Mintel wins top Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ranking from China Business Network

The 12th annual China Business Network (CBN) Corporate Social Responsibility Ranking award ceremony was recently held in Shanghai. The ranking, hosted by China’s leading financial media outlet China Business Network (CBN), is designed to recognise innovative companies that prioritise efforts in social responsibility. In this year’s evaluation, Mintel won the “Social Responsible Enterprise Communication Brand Award” as a result of the commendable and inspiring actions of the Mintel employees, especially those centered around physical and mental wellbeing during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Ruby Lu, Director of Human Resources, Mintel APAC, attended the event and accepted the award on behalf of the organisation:

“It is a great honor to receive this prestigious award that recognises Mintel’s performance in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and our employees’ work to be responsible corporate citizens. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Mintel in the Asia Pacific region. Over the last two decades, we have remained committed to providing our clients and business partners with the most innovative market insights and authoritative analysis, while also actively fulfilling our corporate social responsibility in the areas of environmental protection, mutual assistance, and employee care. We are honored and proud to join hands with our partners and employees to promote social progress and give back to our local communities.”

Mintel, the world’s leading market intelligence agency, strives to create social value while also giving back to society. Mintel Gives, the charitable donation program that supports employee interest and involvement in nonprofit organizations, facilitates the connection between Mintel and local communities, schools, and non-profit organizations. In Asia Pacific, Mintel has established a long-standing partnership with Sunshine Home, a non-profit organization for the intellectually disabled in China, to bring warmth to vulnerable groups. It has also worked with local non-profit organizations and schools in India, Singapore, Thailand, and around the world to support a broad range of charitable giving.

Many significant shifts in consumer attitudes toward brands and spending behaviour patterns have happened as a result of the pandemic. According to Mintel’s Global COVID-19 Tracker, in March, 69% of Chinese respondents said that one company or brand “protecting employee benefits (stable jobs, safe work environments)” would make a good impression on them, far more than the proportion of survey respondent who said the same for “supporting environmental protection”, a topic at the top of the CSR survey in 2019. This confirms that actively fulfilling CSR matters to building an approachable, attractive consumer brand.

This year, Mintel has partnered with Modern Health, a global mental wellbeing platform, to offer Mintel employees comprehensive mental health management solutions to alleviate stress and anxiety – whatever the cause. Meanwhile, it has also established an Employee Resource Group (ERG) centered around common interests and hobbies to drive diversity, openness, understanding, and inclusiveness among employees across regions and create a healthy workplace environment.

“When considering what CSR activities to pursue over the course of 2020, it became quite clear – given everything that happened this year – that we needed to align our efforts with what we were hearing from employees. Corporate social responsibility is not just about offering external help, but also looking inward to ensure employees are supported as they are an integral part of local communities and the most important asset of any company,” said Matthew Nelsen, General Manager of Mintel APAC. “To enable employees to get involved with outside community initiatives, as well as encourage them to pay attention to their own physical and mental wellness and work/life balance, has been a welcome shift in our CSR initiative. We’re also very proud and excited about our Employee Resource Group (ERG) program that was formed to better support Mintel’s vision for diversity; we seek and value diverse talent and unique insights to push our company and employees toward sustained success.”