18
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS September/October 2012
Sustainability and Human Resources
Sustainability is the buzz word of the
year. There is growing awareness that
the current way of “doing business” is
not sustainable for the environment and
in some cases this has been mandated,
particularly around carbon emissions.
W
e are seeing more
and more businesses
that have developed
a sustainability thread in
their strategy documentation. There is also a growing
awareness in business that we
can’t continue to operate as
we have been.
So how does this present
an opportunity for HR to add
value?
Primarily this is based
around sustainability boosting
a business’ employer brand
image and their ability to;
• attract the best candidates
when attempting to fill
vacancies and
• retain the best and brightest
staff, once they do come on
board
Today’s uncertain economic
environment has led to a lack
of employee churn across many
sectors in the employment
market, which has seen good
employees sticking in roles
rather than actively searching,
as they may have done in the
past.
Many employers will attest
to the difficulties that can exist
in filling vacancies, especially when recruiting skilled or
knowledge based workers.
Those businesses who tend
to be most successful in attracting and retaining high quality
staff are the ones with a strong
employer brand, whereby the
business itself is highly attractive to potential employees,
irrespective of the role itself
and the remuneration being
offered.
In this regard, businesses
would benefit from extending marketing and PR activities beyond traditional client
relationships, to also include
capturing existing and potential
employees and the community
at large.
Think of the employer brand
image of the likes of Google
who has extensively used PR
to develop a superior employer
brand image and you can imagine it would rarely struggle to
attract and retain great staff.
While some businesses are
blessed with “sexy” products
that can naturally strengthen
an employer brand image, this
is certainly not a prerequisite
for a business to become an
“employer of choice”. One of
the factors that tend to contribute significantly to an employer
MANAGEMENT and HR
Human Resource Specialist, Everest Group Ltd
Waikato HR Specialists • www.everestgroup.co.nz
by Lisa Anderson
brand image is the nature and
strength of their embedded
organisational values and the
extent to which these resonate
with existing staff and the community.
Research shows that care
for the environment and the
resulting sustainability strategies has extensive appeal to
employees and can greatly
benefit an employer brand
image.
One word of warning however, any espoused value must
be authentic and “lived” within
the organisation at every level.
In particular, senior managers must be seen to be actively
modelling sustainable behav-
iours. Otherwise, the business
will be accused of green washing, which will have the opposite to the desired effect and
elicit a suspicious and cynical
response from all.
It is important to remember, when developing strategies
to retain and attract the best
staff that these are the people
who have the most opportunities open to them and who can
afford to be the most “picky”
about who they work for.
More and more, these
employees are choosing to
work for employers who have
a great employer brand and
whose organisational values
align with their personal values.
Due to strong social, economic, political and even legal
push toward sustainability,
businesses who don’t have sustainability embedded within
their operations and values may
find themselves falling out of
alignment with society and
employees at large.
Socially Responsible Investing grows
From page 12
ago, compared with the MSCI
World Gross Index which is
50.9 percent higher. That statistic would suggest the cynics are correct, although there
are a number of ethical funds
that have managed to do better.
I would also suggest that for
many companies and industries
it may take time for the most
sustainable to rise to the top.
Some ethical investors might
also be comfortable with the
potential for lower returns, and
choose to give up some return
for the satisfaction of investing
in line with their values.
The company that was in
control of the Rena is privately
owned, although the Greek
company that built the vessel
is listed on the New York Stock
Exchange.
Whether it would have
passed an SRI assessment or
not, remains to be seen.
There is a definitely place
for ethical investing and that
it is something that many of
us should take note of when
deciding who deserves our
hard-earned capital. There is
no right or wrong approach
and it comes down to individual values and expectations.
A balance between the two
extremes is probably about
right for most people and such
considerations represent a
commendable way of thinking
when looking across investment portfolios and options.
For an independent, noncommittal review of your
current or future investments please contact David
Armstrong. David is an NZX
Advisor / Investment Advisor
for Craigs Investment Partners;
david.armstrong@craigsip.
com or ph 07 959 7101
Source: Craigs Investment
Partners Research Publications.
Any recommendations made in
this publication (expressed or
implied) is general in nature
and does not constitute investment advice under the Securities
Markets Act 1988. For specific
investment advice in relation to
this publication and your personal circumstances please contact your investment advisor.
A free disclosure statement is
available on request – visit
www.craigsip.com
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