Each winner of the HR Excellence Awards has proven their impact on business by backing up their award-winning strategies with rock-solid figures.
Tying environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals to people strategy has become a core part of responsible business practice, and many in the HR world are working wonders within their organisations. But what does it take to win the HR Excellence Award for Best ESG Strategy?
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Best ESG Strategy 2023: Triodos
When a bank makes a claim to be eco-conscious, it’s usually wise to treat the claim with caution. In 2023, instances of greenwashing jumped 70% in the banking and financial services sector. Over two-thirds of false claims came from European companies.
In 2022, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority criticised HSBC for a series of adverts that neglected to mention the bank’s status as a funder of fossil fuel companies.
Triodos, however, really is an astonishing feat of climate- and society-friendly business.
The world’s first environmentally and socially sustainable bank, it invests in nothing but companies and charities that have a positive ecological and societal impact.
Triodos, therefore, needed to set itself apart from a world of spurious claims and slick marketing, and win over the best, brightest recruits waiting to throw themselves behind an eco-friendly mission.
While far more businesses are now familiar with what needs to be done to become eco-friendly, far fewer are sure about how to show off their – very real – gains.
So how do you weave an advanced sustainability strategy, something that permeates the entire business, into an integral part of its HR strategy, and show that to potential recruits? Triodos wanted to find out.
It commissioned consultancy Resource Solutions, therefore, to undertake a rigorous study of the bank’s HR and talent acquisition strategy, and examine every single area where it might be able to further push its sky-high environmental, social and governance standards.
What emerged was the bank’s brand-new employee sustainability proposition – the promises it makes to employees in return for their commitment to the company’s mission.
As part of the audit, designed by Resource Solutions and delivered with the Triodos HR team, the team first undertook an extensive analysis of the bank’s performance, checking 84 pre-defined performance areas.
The audit may well be the first of its kind in the world, according to Resource Solutions. What emerged was a picture of a company in many areas far advanced on its journey, and in others just beginning.
Perhaps the most significant idea, however, was that Triodos had simply forgotten that much of its activity was worth shouting about.
The firm had already instituted inclusive benefits such as equal parental leave, and took part in inclusivity audits. It has a net-zero strategy for 2035 that includes its entire investment portfolio, and its office hardware is chosen for its environmental credentials.
Even the tea and coffee is organic and fairtrade. But Triodos had little idea of how to communicate this to potential recruits.
Using the audit, the firm has built an action plan, tying together 84 separate actionable recommendations into a strategy that integrates ESG policies directly into its people processes.
Whether creating a specific diversity and inclusion section on its careers website, creating a structured approach to mentoring and reverse mentoring, or developing a ‘green performance management’ approach, the new plan is as thorough as an organisation can get.
Triodos well deserves kudos for its forensic approach – and HR departments the world over should look to it as an example of truly sustainable HR.
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