About

Being good for people is just good business.
Eskala is here to help.

We are a team of business and human rights and social impact advisors. We work with organisations to develop the strategy, governance, systems, programs and skills that avoid human harm and have a positive social impact.

Every organisation touches human lives - staff, customers, the community. Your organisation’s human impact materially affects your success.

From creating a safe & inclusive workplace culture, to adopting an ethical sourcing program, conducting human rights due diligence, embedding safety by design into your products and services, supporting vulnerable customers, or even grant-making - each organisation can exercise control over its impact.

Eskala exists to help you bridge the gap between intent and impact.

Leaning on tick-box compliance and hope is not a winning strategy.

Clients tell us they love our ability to navigate the grey areas and help them arrive at practical, commercially viable next steps. You don’t need to take our word for it; see what they have to say.

For more information on who we work with and what we do, check out our Services and see the FAQs below.

FAQs

  • We work with domestic and multinational businesses, industry peak bodies, governments, not-for-profits, and cross-sector working groups. This includes ASX200 companies and household names in banking & finance, retail, energy & mining, leisure & hospitality, essential services, and infrastructure.

    We have supported professionals from the frontlines through to the Board. Impact is no one department’s responsibility, so we have worked with teams in sustainability, procurement, corporate affairs, investment, product, customer service, financial crime, third-party risk, and internal audit.

  • Social risk is the potential harm to people and social impact is the change experienced by people.

    Organisations carry risks of harm to people - to staff, customers, communities, and so on. This is unavoidable, but those risks can be mitigated and harm prevented and remediated. This is where we play.

    Organisations can also change the knowledge, attitude, behaviour, or circumstances of an individual or group. This impact can be positive or negative, intended or unintended. We help you manage and measure impact so your organisation drives intended outcomes and avoids negative ones.

    And why would you bother? These risks & impacts on people have transverse risks & impacts on the organisation. This is sometimes referred to as ‘double materiality’. If you are familiar with the term ‘environmental, social and governance’ (ESG), social risk & impact is the ‘S’ of ESG.

  • There are many social risk & impact topics. Below are some common ones we see to give you a flavour, noting there is overlap because organisations have different ways of talking about them.

    • Workplace health & safety

    • Bullying, discrimination & harassment

    • Diversity, equity & inclusion

    • Psychosocial risk

    • Human rights

    • Modern slavery

    • Ethical sourcing

    • Responsible investment

    • Sustainable finance

    • Customer outcomes

    • Fair & equitable treatment

    • Safety by design

    • Safeguarding

    • Stakeholder engagement

    • Employee engagement

    • Community consultation / participation

    • Benefits-sharing

    • Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

    • Trust & social licence

  • Yes, there can be compliance reasons to do this work. For example, workplace health & safety and duty of care laws oblige organisations to take reasonable steps to prevent harm to staff and people likely to be impacted by their conduct. Government or grant applications for projects can also mandate a social impact assessment and management plan.

    It is key to think about the whole value chain here - modern slavery laws, for example, cover risk of harm to people in your supply chain, too.

    There are also ethical and purpose-driven reasons to act. Treating people fairly, with dignity and respect is simply the right thing to do. It earns trust, a good reputation, and grants social license to operate. Creating positive social impact may even be the whole reason your business exists! Your organisational purpose and values may be why you see this as more than ‘nice-to-do’.

    Whether you are being pushed or pulled to do this work - it’s worth it. Managing risk of harm to people is a strong foundation for any business, and contributing positive impact benefits both people and your business.

  • Organisations engage us at various stages, including:

    • Early discussions to understand and plan for meeting legal obligations, voluntary commitments, or achieving impact ambitions

    • Strategy-setting to provide expertise and facilitate engagement

    • Reporting, fundraising, or writing business cases for social risk and impact work

    • Measuring social impact

    • After an incident has occurred - a whistleblowing or media report, for example

    • Recruiting for a team member, but needing some support in the meantime

    • Seeking tenders or quotes for a project

    • Ad-hoc when an extra set of hands or expertise is needed

    Our team listens first to understand where you’re at and how we can help. We will never channel clients into programs or arrangements they don’t need.

    Pragmatic over perfect. Incremental steps. That’s progress, and you can approach us anytime to discuss if, when, and how we can partner with you.

  • Your employees, customers, investors, shareholders, regulators, community, government. The level of care and expectations will often be diverse.

    Current staff and future workforce care about how they are treated at work. They can also care about their role and your reputation when it comes to treatment of customers and the community.

    Customers & communities are increasingly conscious of the ethics of the businesses they engage with, and vote with their wallets. Bad news travels fast when customers & communities are treated poorly, and can lead to negative press, legal action, and more.

    Investors & shareholders seek to minimise risk exposure, and businesses that fail to manage harm to people in their value chain are more risky. If organisations can attract and retain staff and customers by treating them with respect, and avoid incidents that end up in the media and courts, that’s good for business.

    Government bodies will oversee, regulate and take enforcement actions to drive conduct that is in the public interest.

    Importantly, how do you want your business to treat people? What does social impact mean to you?

  • Our name, pronounced [es-ka-la] is made up, and came from a bit of wordplay. We think it has a nice ring to it and the business world doesn’t need another acronym!

    The inspo:

    • The word for 'stairs' in Latin languages e.g. escalier, scale, etc
      Social progress is achieved through incremental steps, and we help organisations chart theirs

    • The word ‘escalate’
      We offer independent expertise to help respond when incidents happen and prevent recurrence

    • The letters ‘SK’
      Shorthand for ‘specialist knowledge’, which is what our team brings and helps organisations to build

  • We are not actively hiring at the moment. However, whether you’re a seasoned professional or taking your first steps in a social risk & impact career, we love to meet new people! We are always growing our specialist network and may be able to connect you with teams that are hiring.

    Feel free to reach out to contact@eskala.com.au with a little bit about you.