This article, titled, Leading With Purpose Is The Key to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Success, talks about how organizations need to adjust, if they wish to attract and retain talent.
Per Deborah Lovich, a managing director and senior partner at Boston Consulting Group (BCG): “The ‘war for talent’ is over. Talent won.”
We know corporate leaders are saying:
- Employees are the most urgent need across sectors (attracting, retaining, engaging, activating)
- Talent has the upper hand: people can go where they want, we need to re-recruit our people
Yet, we know talent is saying:
- I want to work for an organization that shares my views
- I will charge you more to hire me if you are not certified sustainable, and +50% of us will leave you once we find a certified sustainable company…even if they pay me less
- You need to have a performing plan for carbon neutrality and a path to Net Zero
- I need to see your sustainability plan can expand into an ESG plan and your leadership needs to present the corporate purpose clearly
When we move from your employees to your clients, we know that 7 out of 10 consumers will move their business if they find a certified sustainable company. We also know corporations are searching for vendors who are certified sustainable; as those that are already sustainable have internal requirements, including Scope 3 reporting, that will impact future vendor selection. This is one of the reasons certified sustainable companies are growing 75% – 20x faster than their non-certified peers; and why so many companies are willing to misrepresent that they sustainable.
But that misrepresentation is, at best, a short term gain, as both talent and customers will search and find the truth.
If you want to win the war for talent and also win the war for customers, the majority of both of these groups want you to be environmentally certified sustainable.