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Is corporate sustainability contrary to employee engagement and wellbeing? We believe not, in fact, quite the opposite, and that is precisely where the idea of ‘people sustainability’ comes in.
With corporate sustainability pressures coming in into the business world, it is difficult to ignore how important it is to find a natural way to include social, environmental and governance concerns across organizations.
The fear of making such sustainable obligations and imposed task upon employees or stakeholders keeps many companies from pursuing bigger efforts.
But, what if we told you there is a way in which sustainability can become as natural as any other work task or company activity?
Making people part of sustainability
This is exactly what the idea behind ‘people sustainability’ is all about, making people an active part of sustainability in an effort to pursue more responsible practices from the bottom up, and viceversa.
When sustainability is forced upon employees and stakeholders it is certainly possible that some sustainable objectives might be met. However, if it is not actually and truly embedded across every member of the organization, chances are it will eventually fail.
In other words, ‘people sustainability’ is about bringing together the responsibilities companies have to pursue corporate sustainability, and employee engagement.
Engage employees in the sustainability strategy
How can businesses apply a 'people sustainability' strategy?
There are many ways in which companies can find the perfect intersection to work on corporate sustainability objectives whilst encouraging employee engagement and awareness.
Here we present some of the various ways in which ‘people sustainability can grow, develop and be enhance within company culture:
Adopting a people-first mindset
First thing’s first, businesses need to adopt a mindset that puts people, in this case, employees, at the centre of it all. This is essential, because business success is not solely about managing a company, is also about managing people.
While ‘people sustainability’ is about creating engagement and managing a team of people sustainably, it is also a matter of treating people responsibly, valuing their talent and contribution, and addressing them as part of the foundation of sustainability itself.
So naturally, in the quest for people sustainability policies there will be many aspects that come into play, from employees’ sociological and emotional concerns, to talent and human resource management or sustainability training and awareness, to name a few.
Upskilling employees
Very much in line with a people centric mindset, is the idea of procuring employees with the intellectual as well as physical tools they need to embrace sustainability into their work and life, otherwise known as green upskilling.
There are many ways in which upskilling can happen within the company, but we want to focus on sustainability or green upskilling for the purpose of this article.
Green upskilling refers to the training of employees in green or sustainable skills and knowledge. It can also be understood as the education needed to understand the complexities of environmental social and governance factors which guide companies’ sustainability strategies.
It is the process through which business can make sure employees are ready and equipped to contribute to such sustainability efforts.
What inconsistencies do companies find within their sustainability strategies?
Activate your employees' sustainable potential
We believe employee engagement has a lot to offer to corporate sustainability endeavors. That is why activating their potential to take action and be part of the sustainability strategy is our priority.
In DoGood we think that working collectively can help us find that which alone may seem unattainable or useless. That is why we believe the workplace is the perfect environment to find that collective eagerness to make a difference, both for the sustainability and purpose of the company and a more sustainable way of being for all.
Through our technology we are able to activate and track employees’ impact, creating engagement that translates into improved ESG metrics, reputational value and an overall positive impact for the environment and society.
