Why is Green Human Resources Management Important?
Sustainability strategies are growing fast within thousand of companies nowadays as an answer to the challenges and catastrophes that climate change has brought, and threatens to bring into our world. In a mainly capitalist world, there no way of denying the importance that companies have in the fight to prevent the temperature of the Earth increasing 1.5º Celcius until the end of this century. Whilst the support of senior management is essential in a company’s execution of its sustainability management, so is the HR leaders’ strategic positioning of the HR function. But what is Green Human Resources Management really accountable for?
Benefits of Green Human Resources Management
Green HRM has its prime importance in the achievement of broader objectives such as cost saving, corporate social responsibility, talent acquisition and management and gaining an advantage over the competition. According to Parul Deshwal, it further has the following benefits:
• It helps in employee retention and reduces labor turnover;
• It improves the brand reputation of a company in the market and can possibly increase sales;
• It improves the quality of the overall organization both internally and externally;
• It improves stakeholder’s engagement;
• It reduces the overall costs of a company as it gets more efficient regarding the use of energy, water, and raw materials;
• It provides a competitive advantage to the companies in the industry as well as in the market;
• It stimulates innovation because employees are committed to improving their companies’ ecological footprint and this further facilitates companies’ growth and the improvement in quality and enhancement of procedures and methods;
• It helps to manage risks more effectively;
In the end, employing a green workforce that understands, practices and improves environment-friendly policies helps organizations being comfortable and proud of the impact that their offices and other facilities have. Furthermore, it helps companies innovate (in a way that allows them to be cost-efficient) and coming up with new procedures and products.
