The Alba – CSR Hellas ESG Barometer

Alba joins forces with CSR Hellas to launch the ESG Barometer, an innovative tool to measure perceptions on Greek companies’ ESG initiatives.

Would you like to measure, free of charge, your employees’ perceptions on your corporate ESG & sustainability actions? You can participate in the ESG Hellenic Barometer, organized by Alba and CSR HELLAS.

Alba has joined forces with CSR HELLAS to launch the ESG Barometer, an applied research project, that aims to record the opinions of employees, business leaders and of the general public with respect to the ESG and sustainability-related actions of Greek enterprises. It will also examine the relationship of ESG perceptions with major factors affecting the successful operation of businesses, such as trust and fairness in the workplace, employee relationships with their managers and employee engagement.

This applied research effort represents a practical tool of special added value for the participating businesses: once the research is concluded, each participating company will receive a customized, detailed—and anonymous—report with the perceptions and attitudes of its workforce, plus an opportunity to benchmark with the results of business leaders, other companies and the general public.

Participation in the survey is open to companies with more than 50 employees and is possible through the expression of interest at the link HERE until January 9, 2023.

The results of the ESG Barometer are expected to be announced in the first half of 2023. Participating companies will receive a personalized, detailed - and anonymous - report on the perceptions of employees in their own company compared to the perceptions of all participating employees, and also the perceptions of leaders of participating companies.

This research is the first joint action of the two organizations after the signing of the new Memorandum of Cooperation between CSR HELLAS and ACG in September 2022 and the registration of ACG as a member of CSR HELLAS. The research is also part of The Theodoros Papalexopoulos Chair in Sustainability, which already finances 6 important research programs on ESG issues, most of which are under revision in prestigious international academic journals.

As noted by Alexandros Kostopoulos, General Manager of CSR HELLAS "The ESG Barometer responds to constant market demand for primary data from Greek companies in relation to the perception of CSR performance by different groups of stakeholders." We start with business leaders, with broad sets of workers within businesses, and with public opinion. But we do not stop there, as the data will be enriched with the findings that will emerge from the Hellenic Pact for Sustainable Industry and will provide the possibility of comparison at the level of company size, sector, and geography.

The two organizations have already been cooperating since 2014, when the first Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between them, while since 2019 they have jointly established, in collaboration with the University of Crete, the innovative educational program CSR-School which provides holistic theoretical and practical training in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability and successfully completes 4 years of activities.

High-quality psychometric tools and an innovative agenda to improve CSR levels in Greece

The ESG Barometer, launched with CSR HELLAS, is supported by The Theodore Papalexopoulos Chair in Sustainability at Alba. By employing high-quality psychometric tools, the Barometer will measure interesting topics, like, among others, the relationship between humble leadership and ESG performance.

Pavlos Vlachos, Associate Professor of Marketing and The Theodore Papalexopoulos Chair in Sustainability at Alba, commented: “The ESG barometer represents an opportunity to honor, remember and learn from the humble leadership style of Theodore Papalexopoulos, a type of leadership that is currently not well examined in current ESG literature.” But there’s more to the ESG Barometer than the quality of its psychometric tools and its innovative agenda. “ESG Barometer is expected to cover the need for a more comprehensive measurement of ESG topics, which is compatible with the concept of stakeholder capitalism. More specifically, we will measure and compare the perceptions of three major stakeholders: CEOs and members of the Top Management Team, mid-level and operational employees, and finally what we call 'the general public'. We expect the results to offer actionable data and managerial insight to be used by managers and policy makers, hoping to advance the impact of ESG activities in our country” Dr. Vlachos concluded.  

Linking research findings with critical variables, helping businesses operate successfully

On his part, Aristotelis Alexopoulos,  Applied Research and Innovation Director at Alba, stressed that Alba has launched this new research in the context of its dual mission to generate and disseminate new management-related knowledge. The aim of the research is two-fold, Mr. Alexopoulos added: “To record employees’ opinions regarding ESG strategy and policies implemented by the companies they work for and to connect these opinions with variables that are critical for the successful operation of businesses, such as trust and fairness within the organization.”

The results will be shared with the participating businesses free of charge. “This will help them obtain a more accurate view of the perceptions that prevail in their organizational environment, offering them the opportunity to use this information in their ESG planning”.