Research highlights ‘people’ challenges as businesses pursue sustainability

For the research, 20 in-depth interviews with sustainability and human resources professionals in business organisations were carried out. Two critical barriers to employee engagement in sustainability were identified:

• Workers across organisations struggle to see how the sustainability is relevant to their role; and
• There is insufficient time and resources invested to develop and provide training to help people translate corporate targets into actions at function and team level.

More challenges

The research also indicated that sustainability professionals are increasingly stretched, taking responsibility for strategy development, implementation and training. However, they reported that they often don’t have time for the latter.

Strikingly, all of the HR professionals spoken to were disconnected from their company’s sustainability strategy. They had had little engagement with the strategy and its implications for people; none had been approached to support or develop training and education.

Wellbeing opportunity missed? 

When it comes to wellbeing, HR professionals said they are currently focused on stress related to workload, mental health support, and thriving in remote working environments.  Neither HR nor sustainability professionals saw a connection between sustainability and wellbeing, although several acknowledged that sustainability topics interest, excite and motivate people, and that having an impact at work is empowering for employees.

Encouraging sustainability champions

Ocki also spoke to people identified as ‘sustainability champions’ within businesses. These people work in departments other than sustainability. Some are appointed as champions, others are self-motivated. While this group could play an important role driving good practice internally, many voiced their frustration as employers pushed back against sustainability initiatives for various reasons. These include a perceived conflict with commercial objectives or a view that sustainability only relates to specific areas of business, like manufacturing. 

Roundtables to address challenges 

As a next step, to identify solutions to address employee engagement issues, Ocki is planning to run a series of virtual leadership roundtable discussions. If you’d like to attend, please register your interest, preferences and any pre-discussion comments here.

Background: Businesses approached for the research span supply chains, from chemical to consumer goods, retail and financial. The majority are large, global public sector firms with bases in Europe. Over half had well established sustainability strategies. The research was carried out in September and October 2022 for Ocki Sustainability by Purplefully.

Contact Emma Chynoweth on emma.chynoweth@ockisustainability for more information.