You don’t have to be clairvoyant to know that the labor shortage is real and ongoing. The COVID pandemic and the Great Resignation that followed hard on its heels have taken a tremendous toll on the labor force.
And that has made the task of recruiting top talent formidably challenging. However, there are things that savvy HR professionals can do to attract the most desirable candidates and make their business an employer of choice in their industry.
One of the most important of these recruiting strategies is also a technique that will help to promote brand development, customer acquisition and loyalty, and community engagement. That strategy is sustainability and, through it, you can bring your recruiting practices to the next level while also serving the community and the environment.
This article explores the role of sustainability initiatives in helping you to recruit top talent.
The Allure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Traditionally, the relationship between employers and employees has been pretty straightforward and fairly circumscribed. The employer offered a fair wage, good benefits, and a safe and comfortable working environment in exchange for the employee’s skills and efforts. That was pretty much the extent of it.
Today, however, workers expect more from the companies with which they align themselves. A principal concern is whether or not the company’s values reflect that of the employee. This speaks to the critical role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in attracting talent.
Employees want to work for and represent companies they can feel proud of and that often means joining businesses with a well-established reputation for social responsibility. Integrating sustainability initiatives into company culture and practices is an ideal way to cultivate your company’s brand as an employer that truly gives back to the community.
And cultivating such a philanthropic, community, and environmentally oriented identity is the perfect way to boost employee morale, reduce turnover, and attract the best workers.
Enhancing Job Performance
Another way in which sustainability initiatives can facilitate recruiting is by enhancing your employees’ ability to serve their clients. Sustainable practices can serve customer interests in a variety of ways, from enhancing service to promoting the customers’ values to driving community engagement.
For instance, sustainable businesses may prioritize digital over paper-based transactions and communications. This might include offering online payment and electronic receipts and invoices to reduce paper use while also making business transactions more convenient for customers.
Similarly, sustainability initiatives may take employees out of the office and into their communities, engaging with established and prospective customers through community events. From tree planting to community gardening, the opportunities sustainability initiatives provide for employees to interact with and serve their customers and communities are endless.
And, when it comes to recruiting, the benefits of these initiatives are equally substantive. Recruiters may underscore the important ways a company’s sustainability efforts will help prospective employees serve customers. At the same time, recruiters can promote the robust community engagement these initiatives enable, marketing the job as an opportunity not just to earn a paycheck but to make a real difference.
Boosting Brand Recognition
As suggested above, many sustainability initiatives encompass more than environmentally friendly operating practices. Many initiatives take employees out into their communities, as businesses engage in service activities that can have a powerful impact on both the environment and the citizenry.
What this means is that a company that is highly engaged in sustainability is also going to be a company that becomes a bedrock within the community. Sustainability programs might include, for instance, initiatives designed to support self-sufficiency through “buy local” initiatives or the cultivation of community gardens.
Thus, the company becomes a key partner for other local businesses, from food growers to Mom and Pop retailers and restaurants. There are few better ways to make one’s organization known and highly esteemed within the community.
And that kind of grassroots brand-building can be highly attractive to qualified job seekers. The positive associations they are likely to build with your organization by engaging with it through these community events may well translate into a strong desire to join your team. Now more than ever, workers want to feel proud of the companies they belong to, and this kind of robust public engagement with community sustainability events is a terrific way to make it so.
The Takeaway
The challenge of recruiting top talent is immense. That’s because the workforce is changing rapidly and employees expect more from the companies they choose to join. Sustainability initiatives, however, can be a powerful tool in the battle to become an employer of choice within your industry—and your community.
These initiatives attract talent by fostering a brand identity that prospective recruits can be proud of. They also hold out the promise of making a candidate’s work better and more fulfilling. Finally, they provide the kind of community engagement that promotes brand awareness and fuels job-seekers’ desires to join such an esteemed organization.
