Over the last two decades, there has been a significant shift in the manner businesses approach social responsibility, and a new item has been introduced into the priority list: ESG sustainability. ESG, shortening for environmental, social, and governance, is a tool for evaluating the sustainability efforts of a company. Now, businesses are also being assessed on ESG staffing.
ESG has become mandatory in almost all sectors of the economy, with governments adopting policies to guide sustainability operations. In Hong Kong, for example, all companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) are required to prepare annual ESG reports detailing plans and efforts to make the planet a better place for all.
This post is a closer look at ESG staffing to determine the benefits to expect for your company. Read through to understand more about how ESG staffing works and tips for getting more with time.
What is ESG Staffing?
If you have a company that is focused on sustainability, it is important to have staff conversant with ESG matters. ESG staffing helps you to ensure that the employees working in your company have all the skills needed to build on the concept of ESG sustainability. This may include adding ESG skills and experience in sustainability matters as part of the requirements for employment. It would also incorporate regular staff development with focus on ESG matters.
Why ESG Staffing Matters to Your Company
Check out the following five benefits to expect from ESG staffing for your company.
Improved reputation of Your Company
Today, businesses that fail ESG performance standards should expect to suffer serious damage to their reputation. Take the example of Boohoom, which was faced with allegations about slavery practices. Top online retailers rapidly pulled down its products from their stores. Its stocks took a major downtrend on the stock market.
ESG is becoming an important workforce strategy, helping companies to enjoy a competitive advantage in winning new talents and retaining them. New workers now do due diligence and search for companies demonstrating the commitment to sustainability.
Note that a good reputation will not just help attract talented staff, but also investors who will inject more capital for faster company or business growth and success.
Improved Productivity
Companies with strong labor relations and ESG propositions achieve higher productivity. ESG staffing helps to increase inclusivity and also cut down the gap between the payment of top executives and workforce. This helps to motivate staff and ultimately increases company’s productivity. Fair incentives brought by ESG staffing can also help to improve employee engagement, and in return boost productivity.
Growing the Value of the Company
There are many examples of how the price of shares can plummet because of reports of poor ESG performance, including staffing. Unlike in the past, when many investors, customers and stakeholders only checked ads on television to make the decision about the company to associate with, they are now more engaged. They carry additional research to check how the company of interest is run and only make a commitment if the enterprise uses sustainable management and solutions.
Businesses that lack ESG and labor relations focus will struggle to convince investors that their funds will be safe. ESG staffing gives investors the assurance that the strategies adopted by your company will always focus on delivering long-term value.
Legal Compliance
The ability to assess ESG issues and fines, and penalize non-compliance has intensified in the recent. For example, the UK now requires every company or business with more than 250 employees to provide gender pay gap reports. California and Australia also have similar legislation, and ESG staffing can help you to achieve compliance. Even in countries that do not have such laws, using ESG labor practices can help you to get a better ESG score.
Meeting International Standards
While many nations follow local laws, some of them are not comprehensive enough to help protect people, employees and businesses. However, international frameworks are now available to help your company set high standards in your region. The best ESG practices set by international standards will make your company attract even the global clients. Some of the best labor organizations that you should use to guide your operations are:
- The UN Global Compact, which has about 12,000 corporate participants.
- The International Labor Organization Conventions and Declarations.
- International Bill of Human Rights.
How to Get More from ESG Staffing through Reporting
Now that you know the main benefits to expect from ESG staffing, there is additional good news: it is possible to get more. Here are some useful tips to help you optimize the benefits of ESG staffing:
Make ESG Staffing Part of Your Company’s Strategy
Although ESG sustainability comes with so many advantages to both corporations and the planet, concerns have emerged about greenwashing. This means that companies incorrectly report they are sustainable while they are not. This can easily scare away investors, but you can avoid it by ingraining ESG staffing and other sustainability-related activities into the company’s strategy and accurately capturing the details in the ESG report.
This ESG report will demonstrate to stakeholders, such as employees, individual/ group of investors and legal departments, that your company is committed to sustainability. Apart from improved staff engagement, most stakeholders will want to be part of the organization. This can be in different formats, such as ESG investing, product endorsements, customers, and partnerships.
Use ESG Sustainability Reporting Software
One of the reasons why many companies fail in ESG staffing and sustainability reporting efforts is because they try to do things manually. As you work on ESG staffing, the chances are that you also have other areas, such as cutting down carbon footprint and promoting social justice. To be able to harmonize all of these ESG operations, it is paramount to work with appropriate sustainability management software.
The software allows you to use different ESG reporting frameworks, from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial (TCFD), and guarantee data accuracy.
The app also helps with data analysis and report generation in line with ESG sustainability reporting principles.
Bring On-Board Experts
As a relatively new idea, ESG sustainability concepts such as staffing and investing can be pretty challenging. If you are getting into this space for the first time, have a lot of work to do, or are in the process of scaling operations, adding ESG staffing into the mix can make it more complex. The best way to get it right is to bring on board an ESG expert. The experts will not just help with ESG staffing, but can also assist with redefining the whole company’s strategy for sustainability.
This post has demonstrated that ESG staffing comes with a long list of benefits that you can count on to rapidly grow your company both in the short and long term. Remember to look at ESG staffing from a broad perspective, including environmental and governance consideration.
To make ESG staffing and sustainability reporting more effective, contact our experts at Diginex.com. You can never go wrong with professional services and experts holding your hand.
