Another plug for CSRwire.com — check out a recent press release for Care2′s launch of the “world’s largest listing of jobs at socially responsible companies.” The release, Socially Responsible Companies Rank High With Job Seekers, covers the topic of potential employees’ willingness to take pay cuts to work for non-profits or socially responsible companies but also mentions the launch of the job search site.

Curious about what Care2′s screening criteria are and what definition of socially responsible they use, I took a gander at the site’s “Learn More” page (actually a F.A.Q. page). The information was interesting and left quite a bit of room for huge variations in social responsibility.

From the answer to “What’s ‘Socially Responsible’?”:

“Perhaps one of the most important attributes of a Socially Responsible Business (SRB) is that they demonstrate a commitment toward continuous improvement. Social values change, new challenges emerge, and companies face challenges balancing their values and the bottom line.”

Interesting. There is more text there (I encourage you to read the whole page) but I thought that sentence was particularly interesting.

…And about their screening methodology:

“We worked with social responsibility screening experts, KLD Analytics, to help us identify the best public companies in the U.S. KLD reviews numerous sources to analyze positive and negative attributes including community impact, corporate governance, diversity, employee relations, environment, human rights, and the product itself.

“We started with this list, then kicked out a number of companies we felt just weren’t making the grade, then added a number of private companies we respect most. We also got lots of feedback from our members to further refine our list.”

Again, curiously vague. How many companies were kicked out? For what reasons? What were the private companies that were added? How many of those are there? Do they fit the grade, or are they simply companies worthy of the site creators’ “respect”?

…And, of course, the disclaimer (the response to the question, “How can you say Company X is ‘Responsible’ when they….”):

“The challenge with ever publishing a list of socially responsible companies is that almost every company (particularly the big ones) has some (non-organic) dirt in its closet. See our definition for “what’s responsible” above.

“And for some folks, ‘business’ almost by definition is evil. On this point we strongly disagree. Businesses have to part of the solution, and have the potential for enormous good. It’s important to support the companies making great progress.”

The response continues by noting that the site is in “beta,” further deflecting accountability, but the point they make is still valid. Creating a list of socially responsible companies that we can all be proud of (and find no fault in) is nearly impossible. I don’t like half-baked solutions, but in lieu of fully-baked ones, I’ll take a job site that at least attempts to differentiate the socially responsible from the what-the-heck-is-CSR ones.

That said, I did a quick search for jobs in the Boston area and didn’t really see a difference between listings on the site and what I would expect to find elsewhere. The companies that had job listings didn’t scream “socially responsible” to me, nor did the positions that were listed. Without further research, it will be difficult to determine if this service is merely trying to ride a wave or truly doing the due diligence to filter out all but the most socially responsible companies.

As a matter of comparison, here are a few sites to check out that I have visited before:

1. Idealist.org: Primarily non-profit jobs, but definitely a large selection depending on the search area. Searching in the Boston or Washington D.C. area provides a nice contrast.
2. Green Dream Jobs: A bit more focused on the environment, but a broader selection of for-profit company listings than on idealist.org.