In the Green World, companies care
This is a world where corporate responsibility isn't just a nice-to-have but it's a business imperative.
It's characterised by a strong social conscience, a sense of environmental responsibility, a focus on diversity, human rights and a recognition that business has an impact that goes well beyond the financial. Workers and consumers demand that organisations do right by their employees and the wider world.
Trust is the basic currency underpinning business and employment. Companies have to place their societal purpose at the heart of their commercial strategy.
Workforces in The Green World
Workers are attracted by the opportunity to work for an organisation they admire and whose values match their own.
Even so, competition remains intense for the best talent and therefore financial reward is still important. The incentives package is an essential tool in attracting and retaining workers and has become increasingly inventive. Three weeks' paid leave a year to work on charity and social projects is standard practice.
Workers are expected to reflect the values of their employer, both at work and at home through organisational pledges. Travel is tightly controlled and monitored and there are incentives for inventive and efficient use of resources.
The HR function, renamed ‘People and Society’ embraces a broad mix of HR, marketing, corporate social responsibility and data analytics.
In this world the idea of a job for life returns to the workplace lexicon.
The role of technology in The Green World
In this world automation and technology are essential elements to protect scarce resources and minimise environmental damage.
Technology is used extensively to replace the need for travel, in turn driving rapid innovation in communications technology.
But in the Green World, technology is a double edged sword: it allows organisations to meet their ethical and environmental agenda, but at what cost to humans?
“Climate change [will be the biggest impact on the way we work], we are going to have to change our priorities.”
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