Defining your strategy, the culture you want to promote and the values your company and your staff embody are critical for a start. This will have a determining impact on how your company is perceived and how much your employees feel connected to it. Sustainable strategies and practices will be the foundation of your actions.
This makes it a powerful cultural differentiator to attract and retain talents.
Once your strategy, culture and values are defined, communicate them regularly and find ways to engage your staff and wider ecosystem. Think regularity, think simplicity!
INTERNAL COMMS:
EXTERNAL COMMS:
91%
of companies take sustainability criteria into account in purchasing decisions.
(Ecovadis)
Some useful Employee Engagement Guidelines and ideas:
To start with:
- The Gallup Sustainability 5 (GS5) index, a 5 items survey which gives you input to hear the voice of your employees
- Some Employee Engagement Ideas & Activities (Snack Nation)
- A guide to build your Employee Engagement Survey (Tiny Pulse)
Here are some templates:
- Create your employee engagement template (Monkey Survey)
- Build your Employee Engagement action plan (Work Vivo)
EDLT.global is a boutique Executive Coaching & HR Consulting firm focused on enabling sustainable change. It is based in Singapore and operates worldwide.
Powered by +20 years of experience in the Human Resources field, with the most progressive companies, EDLT.global shares this expertise through HR Consulting as well as Coaching missions, to propel organizations and individuals to the next level.
Our mission is to empower businesses to embrace sustainability and improve environmental and social impacts through the employee engagement and change management programs we provide.
Incorporate your values in your handbook & code of conduct so it conveys the message that these are important for your company:
Promote inclusion, equity and respectful values, sustainable focus...
Encourage policies that would protect rights and wellbeing of more fragile workforce such as migrant workers, aged workers, handicapped workers, etc...
40%
only of the global workforce experiences human development at work.
(Gallup)
If you don't measure it, you can't manage it.
How to do it simply:
A few metrics you can start with (some would be confidential in the list below):
Green Team, CSR Task Force, Sustainability Team…They have many names, yet the same goal and the fantastic power to accelerate and amplify all actions taken toward sustainability. Choose the set up most adapted for your organisation.
Think transversal. Identify a leader, according to your scope / priorities / objectives... It can be one person from each department. Identify the sponsor or mentor at Executive or Board level responsible to advocate the actions of the Sustainability Team.
Here is a quick guide to start one and develop it.
Officially allocate time for it on your employees worksheets and objectives. Remember that if you give it on top of another job responsibility, it should still be performed as part of the employee's job description.
If your team can not manage extra tasks, engage an external consultant that could act as a part-time sustainability manager.
When you are ready, or when the sustainability tasks demands it, fight for a full time Sustainability Manager and ensure a budget for a Sustainability team.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
(African proverb)
S$70k
is the average base salary for a Sustainability Manager in Singapore.
(Payscale)
The « green journey » may feel overwhelming sometimes, but you are not alone.
Our Buddies have tried, succeeded, failed to implement change in their companies. They share their experience so you can learn, take shortcuts, get inspired and ask questions.
Everybody can become a Buddy and give back to the community; if you are keen, get in touch with us.
Claire has spent more than 20 years in the HR field working in global environments, accompanying businesses in their development and transformation.
Working across teams and cultural boundaries, she became passionate about helping teams and leaders navigate through changes and make sustainable decisions for themselves and their teams, balancing the short-term and long-term impacts in organisations.
She moved to Singapore for a professional opportunity 9 years ago. Back in 2016, she added a coaching hat to her HR experience, got trained and certified with the idea that sometimes what employees and leaders are missing is to reconnect with what is really important for them, what makes them successful, or on the contrary slows them down.
In 2021, she launched her own business, combining her HR and professional coaching expertises to accompany individuals and organisations in their journey, with a focus on enabling sustainable People practices.
I have been working in Asia for the past 12 years (Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore since 2014) within the digital and technology space.
I have founded and run several companies in different sectors such as IT Consulting, Education, and the F&B business.
I am passionate about how to use technology as a force for good.
I was born in Vietnam and grew up in France in Paris’ low income suburbs. My parents used to bring us to the park to have some outdoor activities and that’s where my father taught my siblings and I to observe, love and respect nature. He gave us perspective on our place in a much bigger ecosystem.
At that time, we didn’t describe our family as “sustainable”. It was very pragmatic, we didn’t waste anything, we mended everything, saved and reused, because we just couldn’t afford not to :)
In 2018 in Singapore, after what felt like a long, unfulfilling professional tunnel on autopilot, I was forced to make a pause and took the opportunity to consider what I really wanted to do with my life (I know this resonates with many!)
Then I really realised how passionate I was about sustainability and for the first time, I considered making it my job. Nothing is easy when you don’t hold the right degrees or the right amount of money, so I co-created The Matcha Initiative to jump into action instead of procrastinating. That’s how you start an amazing experience with amazing people :)
Cherry on the cake: TMI helped me land my current job at Handprint, where we help businesses embrace the next step - Regeneration.
With a background in sustainability consulting and audit, Ivona supports businesses in their sustainability journey by building an impactful strategy, embedding sustainable practices across operations, and reporting performance to stakeholders.
She is the founder of Sustainao, a Singapore-based company specialized in sustainability consulting. Previously, Ivona worked as a sustainability auditor at KPMG France. She holds an MBA in CSR & Sustainability and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management.
Passionate about travels, Benoit left France in 2011 for Asia, lived in Hong Kong then landed in Singapore 6 years ago, working for Credit Agricole CIB. With 15 years of experience in IT across different sectors and industries, he is now managing a team focusing on IT application support. In 2017, he was one of the founders, and now the leader, of their first green team in Singapore.
A lawyer by training, Eliza has been in Private banking since 1996, with roles ranging from Relationship Management to Head of Strategy for PWM Latin America at Deutsche Bank New York, and a member of the Management Committee. Eliza was also the Business Manager and Head of Business Compliance for the International markets at Bank of Singapore, before joining Azqore as COO for Asia. Eliza has worked in Kuala Lumpur, Frankfurt, New York and Singapore and in addition lived in London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, an experience that has shaped her outlook and made her very much a global citizen.
A banking operations professional, Loretta has had experience across various firms, like UBS and Nomura, before joining Credit Agricole 5 years ago. Currently Azqore’s Head of Asia Operations, she has worked in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and even had a short stint in India. These experiences have opened her eyes to various cultures and cuisines.
Both Eliza and Loretta kicked off the Azqore Asia CSR initiative in 2020 and have never looked back since.
Most of my professional career was in Sales and Marketing for emissions-intensive sectors (automotive, telecom, oil and gas industries) to say the least…. But I always knew I had to look for a greater purpose. Covid19 slowed down my professional activities and helped me to follow my passion. I decided to open a new chapter and follow a new career path, but to do so, I had to study sustainability.
I particularly like innovation and tech, so I wish to pursue my career with a tech for good angle.
Carolin is a passionate and driven entrepreneur and sustainability advocate. She is involved in many projects and initiatives that contribute to reducing our environmental impact.
In 2020, Carolin founded the social enterprise susGain.
susGain is a rewards-based engagement app that focuses on driving behavioural change within communities (corporates, schools, NGOs etc.) whilst measuring ESG reportable data on the impact created. By better connecting the environmentally and socially conscious stakeholders, susGain hopes to accelerate the change towards more sustainable communities.
Prior to susGain, Carolin worked as Account & Project Manager in an HR consulting and change management firm, where she was responsible for business development and end-to-end project management of training and consulting projects across APAC.
In July 2021, Carolin won the Finder's Expatpreneur Sustainability Award. susGain has also been recognized by Global Initiatives at the Sustainable Business Awards Singapore 2020/21.
I run a business called Bright Green where I work with corporates to engage employees in impact projects in the areas of environmental and social impact. I also facilitate sustainability learning programs to educate employees on developing an eco-friendly mindset and high impact actions they can take in their homes and daily lives.
Before founding Bright Green in 2020, I have been working in Project Management, Change Management and Continuous Improvement roles within Human Resources and Recruitment. I love that I get to work with organisations that are making commitments to net-zero and inspire employees to make an impact!
