Recruiting Value

Sustainability initiatives are often driven from the most senior levels
of organisations. It has become the vogue for large companies to boast
positions such as ‘Chief Ethics Officer’ or ‘Director in Charge of the
Environment’ to bolster their claims to good governance. This is
nothing more than window dressing unless the ethics and values of
sustainability and social responsibility are embedded throughout the
organisation and the brand that it brings to market.

For example, the performance and remuneration of individual staff is
often assessed against “key performance indicators” that have little to
do with values or sustainability. Few are the companies that reward
their staff for reducing their carbon footprint or developing socially
beneficial products.

The human resources industry has a lot to contribute here, since HR
directors are closely involved in the development of job descriptions,
performance criteria, and remuneration structures. If HR is equipped
with the knowledge and support to do so, it can start introducing
ethical, environmental, social and values-based criteria into this
process. This is one of the most effective ways to infuse such values
into the lifeblood of the corporate machine.

WWF’s recent report, ‘Let Them Eat Cake” (downloadable from
http://www.clownfishmarketing.co.uk/clients_wwf.html) found that the
majority of employees consider themselves to care more about
sustainability than their employers do. Furthermore, very few companies
reward employees for environmental and social performance. Only 6% were
rewarded for carrying out environmental and social screening of
suppliers and associates; a meagre 11% were encouraged to consider the
environmental and social impacts of what they were marketing; and only
6% were encouraged by their employers to support environmental causes.

This trend must be reversed. Brands of the future will be rewarded for
their commitment to sustainable development and social practices, and
as such, they must behave as good corporate citizens in everything that
they do. CSR values must be incorporated into recruitment and reward
systems, because there’s nothing like the prospect of a bonus to change
employees’ behaviour.

Recruitment has a critical impact on the performance and future success
of any organisation. With increasingly fierce competition for the best
candidates, and the proliferation of (sometimes dubious) qualifications
amongst candidates, values and sustainability can help to attract and
retain the very best.

A successful recruitment and selection strategy must consider CSR
values in order to remain one step ahead of the game. Successful
brands, therefore, not only need to be successful in the commercial
market, but also in the recruitment process.