‘Sustainability’ was the word on everyone’s lips at a Hay Group conference I attended in Rome a week or so ago. Like other delegates, I was shifting uncomfortably at some of the sobering messages about climate change.
But while a growing awareness of green issues may be responsible for sustainability’s rise up the corporate agenda, are we using this current buzzword and all-encompassing term too freely in business without really understanding what it means, especially for HR?
If you’re struggling to get your head around what is a rather vast and woolly concept, you’re not alone. Our feature in this week's Personnel Today demystifies sustainability and looks at how organisations are bringing together different strands (CSR, flexible working and wellbeing, for example) into holistic, company-wide values rather than just policies and procedures.
Future-focused HR professionals will know that next generation staff want green and helpful employers but it’s up to HR to prove that involving staff in sustainability initiatives is not just fluffy HR or an ‘ego trip’ from your department, but something that actually affects bottom-line results.
It’s encouraging to see that some firms, such as BT, are already establishing meaningful links between involving employees in climate change reduction and improving staff engagement and retention. We’d love to hear how your organisation is getting on.
Workers increasingly expect employers to deliver meaningful benefits to society and the environment, and it is down to you to fully embrace that. As more and more employees bring a conscience to work, you will need to convince senior managers of the real value and benefits to the bottom line of running such projects.
By ensuring there is sponsorship from the very top, HR has a great opportunity to make a name for itself championing ethical business practices that, crucially, increase profit-making capability and in turn improve your employer brand.
Comments (1)
Hear, hear!
We forget that the majority of employees are actually environmentally sensitive and responsible in their private lives and yet when we walk into our offices, it appears that we leave our personal values at the front door; we make no comment on the lack of recycling bins, we are seemingly oblivious to the various air-con systems blowing air into unused meeting rooms; lights left on when rooms are not being used go without remark.
The fact that these are actionable measures which actually save the company money as well as being environmentally responsible make this situation all the more remarkable since, as joint stakeholders in the business, do we not all profit from the positive actions of our employer?
There is a very important point in all this, though. At Greenaction, we constantly strive to help businesses go green (encompassing CSR and Sustainability as well as 'greening') and it can be frustratingly slow work, despite the fact that we implement solutions which guarantee not to cost the company money. It had never occurred to me to approach HR as a single point of engagement. I do still question, however, as to whether HR sees itself in that capacity, rather than the traditional view of being the enforcer of Euro-rules and (in the light of recent economic trends) executor of redundancy procedures...
I would really like to hear comment in this column on this tack; is HR empowered within an organisation to adopt this role?; does it actually wish to don this mantle?; is there sufficient education/resource available to them to enable them to make a difference and exert influence should they wish to adopt this challenge?
I look forward to reading more...
Posted by Peter Wognum | April 21, 2008 10:11 AM
Posted on April 21, 2008 10:11