Green companies have more engaged employees

New study shows that employees who work in organisations with sustainable credentials are happier and more productive

A new internet study from Brighter Planet in the US shows that employees are more engaged when they concentrate on issues around sustainability. However organisations seem to be talking the talk but not walking the walk when it comes to engaging their employees on sustainability initiatives.

About 86 percent of respondents to a recent survey said they were not engaged by their employers on sustainability, even though the same amount – 86 percent – said that their organisation promotes employee sustainability in some arena. Only 14 percent of the employees said they were aware of their companies having an employee sustainability engagement policy.

About 16 percent of respondents said their employer collects data related employee sustainability, according to the Employee Engagement Survey run for Brighter Planet by Saatchi & Saatchi. Other key findings include:

• Small organisations are taking the lead on employee sustainability engagement. The report finds that employers with 100 people or less are nearly twice as likely to promote sustainability “very frequently.” What’s more, their efforts are twice as likely to be effective at changing employee behaviour.
• The report found that the most effective engagement programmes feature an organisation’s management or board as the main advocate for employee sustainability. In fact, these programmes have proven three times as effective as those in which an employee sustainability director was the main advocate.
• Employees say they are generally dissatisfied with their employers’ sustainability engagement efforts.
• Over 60 percent of respondents want to learn more about their employers’ and co-workers’ sustainability efforts. Another 67 percent are dissatisfied with their employer’s stance on sustainability and would like it changed.
• While many organisations view sustainability programmes as a potential competitive advantage, of those employers publicly sharing their sustainability efforts, 59 percent of respondents said it was done for sales and marketing purposes.
• Another 46 percent said their companies shared sustainability efforts publicly as a means of employee recruitment and retention.