Talking Sustainability with your employees
Smart companies know that there’s a not-so-hidden benefit of being socially responsible: it’s also really good for business. Not least among the benefits is the advantage that sustainable organizations have when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent. In fact, research shows 55% of employees would choose to work for a socially responsible company, even if the salary offered was lower. That number jumps to 75% for millennials, who will soon make up three quarters of the workforce.
But employees have a radar for the disingenuous, and will quickly spot internal greenwashing and baseless claims of ‘we care’ that aren’t backed up by action. So, how do you communicate your ESG strategy to employees without it sounding like another corporate flavour-of-the-month initiative?
Make sure your staff understand what ESG is
Our clients are often surprised to learn that, after putting in months of work to design and roll out an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, their staff still think that this is the same thing as philanthropy. It’s important to work with the communications team in your organization to help employees understand that ESG is about more than donations and fun runs, and that it goes to the core of what your organization stands for and how you show up in every aspect of your operations.
It starts with values
A great way to do this is to draw a clear link to your organizational values whenever you’re communicating about ESG (which, by the way, you should be doing on a regular basis). For example, if one of your values is teamwork, you could share a story of how two departments joined forces to improve supply chain transparency. Or if one of your values is innovation, you could highlight an employee who came up with a new way to reduce waste. Storytelling is an ideal way to demonstrate your ESG strategy in action, and explain to employees how it fits hand-in-glove with who you are as a business.
Keep it real
Employees don’t expect you to be Amnesty International (unless of course you are, in fact, Amnesty International). Be both honest and specific about what you can achieve. If your company aims to reach net zero emissions, or eliminate child hunger in your community, explain exactly how you will do that, and by when. If you aren’t capable of eliminating child hunger, but you can provide 100 school meals a week, then say that. Big claims without action plans tend to invite skepticism rather than having the inspirational effect that is usually intended.
Sometimes, you won’t achieve what you set out to do. Budgets can suddenly be diverted, social circumstances outside your control can arise (hello, global pandemic) or you can trip up on any other unforeseen hurdle. That’s OK. What’s important is that you let staff know, in plain and simple language, that you didn’t quite get there, and tell them why. Honesty about shortfalls and mistakes builds trust and will enhance confidence in your ESG efforts over time, whereas fudging the truth will have the exact opposite effect.
Invite people in
Internal communication was always meant to be a dialogue, but it so often ends up as Corporate saying things at people. Your staff will usually have the strongest connection to your operations and will see (and have opinions about) what’s working well, and what’s not.
When you ask them how best to incorporate sustainability across your business, it’s a powerful demonstration of trust in your people, and will have the double benefit of shoring up the success of your ESG strategy, and increasing employee engagement and pride in your company as a place to work.
