The Crucial Role of HR in Driving Corporate Sustainability
By Caroline Reidy, Managing Director of The HR Suite
Corporate sustainability is a crucial aspect each business should consider. In the last few years, the need to address environmental, social, and governance concerns has been the central focus for most companies. As companies strive to incorporate sustainable practices into their work plan, the human resource department is vital in ensuring sustainability initiatives are followed.
An organised human resource department is crucial for the success of the organisation. The HR department’s role extends beyond focusing on the organisation’s economic performance. It also plays an essential role in managing ethical concerns, enhancing overall efficiency, and guiding the company toward a successful direction.
The article below provides the multifaceted role of the HR department in ensuring corporate sustainability. It highlights the essential responsibilities and strategies of the HR department in ensuring corporate sustainability.
Further Reading: Corporate Sustainability: Insights and a Purchasing Guide
What is Corporate Sustainability?
Corporate sustainability promotes fair labour practices, ensures workplace safety, respects human rights, and supports community initiatives. This practice recognises the necessity of creating positive relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the local community.
On governance, corporate sustainability ensures transparency in decision-making, well-structured leadership, and stakeholder accountability. This move provides diversity, inclusion, maintenance of high standards, and practising responsible lobbying and political contributions.
Corporate sustainability creates long-term value for the company by balancing economic prosperity, environment, and social considerations. Therefore, companies should embrace this practice and align it with societal expectations, thus reducing risks, fostering reputation, and improving competitiveness.
What is the Role of HR in Ensuring Corporate Sustainability?
Recruiting and Selecting the Right Candidates
The HR department is responsible for the recruitment process in any company. Therefore, they are first in line to promote corporate sustainability. Studies show that 80% of companies believe sustainability is crucial during recruitment. Some of the best practices to adopt during the recruitment process include:
- Define sustainability goals to guide the recruitment process and help identify candidates committed to sustainability
- Craft job descriptions containing sustainability-related responsibilities and requirements to ensure that potential candidates understand the organisation’s sustainability focus
- Include sustainability during the candidate interview process by asking specific questions related to sustainability. Ensure that the candidates respond accordingly to the questions.
- The department can promote sustainability during employer branding to ensure that it attracts candidates who are passionate about sustainability and increase the organisation’s reputation.
Training and Development
Training ensures corporate sustainability by increasing employee awareness, skills, and knowledge. Some of the ways training can help promote corporate sustainability include:
- Train employees on environmental issues such as climate change, resource use, and pollution. Increasing awareness makes employees more conscious of their impact on the environment.
- Training employees also helps in the adoption of sustainable practices. Employees will understand and incorporate sustainable practices in their work routines, such as energy conversation, responsible resource use, and waste management. These practices can help reduce the company’s environmental footprint.
- Train employees about the relevant environmental laws and regulations. It enables companies to comply with legal requirements and void fines related to non-compliance.
- Focus training on optimising resource utilisation, such as water energy and limited resources. Employees will learn the best ways to improve operational efficiency, minimise waste, and have opportunities for resource conversation.
- Include supply chain sustainability in the training program. It will help employees learn about responsible sourcing, supplier evaluation, and ethical procurement practices. Integrating these sustainable practices will ensure a company promotes sustainable practices.
- Training also promotes innovation and research by providing creative and critical thinking skills. Therefore, employees can generate ideas for new products and services that are environmentally and socially friendly.
Evaluating Employee Performance
Evaluating employee performance is crucial in enhancing the company’s sustainability. It aligns the organisational goals and monitors progress to identify improvement. It also fosters a culture of continuous learning and development. A report drafted by Aon Hewitt established that 86% of high-performing companies integrate sustainability into their performance evaluation process.
Evaluating employee performance ensures that all individual goals align with the sustainability objectives. Setting clear and measurable goals with sustainable targets can help employees understand their role in contributing to the company’s sustainability agenda.
Performance management also provides a framework for monitoring and measuring progress towards sustainability. Regular evaluation helps the HR department to assess employee contribution towards reaching the targets.
Evaluating employee performance also promotes accountability and responsibility. It helps the department link individual and team performance to sustainability goals. The HR department can hold employees accountable for their actions toward sustainability.
Empower Employee Ideas
Empowering employee ideas can have a significant impact on promoting corporate sustainability. Provide an equal opportunity to employees at all levels to give their input on any matter and contribute ideas.
It is essential to understand that employees come from different backgrounds. Therefore, they have unique experiences and knowledge that may benefit your company. Empowering their ideas can help the company tap into diverse perspectives contributing to innovative solutions.
Encouraging employees to contribute ideas makes them feel engaged toward achieving the company’s goal. This sense of ownership enables them to take full responsibility for any outcome, thus making conscious choices that align with the company’s environment and social objectives.
It also enhances problem-solving mechanisms by fostering a culture of trust, collaboration, and open communication. When employees are free to share ideas, they become inclined to collaborate with their workmates.
Participate in Volunteer Work
Companies should allow employees to engage in voluntary schemes and participate in charities. Volunteer activities help in addressing social and environmental challenges in the local community. Companies that will enable employees to engage in such activities have a positive image in the communities they operate.
Volunteer work also exposes employees to new challenges, solutions, and perspectives. It broadens the employee horizons and encourages exchanging ideas and knowledge applicable to corporate sustainability efforts.
It also enhances corporate reputation by demonstrating the organisation’s commitment to environmental and social aspects. It builds a positive reputation in the community. The company can communicate such initiatives through press releases and social media updates.
Employees engaging in volunteer activities create a sense of purpose and satisfaction. A good connection between the employees and the community helps foster motivation. Therefore, employees will align their values with the organisation’s sustainability goals.
What is the role of HR in environmental sustainability?
The role of Human Resources (HR) in environmental sustainability is multifaceted and crucial for promoting sustainable practices within organisations. HR departments play a huge role in driving sustainability initiatives and embedding environmentally responsible behaviours throughout an organisation’s culture. Here are some key aspects of HR’s involvement in environmental sustainability:
Policy Development
HR professionals are responsible for developing policies and guidelines that integrate environmental sustainability into the organisation’s overall strategy. They collaborate with other departments to define sustainable practices, such as energy conservation, waste reduction, and responsible procurement, and ensure that these policies align with the organisation’s values and goals.
Employee Education and Engagement
HR plays a significant role in educating and engaging employees on environmental sustainability. They organise training programs and workshops to raise awareness about practices including recycling, energy efficiency, and eco-friendly commuting options. HR also encourages employee involvement through initiatives like green teams or sustainability committees, fostering a sense of ownership and collective responsibility for environmental stewardship.
Green Initiatives and Reporting
HR is often involved in implementing green initiatives, such as reducing paper usage, implementing recycling programs, or promoting telecommuting options to reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, HR collaborate with other departments to gather data and report on key environmental indicators, such as carbon footprint reduction, water usage, or waste management, to assess the organisation’s progress towards sustainability goals.
Compliance and Regulation
HR needs to ensure that the organisation complies with environmental regulations and standards in their country. They stay updated on relevant legislation and work with legal and compliance teams to ensure environmental compliance, such as proper waste disposal or adherence to ecological certifications.
What is the Importance of Improving Company Sustainability?
Sustainability is the process of improving your present and future while considering the benefits to the community. A sustainability plan for your organisation is crucial since it helps improve the company’s future. Apart from shaping the organisation’s future, it helps save money. A good example is using greener technologies that will help you save on electricity costs.
Practising sustainability helps improve the company’s image. Therefore, you will attract more clients and make your company attractive to current and future employees. Sustainability plays a crucial role in marketing and recruiting strategy since everyone loves to associate with a company with a good reputation.
A Path to Long-Term Success
The human resource department plays a crucial role in driving corporate sustainability. The HR department can effectively contribute towards the organisation’s sustainable goals by integrating different approaches. The HR department can foster a culture of sustainability by incorporating environmentally friendly practices, diversity, and inclusion and supporting employee well-being.
HR outsourcing is the best approach to enhance corporate sustainability since it leverages specialised expertise to streamline processes, reduce costs, and optimise resource allocation. HR outsourcing will help your company focus on the core functions while benefiting from sustainable HR practices.
About the Author
Caroline Reidy is the Managing Director of The HR Suite, an HR agency in Ireland.