"The war on talent" - a reason for creating a credible sustainability action plan
I was talking to a partner in a Big 4 firm, who said a key driver of their sustainability strategy is talent. They’re a people-based business and their success depends on attracting and retaining the best people. “There’s a war on talent”, they said.
You don’t have to be the Big 4; this applies to most businesses. To be competitive you need great people working for you. And all the evidence suggests that your sustainability actions will be an increasingly important way of attracting them and engaging them.
The data
You may be hearing anecdotal evidence to support this. You may even be seeing the impact in your business. And some large, credible surveys provide the data to back this up.
The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer found:
60% of global employees surveyed agreed that they “choose a place to work based on their beliefs and values”
60% of people said that “when considering a job, I expect the CEO to speak publicly about controversial social and political issues that I care about”
68% of people said that they “expect CEOs to inform and shape conversations and policy debates about global warming and climate change”
52% of people said that businesses aren’t doing enough to address climate change.
PwC’s 2021 Consumer Intelligence Series survey on ESG found that over 80% of employees are more likely to work for a company that stands up for environmental, social and governance commitments.
What’s clear is that the majority of people expect businesses to be tackling climate change … and that they’re looking at what a business is doing when choosing whether or not to work there.
The changing workforce
Those figures are for now. But the make-up of our workforce is changing and this will only make the issue more pronounced.
Millennials and Gen Z are making up an increasing proportion of the workforce – by 2029 it will be 72%. And they’re much more demanding of their employers when it comes to operating in a socially and environmentally responsible way. If you want them to choose to work for you then you definitely need to have a clear sustainability plan … and be acting on it.
Deloitte carried out a Millennial and Gen Z survey. In the past 2 years, 44% of millennials and 49% of Gen Zs said they’ve made choices about what they do and who they work for based on their personal ethics.
In a study carried out my Marsh & McLennan “companies with the most attractive image to students and young professionals have ESG scores 25 percent higher than the global average employers”.
Actions speak louder than words
Employees and prospective employees are looking for action. They want to see that your bold words around sustainability (e.g. your Net Zero pledge) are backed up by a plan, targets and progress. They’ll be checking that what you do is consistent with what you say.
You might want to think about how sustainability is embedded into your organisational strategy and operational activities such as:
Your performance management approach, including how your reward senior leaders
Internal and external communications
Your procurement process
Your investment approach and corporate pension scheme
Decision making processes and metrics
The boldest businesses that have ambitious targets and clear plans for achieving them will attract the best people.
Your sustainability roadmap
Employees increasingly want to work for businesses that have strong sustainability credentials. What would you say if someone asked you about your targets and plans during the interview process?
If you don’t have a strong enough answer, I’d recommend you take time to create your sustainability roadmap.
For more practical advice on how to get clarity on what steps to take to scale up your impact, check out my FREE Scale Up Your Impact Guide: