Managing tomorrow’s people: HR strategies and corporate responsibility
Where consumers and employees force change
- Sustainable business is good business
- Socially and environmentally responsible business practices rule.
- Corporate values match employee value: they feel like they belong there.
- Coaching and nurturing promote the right behaviours.
- Corporate responsibility and transparency underpin everything, driving moderate but steady growth.
In the Green World, companies have a powerful social conscience intrinsic to the brand and a “green” sense of responsibility. Consumers demand high business ethics and environmental credentials are a top priority. Society and business see their agendas align. Green World employees are engaged with the company because it reflects their own values.
The sustainability/green agenda may have been put on the back burner for now, as many companies struggle to manage through the downturn, but green companies recognise that ignoring these issues could negatively impact their brand in the long term, and seriously impair their future ability to engage customers and staff.
See how G-Bank, a fictitious investment and commercial bank, emerged from the downturn
Four factors of the green world
In the Green World, consumers and employees force change. Companies develop a powerful social conscience and green sense of responsibility. Consumers demand ethics and environmental credentials are a top priority. Society and business see their agendas align.
Strategies for managing people in a Green World
Organisations operate in a highly regulated world; employment law makes it difficult to lay people off in line with market fluctuations. Green World companies must exhibit responsible employer behaviour and develop innovative solutions in times of downturn.
- New graduates look for employers with strong environmental and social credentials; in response HR plays a key role in developing the corporate social responsibility programme.
- Employees are expected to uphold corporate values and targets around the green agenda.
- Most are given carbon credit tokens which are used like ration books to be cashed in for printing documents in hard copy, company travel and other non-sustainable activities.
- The HR function is renamed "People and Society", the leader being a senior member of the company’s executive team.
- The need to travel to meet clients and colleagues is increasingly replaced by technological solutions, which reduce the need for face-time. Air travel in particular is only permitted in exceptional circumstances. Working across teams in different locations therefore presents enormous challenges to global businesses, and the HR function dedicates significant energy to generating virtual social networks across the operation and the client base.
- Most companies provide staff with corporate transportation options between work and home to minimise car use. Many companies relocate parts of their operation out of big cities, to locales where their people are based.
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How did one Green World company effectively manage their talent pipeline?
Uncover G-Bank's HR strategyContacts
Michael RendellTel: +44 20 721 24945
Justine Brown
Tel: +44 (0)113 289 4423
Global HRS contacts
Succeeding in a Green World: G-Bank
The demands for greater transparency and social responsibility in business―combined with the call for environmental responsibility already present in the green agenda―will be magnified by the crisis. For G-Bank, this means that many areas of people management will be affected, in particular how people are rewarded.
Meet a Green World employee
"Your corporate values match mine―I belong here"
How will the interaction of global forces impact the Green World?
The interplay of large-scale trends―individualism versus collectivism, corporate integration versus fragmentation―will have significant impact on the business models of the future.
