One expert firmly believed that all items were indispensable. Initially, the experts were notified that the dimensions and criteria should be arranged in order, then compared in terms of the degree of importance. The questionnaires were completed step by step.
Occupational safety was ranked as the most important among the three dimensions. From the perspective of corporate commitment, enterprises should analyse and evaluate the risk of occupational safety according to organisational patterns, environmental factors, and specific working environments. In addition, enterprises should give priority to improving the occupational safety of high-risk and high-hazard projects, to protect employees from occupational diseases and occupational injuries at work. This is the most basic responsibility of enterprises to their employees. If employees were to suffer occupational hazards at work, enterprises would suffer both a financial cost and a nonfinancial cost (negative social perception), no matter how much they contribute to social welfare and CSR.
There is only a slight difference between the weight of employee training and that of occupational safety. This indicates that employee education is also an important item in corporate commitment. In addition, it is an important way to improve corporate profitability, develop common values, and enhance the cohesive force of enterprises. Enterprises should constantly conduct employee training, so that employees accept corporate values, form good behavioural habits, and increase their sense of identity with enterprises. The degree of importance of this dimension proves that when enterprises undertake CSR, employee training is a critical part of corporate commitment. Employee training provides employees with an open and diversified learning environment and allows them to enjoy the experience of knowledge acquisition. In addition, it constantly improves their knowledge and competencies to meet the requirements of new business. Given the above, employee training plays an indispensable role in supporting corporate commitment.
Growth and care was ranked as the least important among the three dimensions. From an organisational perspective, the provision of employee welfare could create an intrinsic satisfaction effect, motivate beneficiary employees to work hard, stimulate employees’ sense of identity with enterprises, and improve employee performance, thus increasing the competitiveness of enterprises. Compared with occupational safety and employee training, it is difficult to highlight the uniqueness of growth and care, as highlighted by the opinion of the experts.
Dimensions and weighted criteria are summarised as follows:
A1. Employee training: In the opinion of the experts, orientation training carries the highest weight under the dimension of employee training. Evidently, enterprises attach great importance to the training provided to new employees before they formally start work. According to the literature review in
Section 2, orientation training refers to the training conducted for prospective employees before formal employment, or for existing employees before taking up new jobs. It is a new employee’s first impression of an enterprise and is a key factor that affects whether they are retained. Therefore, orientation training enables new employees to quickly realise an enterprise’s care for employees and is, therefore, an important part of employee training.
A2. Growth and care: In the opinion of the experts, employee welfare carries the highest weight under the dimension of growth and care. While enterprises expect their employees to work hard, they are not exempted from the responsibility for employee leisure and health. Employees with a higher level of seniority require a higher welfare. Given the above, corporate commitment to employee welfare should be increased to show care for employee growth.
A3. Occupational safety: In the opinion of the experts, occupational hazard prevention carries the highest weight under the dimension of occupational safety. In accordance with the
Occupational Safety & Health Act, employees should be protected from occupational hazards. Therefore, employers are obligated to protect their employees; this is a mandatory requirement of national policy. Employees are an important resource for enterprises; if they suffer occupational hazards at work, enterprises will be liable for the associated costs. To achieve business objectives, enterprises should not only ensure high quality of services and products, but also allocate human resources effectively. In addition, occupational hazards damage corporate reputation and present a negative image regarding CSR [
15].
Among the diverse criteria, employee care was of low importance to enterprises. To some extent, this is not intuitive. An enterprise’s image or impression is not affected by whether they take measures to promote employee care or not. Therefore, enterprises do not give priority to employee care. In this study, this phenomenon can be observed clearly, and can be discussed in more depth in future studies.
In this study, the main weighted criteria were ranked in descending order: orientation training, occupational hazard prevention, and employee health. Statistical data showed that corporate commitment mainly focused on the following two critical aspects:
Correlation with employee safety or corporate reputation (in occupational hazard prevention and employee health);
Direct impact on enterprises’ going concern (e.g., training standards).
The experts interviewed in this study all have a certain degree of expertise in enterprise practice, so they are qualified to evaluate the necessity or importance of different criteria, from the perspective of an enterprise. Therefore, the evaluated weights of the criteria provide a performance guide to enterprises when they formulate their CSR strategy [
2].
To an enterprise, HRM practice used to play a key role in starting and initiating organizational culture and internal processes. Under the corporate commitment, the influence of HRM on society and communities involves employees and their families, which will indirectly affect the social environment. Considering that the enterprise’s care for employees cannot be separated from HRM department, the enterprise shall both strengthen the development of human resources and fulfil its corporate commitment in the process of promoting CSR.
With the social changes and variation of enterprise values, the pursuit for talents becomes quite different from before. Under this circumstance, enterprises must find out the arguments for the development of CSR from corporate strength, develop human capital, and then more effectively practice the sustainable development to create new value for the enterprise. At the same time, talent development is not only an important sustainable issue, but also a key element for the sustainable development of the company’s practice. From this perspective, “employee” is the most important in the concern to stakeholders, so the specific performance of HRM practice on the development of human capital, talent cultivation, and corporate commitment will generate influence on the development of CSR.