HR Professional's guide to creating a strategically sustainable organizationEmployees are central to creating sustainable organizations, yet they are left on the sidelines in most sustainability initiatives along with the HR professionals who should be helping to engage and energize them. This book shows business leaders and HR professionals how to: motivate employees to create economic, environmental and social value; facilitate necessary culture, strategic and organizational change; embed sustainability into the employee lifecycle; and strengthen existing capabilities and develop new ones necessary to support the transformation to sustainability.
Talent, Transformation, and the Triple Bottom Line also demonstrates how leading companies are using sustainability to strengthen core HR functions: to win the war for talent, to motivate and empower employees, to increase productivity, and to enliven traditional HR-related efforts such as diversity, health and wellness, community involvement and volunteerism. In combination, these powerful benefits can help drive business growth, performance, and results.
The book offers strategies, policies, tools and specific action steps that business leaders and HR professionals can use to get into the sustainability game or enhance their efforts dramaticallyAndrew Savitz is an expert in sustainability and has worked extensively with many organizations on sustainability strategy and implementation; he and Karl Weber wrote
The Triple Bottom Line, one of the most successful books in the fieldPublished in partnership with SHRM and with the cooperation of the World Business Council for Sustainable DevelopmentForward by Edward Lawler III
This book fills a gaping hole in both the HR and sustainability literature by educating HR professionals about sustainability, sustainability professionals about HR, and business leaders about how to marry the two to accelerate progress on both fronts.
About the Authors xi
Foreword byEdward E. Lawler iiixiii
Preface xvii
Part One: Transformation, Talent, and Human Resources 1
1 Transforming GE: Building a Sustainable Corporation from the People Up 3
Ecomagination: Why GE is Turning Green 8
People Movers: How HR is Leading the Way Forward 12
Healthymagination: Improving Health Care for GE Employees and for Society 14
Eight Lessons for Business Leaders, Sustainability Professionals, and HR 20
The New Winning Strategy: Leveraging HR for Sustainable Growth 26
2 Sustainability: The Global Challenge, the Business Opportunity, and the People Factor 29
Sustainability Milestones: The Brundtland Commission and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index 30
The Age of Sustainability: Trends and Realities 33
The Triple Bottom Line: How to Define and Measure Sustainable Growth 40
The Sweet Spot: How to Develop Sustainable Business Strategies 46
Sustainability and Profitability: How to Grow Your Sweet Spots 50
Transformation: The Business Benefits of Sustainability 54
Revving Up: Where HR Meets Sustainability 61
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 64
Part Two: From Traditional HR to Sustainable HR 67
3 Embedding Sustainability in the Workforce Life Cycle 69
Building Sustainability into Core HR Processes 72
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 80
4 Employee Selection and Sustainability 83
Johnson& Johnson: When HR Fails the Sustainability Test 84
Recruitment: Winning the Global War for Talent 87
Hiring the Workforce of Tomorrow 92
The Value of Values Alignment 94
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 105
5 Career Development and Sustainability 107
Onboarding and Sustainability 107
Training for Sustainability 108
Developing Tomorrows Leaders 111
Evolving Employee Assistance 117
Compensation and Incentives for Sustainability Performance 120
Nonfinancial Incentives for Sustainability Performance 122
Retention and Sustainability 125
Compliance, Discipline, and Sustainability 127
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 129
6 Workforce Management and Sustainability 131
Performance Appraisal: Evaluating and Rewarding Sustainability Performance 132
Workforce Planning: Meeting Your Future Needs 142
Labor Pool Analysis: Understanding a Changing Workforce 149
Termination and Sustainability 158
Sustainable Retirement and Postretirement 161
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 168
7 HR Deliverables and Sustainability 171
The Care and Feeding of Employees 173
How Sustainability is Expanding HRs Responsibilities 176
Wages and Benefits Policies: The Return on Investing in Employees 185
Employee Wellness Programs and Sustainability 190
Creating Better Working Conditions 193
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 200
Part Three: Organizational Development and Change: HRs Role in Building Sustainable Companies 201
8 Sustainability and Organizational Capacity 203
Organizational Capabilities: Levers for Sustainable Success 204
Innovation 206
Collaboration 212
Long-Term Orientation 218
Outward Focus 224
Interdependent Thinking 231
Learning 234
Adaptability 240
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 242
9 Sustainability and Culture Change 243
The Three Levels of Organizational Culture 244
Why Traditional Corporate Cultures May Resist Sustainability 248
When Culture Sabotages Sustainability: Why BP Cannot Operate Safely 254
When Culture Advances Sustainability: How AEP Created a Zero-Harm Culture 262
Lessons on Culture Change from BP and AEP 271
Evaluating Your Organizations Culture 273
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 274
10 How to Get Where You Want to Go: Sustainability and Organizational Change 277
Why Change Occurs: Danger and Opportunity 279
Three Dimensions of Sustainable Change 283
Ad Hoc Change 286
Systematic Change 288
Sustainability and the Classic Change System 292
Top-Down Change Versus Bottom-Up Change 297
Appealing to Hearts 301
Talking About Change 303
Jump-Starting Sustainable Change 306
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 313
Part Four: Sustainability and Employee Engagement 315
11 How Sustainability and Engagement Can Transform Your Business 317
The Link Between Sustainability, Engagement, and Profit 320
How Acme Corporation Leveraged Sustainability for Greater Profitability 322
The Golden Triangle: Seeing the Entire Business Case for Sustainability 327
How Starbucks Creates Value from Values 331
Measuring the Impact of Sustainability on Employee Engagement 334
How HR and Sustainability Professionals Can Work Together 337
Getting Started with Sustainability and Employee Engagement Programs 337
Strategic Volunteerism as a Starting Point 344
Employee Engagement, Sustainability, and Transformation 349
Questions for Business Leaders, Sustainability Specialists, and HR Professionals 351
Notes 353
Acknowledgments and Thanks 369
Index 377
