We all know it’s important that employees feel engaged at work. A happy team member is more likely to be productive and stay committed to the company. In fact Gallup found that engaged teams have less turnover and absenteeism, along with 21% profitability and 17% higher productivity. Win-win, right?
But how do you get there? For some tips to strengthen your companies green initiatives and improve employee engagement, check out Anya Khalamayzer’s recent post Game on: 7 approaches to hack employee engagement which pulls together a bunch of tips from business who have committed to specific, strong values and subsequently seen their employee culture grow stronger.
One of the ways companies have found increased engagement is through the “butterfly effect” which CEO Susan Hunt Stevens explains as the actions of one person influencing another, causing social norms to change. Her company, WeSpire, works to encourage the impact of this effect in workplace networks as a way of inspiring employees to take action on recycling, water conservation and even safety and cyber security.
Another successful method some businesses have seen is top-down sustainability. Large corporations where those in high-level positions are encouraging sustainable efforts — or listening to their employees and clients desire for such changes — are seeing successful returns. As GM’s Jim DeLuca notes sustainable efforts can be easily be monitored and rewarded.
"We judge performance based on metrics like water usage and energy generation," he said, with every employee at every plant working to improve environmental performance. GM rewards employees who come up with sustainable — and cost-saving — ideas with monetary incentives up to $20,000.
"Sustainability impacts top-line growth, bottom-line results and risk," said DeLuca. Getting employees involved has helped the manufacturing business implement solutions such as reducing electricity use from lighting on factory floors and switching to recyclable bins instead of wooden pallets.
Another tip is encouraging your employees to step up to the challenge of embracing sustainability projects. For businesses like Citigroup, completing green LEED projects is incredibly important, but at the VERGE16 conference Steve Avadek, the director of sustainability for Citi Realty Services, noted that not only does the company have large sustainable goals, they also have smaller, more attainable in-house challenges. Their Drink Up program assesses how many plastic water bottles are saved by people refilling a bottle instead and the Step Up program tracks each department to see how often team members took the stairs instead of the elevator.
For more tips from companies who are making large and small efforts to encourage sustainability and engagement at the office, check out Khalamayzer’s post on GreenBiz. Your team will thank you.