Sustainability. This is one of the issues that most professionals in business are called upon to address from the perspective of value creation. The HR professional is not to be excluded; on the contrary, he or she is precisely among the change agents who determine winning business strategies by contributing to the design of virtuous sustainable practices. The question now arises: how come the HR professional plays such an important role when referring to the topic of sustainability?
The answer is quite simple, as this is the figure who has the immediate contact with the beneficiaries of the benefits of sustainable practices and policies: Human Resources, present and future.
Collaboration between the HR function and the Marketing and Communications Team can, in fact, make all the difference in terms of talent attraction and strengthening corporate employer branding by developing sustainability-oriented strategies, which has increasingly become a hallmark of companies because of its ability to attract talent and stakeholders.
The role of sustainability in the current labor market context
Companies of all sizes have become aware that they need to rethink their brands from their distinctive and value-driven elements, focusing especially on introducing sustainable solutions. And along with the candidates, they are taking note of the enormous influence of sustainability.
This is confirmed by ISTAT data from 2023, which show that in 2022 59.5 percent of manufacturing enterprises took actions to promote sustainability. Among them, 50.3 percent focused on social sustainability and 36.8 percent on economic sustainability1.
The world of work has changed profoundly, and must necessarily be read in light of the input coming from workers and talent themselves.
Think of the Big Quit phenomenon that occurred in the post-pandemic, with an increase in voluntary resignations to aspire to work settings with a better work-life balance; rather than Quiet Quitting, the equally dangerous “silent quitting” related to the ability to attract and retain talent. All up to today’s Job Creeping, the inexorable creeping into workers’ lives due to new, unsupervised ways of working, often leading to the risk of burnout as it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the work sphere from the personal.
All of these phenomena, which have generated and still generate an incredible increase in direct and indirect costs for companies, are a useful cue precisely in the activity of redesigning corporate value structures; they are, moreover, the wake-up call that transfers a very clear message: it is the candidates who choose companies, and it is the companies that must make themselves sufficiently attractive to be chosen.
Not only that. In addition to choosing companies, the candidate dictates the length of time he or she stays there; therefore, the values expressed in the initial selection and hiring phase must then be reflected consistently and concretely in the actions implemented from the onboarding phase onward.
The new challenge to be faced: the precariousness of talent
Companies, and in particular the HR function, are now facing a new form of insecurity: that of talent. If they are not sufficiently engaged and satisfied, these resources tend to leave an environment in which they find it difficult to identify. This scenario requires companies not only to act ethically, but also strategically.
While HR and Marketing are engaging in work on sustainable initiatives that influence corporate branding, candidates are increasingly conducting a process of self- – analysis that steers them toward companies with clear approaches to sustainability.
For both subjects, in each case, the central theme is personal and corporate values and culture. Professionals, in fact, bring with them their own set of values and look for companies that reflect that culture. Cultural match thus becomes a key element in the search for and choice of employment.
Designing and building a corporate image to attract and retain talent therefore comes through values and choices. Engaging with concrete activities to reduce environmental impact or supporting responsible actions towards the community inside and outside the company are an important step to achieve a better brand reputation.
This is especially valid where actions are not simply limited to a “must do,” but to a “we want to do because we believe in it.” To do this, we need to start from the ground up and build culturally consistent ground at the corporate level.
The massive entry of Millennials and GenZ into the labor market.
The younger generations that populate this profoundly changed labor market present a more pronounced sensitivity than their predecessors to the issue of sustainability.
It is amazing how common it is during interviews with Millennials and GenZ to hear phrases such as, “I want to work in an environment where my activities can have a positive impact both socially and environmentally,” or “I believe that change starts with everyone’s actions, and I want a company that shares this worldview of mine.”
This attention to values related to sustainability cannot be ignored by talent specialists, who are increasingly aware that they are facing different candidates than in the past. No longer exclusively satisfied by a career path or improved economic contractual conditions, these “evolved” candidates want to contribute with their actions to design the organizations they are part of, and they demand concreteness in the actions implemented by the company.
A real sketch of potential “future talent” needs to be drawn up, as priorities have been profoundly transformed. The “private life” sphere now has greater relevance than career, extra-work relationships are crucial to building a sense of identity, and the preferred mode of work is maximum flexibility.
These data are the snapshot provided by Deloitte ‘s global study for the year 2023 on the GenZ and Millennials2 sample. That study highlights the extent to which certain sustainability actions have become the new criteria for the younger generation’s choice of employer.
