Corporate
Organizational change management can drive employees’ adoption of corporate sustainability programs. In this podcast, Frederic Beynel talks about the various dimensions and activities around sustainability and employee empowerment.
Alisha: Hello listeners, this is Alisha; thank you for tuning in to yet another exciting and informative podcast from us at Infosys BPM. Today, we are discussing on sustainability adoption – a journey towards employee empowerment. And to talk about this, we have here with us, Frederic Beynel, Senior Industry Principal - Organizational Change Management. Welcome Frederic. How are you?
Frederic: I’m doing great, Alisha. Thank you for having me on this podcast.
Alisha: Frederic, when we talk about sustainability in an organizational setting, a major factor is that it’s enforced by the top management, but not necessarily understood or adopted by all employees. Why does this divide exist?
Frederic: That’s quite true, Alisha. Sustainability is an important concept that captures the idea of taking care of our planet and people through virtuous business models. Firstly, all employees may not be familiar with the scope of their company’s strategy in terms of sustainability. According to a recent study, we can see that 75% of management is convinced to implement a sustainable business plan and deploy the right practices to promote this.
On the other hand, 65% of employees believe that sustainability goals of their organizations are unrealistic, and they are not empowered to lead these tasks. So, you can see there is a clear perception gap. We need to mitigate this gap to ensure that sustainability objectives are aligned and progressive.
Alisha: That’s quite a big gap. What can organizational change management do to mitigate this and bring a shared vision?
Frederic: Organizational change management can drive employees’ adoption of corporate sustainability programs. We have a framework for this which has four key steps:
Firstly, top management needs to share a vision that is intelligible and emotional. They need to make the strategy clear and understood by all employees. This encompasses three dimensions, which are:
The second one is that you need to ensure that these champions are part of the governance. To be effective, the governance should have clear roles and responsibilities for the involved stakeholders.
Organizations should ideally have a chief sustainability officer to lead the change, along with champions who can drive the initiatives. But you can also involve external advisory groups to provide expertise and outside perspectives on Environmental, Social and Governance issues.
Lastly, HR and management should align on the employee engagement strategy, across the areas of recruitment, onboarding, performance & compensation, learning, opportunities, and workplace.
Alisha: I agree, Frederic. Thank you for providing such an in-depth and effective sustainability framework that organizations can follow. Thank you for being part of our podcast today.
Frederic: It was a pleasure, Alisha.
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