The most important pillar of any organization is the human resource; without the right people to do the right job at the right time, things simply wouldn’t fall into place. But what if basic human resource management just isn’t sufficient to also keep workers satisfied and in the right place over time? Sustainable HRM strives to continuously look at the employee as a whole; what drives and characterizes the staff and how does each person contribute to the long-term focus, goals, and future of the organization? This article explains how sustainable HRM can help your organization to get the best out of its employees year-round.
What is sustainable HRM?
A company's performance depends first of all on its employees, hence why more and more attention is being directed toward new human resource management concepts such as sustainable HRM. But what is sustainable HRM?
‘Sustainable HRM can be defined as the adoption of HRM strategies and practices that enable the achievement of not only financial goals, but moreover social and ecological goals, with an impact inside and outside of the organization and over a long-term time horizon.’(according to a 2016 research, Ehnert, I., Parsa, S., Roper, I., Wagner, M., & Muller-Camen, M.)
So, what are the characteristics of sustainable HRM? We've outlined a few of them below:
- Long-term orientation: assessing the needs of future employees
- Care of employees: health, safety and well-being management with a focus on work-life balance
- Care of environment: fostering 'eco-career' by rewarding environmentally sustainable behavior
- Employee participation and social dialogue: different forms of employee voice and employee participation
- Fairness and equality: promoting diversity, respectful relationships and fair wages
How your organization can benefit from sustainable HRM
By integrating sustainable HRM practices into the employee value proposition, organizations can establish a unique and attractive employer brand. An attractive employer brand is important not only because it shows that the organization values the different needs and expectations of potential and existing employees, but also because it helps organizations to attract and retain high-quality employees. All of which can result in a sustained competitive advantage for your company.
At Kadanz, we strongly believe in the effect of Sustainable HRM, now and in the future. As a recruitment & selection agency in Curaçao, we are committed to acquainting local companies with this concept, which will strengthen the continuity of their performance.
