Socially responsible human resource practices: disclosures of the world’s best multinational workplaces

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the socially responsible human resource practices disclosed by the “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces,” with the aim of facilitating the benchmarking of these disclosed practices. Design/methodology/approach - Using the “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces” list was a strategic decision in this study due to the rigorous methodology used in the preparation of the list as it concentrated largely on the employees’ feedback, thus ensuring that these listed companies are actually top workplaces. Both manifest and latent content analysis, are applied on 23 of the 25 listed Multinational Corporations’ websites and reports, and company reviews done on these companies by the Great Place to Work for to pinpoint the social responsible human resource practices. Findings - Most of the practices disclosed are oriented toward enhancing the employees’ work experiences whether that happened through improving their employment conditions or through having a diverse and inclusive workplace. Thus, the employee-oriented human resource management practices got the lion’s share of the disclosures, rather than the legal or the Corporate social responsibility–human resources facilitation components. Research limitations/implications - The practices that are already used at small and medium enterprises within national contexts were not covered in this study. Practical implications - It is assumed that businesses can benefit from the practices of these MNCs which are considered as great places to work for, and as pioneers in their socially responsible human resource approaches. Originality/value - This study is likely to fill an important gap in the corporate social responsibility literature, which gave pint-sized attention to the internal stakeholders, rendering the academic coverage of employee-related practices scarce if not absent