Making key allies: human resources

People are at the heart of sustainability - a core pillar alongside Planet and Profit.

86% of senior executives believe that a holistic approach to the people-related aspects of sustainability, such as engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and wellbeing, also drives positive economic and environmental outcomes (IDC ‘People Sustainability survey’, 2022).

How sustainability helps HR…

Sustainability…

• increases employee engagement: Close to 90% of employees said involvement in their organisation’s sustainability initiatives enhanced their job satisfaction [National Environmental Education Foundation, 2017]. Engaged employees are 15-20% more productive [Gartner ‘Manager of the future survey’, 2020].

• improves employee wellbeing: two in three Gen Z employees are worried about climate change and social issues, such as poverty and inequality. For 43%, a lack of action by their employer is impacting their mental wellbeing [Bupa ‘Environ-mental health burden survey’, 2022]. Generally, 56% of employees want to make a bigger contribution to society through their work [Gartner ‘Hybrid and return to work survey’, 2021].

• supports skills development and prepares employees for the future world of work: 83% of employees want to learn new skills [Hays ‘Learning Mindset report’, 2022]. The key skills employees need to effectively contribute to a more sustainable organisation are fundamental skills for business, including leadership, resilience, problem-solving and communication skills [HBS Online, 2021].

• provides career development opportunities: 70% of senior executives believe a people-centric approach to sustainability boosts ‘talent mobility’ and facilitates internal job moves and promotions  [IDC ‘People Sustainability survey’, 2022].

• supports recruitment: 71% of employees and job seekers consider environmentally sustainable companies to be “more attractive employers” [ IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV), 2021]. Up to a third of people have turned down a job offer because a company’s ESG values do not align with their own [KPMG, 2023].

• reduces staff turnover: Six in 10 Gen Z employees would stay longer with a company that had strong sustainability credentials [Bupa ‘Environ-mental health burden survey’, 2022]. 58% of UK workers would consider changing jobs for a more sustainable job [Aviva ‘How we live report’, 2022].

HR’s role in sustainability

HR is crucial in helping the organisation to achieve its sustainability goals by:

• supporting culture change across the organisation.

• ensuring employees have the training they need to do their roles more sustainably.

• helping to embed sustainability into everyone’s job description and objectives.

• writing policies.

• creating a sustainable employee benefits package, e.g. pension investments, volunteer programmes or cycle-to-work schemes.

Important questions HR should ask

If you are in HR and are only just starting to work on your organisation’s sustainability initiatives, you may want to ask your sustainability colleagues these questions:

• Can you explain the organisation’s sustainability strategy, targets and timeframes and how it is likely to impact our people? 

• Where can I learn more about the organisation’s sustainability strategy/ sustainability in general?

• Which teams or groups of employees do we want to train first? 

• What are the key things that we want them to learn as a result of the training?

• What are the key things that we want them to do as a result of the training?/ Are there specific actions that we want to encourage?

• Do you have access to any good resources that we can use to develop training? 

• Employees are busy and may not make time for training, what are the benefits for employees to getting involved/ being trained?

• How can we help employees to understand how sustainability is relevant to their job?

• Are there any opportunities to shadow your team or get more heavily involved in sustainability projects if employees want to develop their skills? 

• How do we raise awareness of sustainability issues without alarming our employees? 

• What does success look like?

How could HR and the sustainability team start working together?

• Draft wording to use in job adverts to effectively highlight the organisation’s sustainability programme to potential applicants.

• Include a session on sustainability in the induction programme for new starter’s helping to influence sustainable behaviours early on.

• Include questions on sustainability in the next employee survey to identify the issues that resonate most strongly with employees.

• Set up a programme of ‘lunch and learns’ to talk about key topics in sustainability and what the organisation is doing about them.

• Explore how to incorporate training on sustainability into existing career development programmes, e.g. within the organisation’s leadership development programme.