Much More Than Reducing Paper Waste: Green HR

The average age of OECD members that are at the center of environmental, social and economic sensitivities within the framework of universal sustainability arguments is a little higher than 80. This average lifetime dramatically decreases in countries where degree of education and economic welfare is lower.

Even though there had been some accidents on the way to their signing due to periodic domestic policies, the main idea behind transnational efforts such as Paris Convention and Kyoto Protocol is the environment- and climate-related concerns for the future.  Thus Green HR that becomes increasingly more important expresses not just the environmental awareness of an organization but also the social and economic welfare of its people in a much wider perspective.

Maturing green ideas

The rules of a mentally and physically healthy life are clear: eating good foods, breathing clean air, keeping high spirits and having goals. Meanwhile, the world needs a magical formula that will enable both the plants to run and provide economic welfare, and this welfare to be high and sustainable. And the green collar manpower comes to the play at this point.

HR departments have a significant role in maturing the internal sustainability perception. Conventional HR processes acts as a base in the adoption of Green HR policies. Thus human capital and management is strategically important in achieving the goals for a green environment.

The main goal here is to create the best manpower to gain sustainability-related competitive advantages such as green products and improved efficiency. So Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) has the potential of strengthening economic performance by creating completive advantage related to environmental sustainability. GHRM that is the entrance gate to green environmental management and business practices has an effective power in assisting organizations achieve HRM goals such as improving motivation, attracting talents and maintaining valuable assets.

But first the organization and its decision makers should believe that this is much more than an attempt to gain prestige, and rather a responsibility and requirement. Hiring qualified people is an important HR issue. Organizations began to see that making a name as an environmentalist and green business is effective in attracting new talents. The Generation Z workforce of today wants to learn not just the salary and benefit offers of their prospective employers but also their approach to the environment and the planet.

A lot of the international organizations in Germany and Britain try to attract qualified people by showcasing their green corporate culture with concrete steps. Green job descriptions with environmental aspects are included in recruitment processes increasingly more.

Employers that embrace environmental consciousness as an assured policy look for new ways to show this quality of theirs to their environmentally conscious and qualified prospective employees and impress them through green job descriptions, environmentally-friendly work spaces, paper-free job interviews and recruitment processes.

The meanings of conventional concepts change as well

Performance management approach of Green HR varies from the one of conventional HR. While the old tries to observe and measure, the green one desires to address and solve. Performance is now a guidance process that assists people achieve their corporate goals and improve their professional skills.

Green performance management has environmental concerns and focuses on environmental solutions as much as the problems regarding the corporate environmental policies. Today, environmentally conscious companies address issues regarding protective care by building corporate environmental performance standards and green information systems so that they will be informed about environmental issues.

Even if we look at GHRM just in terms of performance review, we can see how much the role of this department had transformed within the organization in crucial issues such as corporate prestige. In line with this transformation, there has also been significant changes in HR practices.

• Selecting qualified green collar people
• Defining jobs with a focus on engagement and improvement
• Offering and planning Green HR trainings
• Adopting green controls and reviews
• Managing and recognizing environmental performance

Thus, it would not be right to see and perceive Green HR as the concept of employing people with a training about environmental issues to reduce the environmental impacts of the organization. Green HR should be seen as HRM policies, philosophies and practices that cover the entire organization to prevent the damages connected to environmental issues in business affairs and to encourage the sustainable use of resources.

A new path to Training & Development

Green HR departments of organizations that realize the importance of environmental sensitivity in gaining prestige also apply a methodology that aims to train and develop their people regarding green business teachings in almost all corporate operations including product development.

So, Green HR policies include green training and development efforts improving the corporate efficiency and the employee engagement. Even though Training and Development are two concepts that mostly replace each other, they are handled rather differently in GHRM. Training means providing the skills that the new and old employees need to do their jobs. The goal here is to contribute to experience and knowledge in order to gain competitive edge. Whereas Development indicates a process focused more on the general maturity of perspective to prepare employees to the challenges of the future. So, Green Training & Development must be seen as a way of providing the knowledge and experience, the skill and attitude required for people to adapt to the green strategies.

Harmony between man and nature, and the future

Including employees into green initiatives has the potential of improving management success since it aligns the goals, skills, spirits and views of employees with the practices and systems of green management.

Today, organizations apply and integrate green initiatives to their processes with the help of human resources. Managers are increasingly more interested about the proper transformation of their HR to Green HR.

Organizations all around the world try to apply GHRM methods to gain global competitive edge. However it might be rather difficult for the entire business world to embrace and integrate GHRM even if not impossible, because this requires a simultaneous change in current HR approaches both in management and in people. But as green gains importance, this change will probably gain speed.