ESG & Sustainability Trends Tracker 2022 – Sustainable Practice sits in lock step with employee engagement

March 15th 2022, in our latest ESG & Sustainability Trends Tracker, four our of five (80%) make plain the powerful connection between Sustainable Practice and Employee Engagement.

The Pulse Business’ ESG & Sustainability Trends Tracker ran in late February 2022 and went out to c650 Heads of ESG & Sustainability based in the UK.

An Associate Director of ESG working in the real estate sector shared – “Our ‘All Greens’ network is one of our most popular (employee comms tools). This was created following employee demand. It is now award winning. It is also helping recruitment to the graduate program and into ESG Consulting.”

Another Group Director of Sustainability working in the healthcare sector went further with – “Increasingly we see expectation from our people that credible and tangible action (with) sustainability is being taken by the business. It’s a key retention, recruitment and engagement driver.”

The majority view was unequivocal with many asserting that sound sustainable practice is now a prospective and existing employee expectation. There is a clear upside because when a business ‘gets it right’, they become more attractive as employers. Positive arguments were also made around how much more staff are engaged and how this inspires a greater diversity of thinking across the staff footprint.

Thinking about the next generation of employees, this ESG & Sustainability consultant summed it up with – “Employees in their 20s and early 30s expect the business ethos and values to be aligned with the broader sustainability agenda.”

The last word sits with one ESG Consultant who talked of the more intangible benefits of connecting sustainable practice with employee engagement specifically the sense of worth and pride that staff feel as a result of the companies they work for doing the right thing.

ESG PRACTICE BENCHMARK

Where does your business sit on the following scale of ESG practice?

19%

We are pioneering

49%

We are mid transformation

16%

We are trying to keep up

11%

We are lagging behind

5%

Other – please share

LINKING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

How much, if at all, do you believe Sustainable Practice impacts Employee Engagement?

29%

It has a huge impact

51%

It has a large impact

20%

It has some impact

0%

It has little or no impact

0%

It has no impact at all

LINKING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

How good, if at all, is your business at communicating its progress in Sustainable Practice to your employees?

15%

Really good

44%

Pretty good

33%

Not that good

6%

Poor

2%

Really poor

LINKING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Do you have the right tools to show/measure how Sustainable Practice impacts Employee Engagement?

6%

Yes we do

28%

We have some tools that help do this

36%

We are still working out how we measure this

2%

We need help working out how we measure this

26%

No we do not

2%

Other – please share

CLIMATE TRANSITION INDEX

Should we have a Climate Transition Index to chart every company’s commitment to becoming more sustainable?

28%

Yes – definitely

32%

Yes – but it’s quite a complicated task

26%

No – not a practical use of people’s time

15%

Other – please share

ESG RELEVANCE TO YOUR BUSINESS

Thinking about ESG overall, which one, if any, is the most relevant to your business?

28%

E – Environmental

9%

S – Social

2%

G – Governance

55%

They are all equally relevant

6%

Other – please share