Candidates now searching for greener pastures
AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW - SPECIAL FEATURE
Employers ignore environmental awareness among potential recruits at their peril, writes Miriam Hechtman.
How green is your employer, and do you really care? In a candidate−short market, potential workers in the banking and legal sectors may have a list of questions they would like to put to employers. With climate change and the environment hot topics, increasingly candidates are asking the green questions when applying for jobs.Will it override salary and job satisfaction? Not likely. But it is still a factor to consider.
“Today’s candidates are business savvy and well aware of the sustainability issues in the world today. Candidates understand that corporate activity will often have a demonstrable impact on the environment, and want to know how they [employers] are addressing this,” says Alison Sherry, general manager at Hamilton James & Bruce (HJB) recruitment agency. “Therefore, the trend towards monitoring environmental track records of organisations has become a key aspect in their search for attractive organisations to work for.”
St George Bank general manager of human resources Robert Marriott says the whole approach to recruitment is changing quite dramatically due to a range of complex factors, including the environment and community responsibility. “So how that changes recruitment for us is . . . we need to be very clear about what our employment proposition is, and then be sure that we actually live up to what we say.” Marriott says the bank has done “a lot of research, both internally and externally, about what people value as important, as part of the employment proposition, and that’s where the environment has popped up”.
Additionally, feedback from St George staff on a “staff benefits blog” is often related to environmental issues. For example, the suggestion of interest−free loans for staff members who purchase green items such as solar panels, waste management systems and rainwater tanks. The way in which recruits are approached needs to be innovative, says Marriott, including the types of things that are spoken about and the opportunities that are offered. “When people click on to our careers page there’s a whole lot of stuff [about] the different benefits that you can get, so things like Greener Dragon [interest−free loans] are highlighted there.”
Though climate change and the environment are often categorised as issues being driven by generation Y, the generation gap could now be lessening. HJB’s Sherry says there is a huge awareness about the environment, given the daily issues the state is facing, such as water restrictions and global warming. “It’s not just Gen Y now; they were probably aware of it earlier but now it’s across the board.” Associate director Lyndsay Steadman, at Michael Page Financial Services, agrees.Steadman says carbon trading, in particular, is “becoming a key focus area that candidates within that front office are asking about”.
As much as 40−50 per cent of candidates at HJB rate the environment and sustainability as important features in their job search, says Sherry. Being environmentally conscious can often be an indication to candidates that a company is thinking ahead, which in turn reflects economic sustainability. “Candidates also understand that businesses that adopt strong positions on environmental issues and encourage cultures of environmentally responsible behaviour and continuous improvement in managing their environmental footprint generally better address their risks and create more business opportunities,” says Sherry. From the employer’s perspective, being environmentally aware also makes economic sense, says Steadman. “For businesses at the moment the key thing that we hear is, ‘What’s going to limit your growth over the next 12 months?’. And a lot of it will be having the right people driving the business.” The right people may include candidates whose key driver is environmental policies and if a company is not in line with this “they’re at risk of not being able to retain good people”.
Yet, despite its more recent gain in interest and priority, Steadman notes the more common drivers are still ahead on the list. “Has it taken over from job satisfaction, career progression, salary, culture, training? No. But it’s definitely one of those that has been added to the list,” she says.
