Data shows high impact of a genuine commitment to sustainability but firms are missing a trick on engaging their workforces on climate change issues; However, construction, manufacturing, and logistics & transport are the sectors most likely to survey their employees on sustainability matters
Culture Amp has put firms’ sustainability credentials to the test in the run-up to Earth Day on Monday, April 22 and found that a genuine and active commitment to sustainability is a much better way for organizations to engage employees than relying on ‘first stage’ tactics such as carbon reduction pledges.
The company – the world’s leading employee experience platform – also discovered that organizations globally can do much more to motivate their workforces by better understanding climate and sustainability challenges.
Examining data from 1,078 organizations – employing nearly 396,000 people worldwide in total – Culture Amp found that in organizations where people felt a genuine commitment to sustainability and social impact – such as having active sustainability plans and direct opportunities for employees to act on this issue – scored on average 16% points higher on employee engagement than those where it was absent.
In contrast, the impact on employee engagement for firms taking first steps on sustainability such as publishing carbon reduction targets, is only modest. In a separate study by Culture Amp of 109 organizations – employing 243,000 people worldwide – found companies announcing these scientific targets through the global Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) scored only 2% higher on employee engagement.
While workforces like a real corporate commitment to sustainability, most organizations aren’t testing their people’s perceptions of their strategy in this area. Across Culture Amp’s 6,500-strong global customer base, only 27% of employee engagement surveys currently ask if the organization’s social responsibility strategy is genuine, and in the UK and Germany, just 26% do so.
However, companies that either play a role in climate change or are impacted by it, are more likely to ask how employees perceive their commitment to reducing climate change. Highest responses came from the construction (38%), manufacturing (36%), and logistics & transport (33%) sectors. Despite tech firms’ visionary reputation, they are the least likely of all markets analyzed to ask about commitment to social impact, scoring just 22% – well behind science & research (29%) and professional and financial services (28%).
Culture Amp also found European workers are less convinced than US ones that their employers’ commitment to social responsibility is genuine. While 71% of all the companies surveyed about social responsibility agreed, rising to 73% in the US, only 64% of UK companies agreed and only just over half (56%) of German companies did.
Fresia Jackson, Lead Researcher at Culture Amp, commented: “While setting science-based targets is an important first step, our research shows that such targets need to be part of a broader climate change strategy. Employees are wise to the fact that companies tend to make promises they don’t keep. So how those targets are set, communicated, and acted upon is paramount for creating a demonstrable impact on employee commitment and motivation.”
About Culture Amp
Culture Amp is the world’s leading employee experience platform, revolutionizing how 25 million employees across more than 6,500 companies create a better world of work. Culture Amp empowers companies of all sizes and industries to transform employee engagement, drive performance management, and develop high-performing teams. Powered by people science and the most comprehensive employee dataset in the world, the most innovative companies including Canva, On, Asana, Dolby, McDonalds and Nasdaq depend on Culture Amp every day. Culture Amp is backed by leading capital venture funds and has offices in the US, UK, Germany and Australia. Culture Amp has been recognized as one of the world’s top private cloud companies by Forbes and most innovative companies by Fast Company.
For more information visit cultureamp.com
