Employees: Advocates of Your CSR Program?

Most business leaders would agree that an organization’s strength is, in large part, based on its internal resources and the practices utilized to cultivate talent. When it comes to building a sustainable business reputation, employees are just as critical, and who better to communicate the message than the internal business stakeholders who live the day-to-day operations.

Our professional consulting finds that highly effective organizations are doing more than simply attracting and retaining top eco-talent. Through continuous communication and employee engagement, companies are equipping their internal stakeholders with the information to communicate their business sustainability actions.

In a recent article, The Role Your Current Employees Play in Attracting New Talent, PCS describes the critical role employees play in communicating corporate actions. When attracting new talent, 80% of candidates view current employees as a credible source of information.

So what are your employees saying about your organization? Are they equipped with information and engaged in your company’s business sustainability programs to passionately communicate the message you would like the world to hear? Leading ‘green’ talent organizations are responding and creating sustainability advocates by:

•    Cascading business sustainability strategies down through organizational and individual performance goals.

•    Informing, motivating, and actively engaging employees in the company’s business sustainability programs.

•    Integrating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) into the business processes, corporate performance, and employee recognition.

•    Actively engaged with key stakeholders on sustainability issues, including employees to understand how sustainability issues are affecting the business.

•    Performing transparent reporting on sustainability concepts and sensitive issues, with both positive and negative results.

Within our professional consulting experience, we have seen many companies over the years live and die by the quality and effectiveness of their staff. Building and motivating the organization has always been a critical criterion to retaining top talent; however, it is becoming more and more important to communicating corporate sustainability actions.