Sustainability is now a critical aspect for the businesses as the pollution level is increasing every day. We are about to see some severe effects in the coming years in the absence of strict measures. It is the responsibility of leaders, managers, and the HR department to create sustainable policies and help the environment.
The HR department plays a pivotal role in acquiring and nurturing talents based on organisational policies. They can curate and deliver a companywide message to the employees and stakeholders on sustainability. Here are a few tips for the HR department to create a sustainable environment in the workplace.
Set a Social Purpose
The first step towards creating a sustainable culture is to find and set a social purpose. It is the aim that drives the whole process, from strategizing to implementation. You can refer to the UN’s list of sustainable goals to achieve.
Sustainability is a broad term that covers concepts such as gender equality, quality education, and climate change. Some of the biggest concern in the industry often decides your purpose. It is on the management to determine the target among 17 different sustainable development goals.
Review the Current Practices
It is time to review the current practices that create an impact on the decided social purpose. You must evaluate the current situation on its severity with different metrics. The review should contain the history of policies towards the set purpose.
Let us take the example of reducing water consumption in some manufacturing industry. Here, the evaluation should contain the current consumption, water source, and the future with the same consumption. The focus should be on the company’s current practices for the goal, as mentioned earlier and its effectiveness.
Find the Areas that Need Improvement
It is inspiring from your part to work towards creating a sustainable workplace. But you must work in the right direction where a change is needed the most. Therefore, review the current practices and find those areas.
This way, you can create a more significant impact on the strategy change. You will find the task more challenging and outside the comfort zone. This makes the whole campaign a lot more impactful and exciting.
Add Sustainability to the Hiring Process
You should add sustainability in the hiring process to ensure new employees fit right in the work culture. Discuss the sustainability goals with them during the interview process. This will send the message on the importance of sustainability for your organisation to the new joiners.
It is always good to have new employees already aligned towards the ultimate goals of the organisation. It reduces the need for micromanaging, and the changes are easily implemented. The overall sustainability performance will also remain consistent from the start.
Train Staff
The current staff also need training to changes you are bringing in the organisation. The whole process is critical for the sustainable goal and its outcome. Therefore, create a strategy on training staff before you roll out the changes.
You should give your staff some time before expecting any development. There might be doubts, confusions, and some mistakes in the initial phase. You must organise workshops, training sessions, and meetings to thoroughly explain the changes.
Reward the Change
An intuitive way to ensure the successful implementation of new sustainable policies is by rewarding the best performers. You need to add the sustainability column in their performance review for this. Though finding the metrics to measure the sustainability of individual employees is not easy for every industry.
Make it a team assignment if the individual assessment is not possible. Your organisation will be making sustainability an important KPI. Apply for bad credit loans in Ireland to generate capital for the initial implementation of the incentive scheme.
Ask Employees for Suggestions
You can add employees in the decision-making process to get some helpful suggestions. This way, you can make them feel valued and responsible. They will take ownership towards achieving the goals and make every effort towards it.
Let the team leaders conduct brainstorming sessions with their team members. Ask them to document everything and take feedbacks from the employees.
Retain the Right Employees
Once you have the policies implemented, you will find the employees performing activities to achieve the sustainability targets. You must keep an eye on them and target their retention. They are the right people to create a sustainable work culture within the organisation.
Also, it will reduce the cost and efforts of training new employees for sustainable development goals. Your organisation will remain consistent toward achieving them.
To Conclude
In the end, it is quite impossible to create a sustainable workplace without the help of the HR department. They hold the key toward developing and implementing the strategies. However, you must try to make a belief among the employees about their contribution to the environment.
