Bain: Sustainability and CSR enforce talent management

An increasing awareness of sustainability and CSR not only has a positive effect on financial results and the environment, it also enhances performance when it comes to talent management. This is concluded by consultancy firm Bain & Company in report 'The big green talent machine'.

Sustainability

Among 66% of employees, sustainability has gained more and more attention for the past three years. 40% of those employees say they attach 'way more' value to sustainability.  The three most important reasons are: an increase in global issue awareness, the prove that sustainability is effective, and the believe companies should play a more prominent role in cherishing sustainability goals.

Employers

According to almost 750 respondents reported in this study, employers matter the most when preservation is considered. By estimate, one quarter thinks employees are more important in this matter than other stakeholders. Other stakeholders include: consumers, employers or even the government. In the developed countries this percentage is even more than 30%.
 

Based on the ever increasing focus on sustainability and the expected bigger role employers will play, the advisory firm concludes that sustainable operational management is becoming more important when realizing talent management questions. An ever growing group of professionals perceives sustainability within an organization as one of the most important factors when on the job hunt. This is also true for jobs having a lower pay. Also in the field of talent maintenance, sustainability is becoming more crucial. ''Employees perceive a company’s sustainability agenda as a critical factor to motivation. And highly motivated employees show a tendency to leave an organization less quickly'' according to Bain.