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Engaging our stakeholders

At BCE and Bell, we must not only hear what stakeholders say about the issues, but also act by changing, where appropriate, how we do business.

To get the insight we need, we survey 120,000 customers annually to find out if we're doing a good job and how we could do better. We also hold regular employee forums, convene joint management and union committees, and encourage feedback at shareholder meetings and on the Web.

"Soliciting feedback from stakeholders has become a prerequisite for organizations striving to achieve best practice in their industry," says Ka-Hay Law, CSR Advisor - Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. "It can pay huge dividends in understanding current and emerging customer needs."

During 2005 we sought the opinions of our stakeholders, putting special emphasis on input relating to our corporate responsibility. We surveyed more than 900 Canadians by phone, conducted in-depth interviews with corporate responsibility experts, investors, large customers, government and NGOs, and hosted employee focus groups.

We learned that Bell is seen as a responsible corporate citizen in terms of the environment and community support. We also discovered that we are better regarded in regions where we've been in business longer. Among the issues of concern respondents did cite: Bell's product take-back; customers' use of cell phones while driving; protecting children on the Internet; the proliferation of SPAM; and communications during emergencies.

Our stakeholders recommended that we communicate more about these and other issues, and how we're moving to address them. They also made the eminently sensible suggestion that we encourage our suppliers to live up to the highest standards of corporate citizenship by promoting product safety and sustainable solutions throughout the supply chain.

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