CHAPTER 5 : EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT FOR A SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISE

Learning Guide for Chapter 5

​​ACTIVITIES​​

• Discussions for Employee Engagement 
• What employee engagement looks like, pp. 227-228

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 CASE  EXAMPLES​

• Case 1. A story from the DuPont Plant in Belle, West Virginia, pp. 231-235
• Case 2. Energizing people to create a safer, healthier workforce at PSE&G, pp. 235-239
• Case 3. Engaging employees in social consciousness at Eileen Fisher, pp. 239-243
• Case 4. Environmental, health, & safety issues at Alcoa Howmet, pp. 243-246
• Case 5. Employee engagement at T-Systems: Sustainability the organization and beyond, pp. 246-247
• Alcoa example, p. 230

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TOOLS

• Case 1. A story from the DuPont Plant in Belle, West Virginia, pp.231-235
• Case 2. Energizing people to create a safer, healthier workforce at PSE&G, pp. 235-239
• ​​​​Alcoa example, p. 230

Supplemental Resources

​​Recommended Articles​

• HR’s  Role  in  Building  a  Sustainable  Enterprise:  Insights  From  Some  of  the  World’s  Best  Companies : Sustainability—balancing  social,  environ-mental,  and  economic  factors  for  short-  and  long-term  performance—is  a  critical  issue  for  the  world  and  for  business.  We  interviewed  key  executives  at  nine  of  the  world’s  most  “sustainable”  companies  to  examine  important  issues  about  their  sustainability  journeys  and  the  role  Human  Resources  is  playing.
• What Drives Employees to Sign on for Sustainability  (2016): This exploratory study examines how sensemaking and organizational identification  occur inside an organization and how they can affect how employee engagement takes place. Qualitative data suggest the effect of  organizational identification on support for sustainability action and, conversely, how sustainability actions may in turn affect  organizational identification. The findings from interviews of a sample of 8 companies reveal many different goals, challenges, and  qualitatively different means of seeking sustainability. Analysis points toward the dynamics of cognitive and emotional processing,  suggesting implications for practitioners and further research.  
• Going  Beyond  Nudging,  Gaming  and  Competing Renee Lertzman SB (2015): An  Open  Discussion  about  Designing    Real  Engagement 
• Fast Forward: The Future of Work (October 2014): "What was unexpected, but became clear through this research, were deep attitudinal changes  occurring across geographies and generations to seek greater meaning and joy from work and the places of work. In 2030, the many  places where we work and live will be diverse and entwined: humanity, creativity, culture and community will be integral"
• Future of Work: 2015-2020 (Winter 2014): Rather than add to all the hyperventilating about the disruptive changes that will impact and reimagine the Future of Work... We studied what it will take to make those disruptive changes work and what matters in the future of work.
• HRM's Role in Corporate and Environmental Sustainability (2012): The HR function is critical to achieving success in a  sustainability-driven organization. Sustainability practice pervades every aspect of doing business and needs to be embedded across  an organization at all levels, becoming an ongoing change process. Since the prime focus and skills of HR professionals include  organizational process, change management and culture stewardship, they should take a leading role in developing and  implementing sustainability strategy. This report aids human resource management (HRM) practitioners in understanding  sustainability in an organizational context. It can be used as a guide for the HR function to support sustainable business and perform  HRM  sustainably.
• People Matter, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (August 2010): People Matter is a project to explore the link  between talent skills and sustainability. Through this project, leading companies are sharing experience and developing thought  leadership  on  how  to  prepare,  engage,  train,  motivate,  reward  employees  around  sustainable  development
• The Business Case for Environmental and Sustainability Employee Education: (February 2010): "Environmentally  educated employees can improve a business’ profitability and help it retain skilled workers, improve community relations and reach its  sustainability  goals"... The “business  case” — that is, the quantification of opportunities and risks — for environmental  and sustainability education might not yet be heavy on data. But anecdotes from around the world give clear indications that teaching  employees to conserve, recycle, improve efficiency and reduce waste, among other actions, have benefits for employees,  companies and communities. 
• Toward Engagement 2.0 (September 2011): Companies recognize that greening their products and operations is a source of value  and that all employees must be engaged in the effort to ensure its success. Since beginning this work four years ago, NEEF has observed that the practice of environmental and sustainability (E&S) employee education and engagement has spread rapidly and evolved into a more institutionalized element of companies’ broad sustainability strategies. We call this next version of employee engagement,“ Engagement 2.0.
• Educating for a sustainability mindset : Organizations around the world have become increasingly concerned about managing for sustainability, yet undergraduate education about sustainability often presents the challenge of dealing with students equipped with a modest understanding of business and sustainability issues and whose awareness is sometimes politicized. Traditional-aged students are at a stage where they derive their own worldview on many subjects, including their place in a broader world. As such, equipping them to be useful professionals for the future, or even to specialize in sustainability- oriented careers, requires raising their awareness of the global situation in environmental, societal, political, and business terms. A curriculum must get them acquainted with what is needed for the world to reach a more fruitful future as well as with strategies the business sector can pursue to accomplish such an objective. More importantly, however, it should elicit a new worldview about sustainability and, even more profoundly, a deeply felt mindset embracing one’s purpose, feelings, and identity. This article thus proposes a means by which students can embody the ability and confidence to make an appreciable impact toward a sustainable planet.

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Chapter 4

Chapter 6