Making Employees Participate in Sustainable Practices at the Workplace

APR 24, 2021

Mrrinali Gupta, Consultant, YSEC

We all have gone through the conundrum on practicing sustainability at our homes. How much benefit is there in replacing my plastic toothbrush with that made of bamboo when millions continue their old habit? Is there really any benefit of taking a shorter bath and compromising on that luxurious shower? This conundrum has further escalated into the workplace as well. How much difference can each employee really make to build a sustainable enterprise?

However, much like the data that tells us the huge number of gallons of water we can save by shorter showers and switching the tap off while brushing – there are simple yet effective practices to engage employees towards the sustainability goals of an organization.

Take for instance, Unilever’s PG tips tea factory in Trafford Park, England. Each paper tea bag’s ends were reduced by 3 millimeters saving 15 big paper reels in each shift. Similarly, how can employees in an organization be encouraged to meet sustainability goals? How can they be motivated to think about sustainability goals on a daily basis? For this, given below are the three measures that can be adopted by leaders:

1.       Link Your Company’s Sustainability Goals to Higher Purpose Employee Goals

Employees are not going to be excited by how much money the organization saves annually by using alternative sources of energy. However, they will be intrinsically motivated if their effort contributes to a larger purpose that they can feel proud about. For example - Old Mutual, a financial services company communicated to its employees in a workshop on how they were having real impact on customers through their loans. One manager told her by the end of this workshop, “We’re seeing how, through what we do in our day jobs, we can change lives”.

2.       Include Sustainability Goals in Employee’s KPIs

To instill a sense of ownership in employees with respect to their sustainability goals, it is essential to measure success. Managers should be responsible for communicating how sustainability targets are measured and employees must be rewarded for achieving these goals. This will ensure that sustainability goals are embedded into the daily life of employees. For instance, many factories display scorecards to show how employees have performed on different targets such as greenhouse gases, water etc. relative to other factories.

3.       Each Employee to be a Sustainability Mascot

Role models have dual benefits. They are self-motivated by the responsibility of being role models and also inspire action among others. However, only leaders at the top needn’t be mascots of sustainability. Each employee can be motivated into taking up this responsibility. For example, asking each employee to pick one of the many sustainability goals of an organization that they truly resonate with. Further, they can be motivated to contribute ideas, participate in competition, pitch ideas to leaders etc. for their recognized goal. This engrains the feeling of being responsible for sustainability. For example, 76% of the 170,000 employees at Unilever feel that they contribute to sustainability agenda.

REFERENCES:

“How to Make Sustainability Every Employee’s Responsibility.” Harvard Business Review, Feb. 2018. hbr.org, https://hbr.org/2018/02/how-to-make-sustainability-every-employees-responsibility

Engaging Employees to Create a Sustainable Business (SSIR). https://ssir.org/articles/entry/engaging_employees_to_create_a_sustainable_business. Accessed 19 Apr. 2021

Harris, Sam. “How To Create A Green Culture and Engage Employees - GBB.” Green Business Bureau, 30 Mar. 2020, https://greenbusinessbureau.com/blog/how-to-create-a-green-culture-and-engage-employees/