Sustainability: Who Cares?

26 / Apr / 2021

People are key to sustainability success. We pick out some big issues for your business on both retention and recruitment.

Customers. Employees. Investors. Job candidates. Everyone cares.

How do we know? Our clients tell us.

This is what we hear from them…

By: Rondi Allen

“A major customer has asked me what I’m doing on sustainability”

“I’ve been asked to present our sustainability action plan at an industry conference”

“I’m looking for funding and people are asking what my ESG impacts are”

“I see a gap in the market for a sustainability front runner”

Recently, a potential client described their discomfort when, running a virtual career fair, they were repeatedly being asked how they are ensuring diversity and inclusion and what are they doing on sustainability.

(Needless to say, they didn’t like being that comfortable, and they are now a client!)

The statistics

There are many surveys indicating increasing consumer preference for sustainable options, particularly when they are at the same price point as less sustainable alternatives. These same people are your current and future employees and customers. The trend is more prevalent in millennials (think under 40’s) and Generation Z (think under 25’s).

71% of the Businesses owners asked answered that Employees asked about sustainability.*

90% of the Businesses asked suggested that Customers did care about the policies and processes they had in place.**

The good news for business

Sustainability is a great tool to positively engage these people with your business.

Intelligently and progressively improving your sustainability impacts, will improve your bottom line. And a large proposition of your people wants to play their part which means higher engagement levels, productivity and profitability.

A key people aspect of the sustainability agenda is diversity and inclusion. It is an area many businesses struggle with, not through a lack of desire but because they don’t where to start. The drivers for addressing the issue, as with sustainability are, that done well, it is just good business. High employee diversity relative to competitors has been identified by many, such as McKinsey and Gallup, as a strong predictor of market-leading profitability. How to improve your diversity is a huge topic, but the key takeaway is that the people who care about sustainability, care about diversity and inclusion whether they see them as the same agenda or not.

Staff retention is often a major business case element for investing in enhancing your business sustainability.

Two frequently embraced sustainability goals related to this business driver are Health & Wellbeing and Education. A neglected element of both is providing clear performance expectations and objectives. Less of the job description, more of the measurement.

But it all starts at the recruitment stage, painting a vivid picture of expectations and your sustainability agenda. You are setting people up for success from day one.

When people go to work, know they are meeting expectations, being supported to develop their careers and working for a company that has the same value set as they do, they are much more likely to remain engaged, happy and productive at work. Which tends to translate to being happy and healthy at home.

What’s not to like?

If you want to know more about people and sustainability join our webinar on 6 May at 8.00 am – click here to register.

*Source: Sustainable X
** Source: Sustainable X

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Sustainability: Who Cares?

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