Environmental social responsibility , applied to business strategy and Human Resources management, goes far beyond compliance with labor, legal or fiscal obligations, the most important being the increase in investment in human capital.
Companies can manage their activities in a way that promotes economic growth and competitiveness, while giving importance to environmental protection and adding a value of environmental social responsibility to economic activity.
The set of individual and business actions cause great impacts on environmental aspects such as recycling and climate change. These actions are manifested from ecological awareness , by worrying about what happens with the environment.
Ecological awareness or also called environmental awareness, occurs when consumers are concerned about environmental problems and seek information about it, this being the first step to change their attitude in relation to the items they need to acquire or the new behavior that shows signs of respect towards the environment.
Every day more people express interest in the preservation of the environment and are informed about the problems related to it. Therefore, these people are considered environmentally conscious, which is the first step in changing activities and lifestyles that lead to environmental degradation.
Environmental sustainability
Environmental sustainability is the efficient implementation of natural resources in the various productive activities, allowing their conservation for future needs. It is left to the citizens to collaborate to maintain said sustainability by saving energy and water, as well as not using fossil fuels and reducing waste.
Environmental sustainability and HR
Most companies do not integrate sustainability and Human Resources through human capital management systems on environmental care.
Generally, companies implement internal sustainability policies only linking actions related to environmental protection, focusing on community impact.
However, a change in the company’s point of view in this sense has a valuable influence on the way in which it carries out its activity on a daily basis. In this way, the Human Resources office can promote a change that achieves significant growth in terms of sustainability throughout the life cycle of the workforce, from the moment of personnel selection until the employee’s retirement.
To achieve these important changes, the responsible attitude and ecological awareness of the applicants must be analyzed , and then integrated into the business culture. In other words, in the selection interviews, questions related to how to make work practices more sustainable or ask about proposals to make a company more efficient and sustainable can be added.
Human Resources practices that promote the environmental sustainability strategy
Within the company’s sustainable development strategies, Human Resources specialists are synonymous with environmental social responsibility . This means that the identification of all environmental aspects is regulated as the main representatives of the company’s sustainable management. In addition to being a very effective tool when making the selection of personnel.
Talent planning: Proper talent planning can support greener strategies. HR professionals can ensure that the talent needed to implement it is available now and in the future .
Design of jobs: When an organization wants to achieve this type of strategy, it must design all jobs based on new tasks and objectives related to ecological awareness that it wants to achieve. For this, work planning oriented towards environmental sustainability should also be considered, so it is worth considering the implementation of flexible work contracts. Based on the above, it can be said that work practice and work planning is a guide for the Human Resources department to direct employees to achieve environmental goals.
Recruitment and selection of talent: Through recruitment, companies have the opportunity to demonstrate to candidates their commitment to the environment and to be an attractive workplace for talented people. In addition, supporting a green organization requires employees who are committed and sensitive to environmental sustainability activities and goals. In this way, the recruitment and selection of experts becomes a very valuable Human Resources practice, helping to find the best profiles in the market, required to implement the implementation of the company’s strategic plans.
Attraction and retention of talent: It is one of the main challenges of the Human Resources department, since it is necessary to create a value proposition related to environmental sustainability that is attractive to people, in addition to ensuring their compliance.
Learning and skills development: training that generates learning becomes a key aspect to make employees aware of the environmental effects of the organization’s activities and thus achieve environmental objectives. It is not only designed to increase the level of environmental literacy and competence, but also promotes the development of employee behavior and values that may be necessary for the effective implementation of an environmentally sustainable strategy. Learning and development is a common Human Resources practice in organizations that enables better environmental performance.
Knowledge management and organizational culture: knowledge management becomes another important factor to improve the organization’s performance environment, since by promoting spaces where the individual experiences of the team are shared and discussed, the collaborator becomes involved as an important part of the organization. prevention of environmental effects and mitigation. Another element in environmental social responsibility They are the effective results that are achieved not only through changes in production processes, products or raw materials, but also by changing the organizational culture, so that companies and their employees carefully adhere to the values that support long-term performance. The management of knowledge and organizational culture is, therefore, valuable in the search for effective results in the environmental sustainability of the practices carried out by Human Resources .
Performance management: a high-performance company is an organization capable of achieving its objectives, that is, it is effective in implementing a specific strategy. Not only individual action, but also collective action, achieving competitive advantage over other companies. This allows performance management to be a Human Resources practice that can influence the environmental performance of an organization and, therefore, the performance of its workers in environmental activities.
Incentives: Motivating employees to achieve better behavior and greater commitment is a widely used strategy of environmental sustainability. Bounty is an appropriate HR practice in this scenario because it allows you to recognize employees for their environmental performance.
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