Unleash Your Potential Can this pledge and a focus on corporate social responsibility help improve the image and recruitment strategies of global businesses?
Organizers of Climate Pledge have announced the likes of Amazon, ASOS, Selfridges and P&G have committed to having net-zero emissions by 2040.
This comes as corporate social responsibility (CSR) is growing in importance for employees.
Can these changes help companies attract better talent?
The United Nations recently released a report that outlined the damming effects of global warming and the need for widespread action. In fact, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the report a “code red for humanity.”
While these calls for change from the world’s largest companies are nothing new, there is now a commitment to introducing substantial change.
On Monday, organizers of Climate Pledge, a community of companies, organizations, and partners working towards stopping climate change, announced that 86 companies had committed to net-zero emissions by 2040. This brings the number of signatures to the pledge to 201.
Amazon, ASOS, Nespresso, and Selfridges were amongst the new signatories. These new signatures mean the pledge will now impact a total of 7 million employees across 26 industries in 21 countries.
Speaking about the commitment, Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, said: “I believe that now, more than ever, companies like Amazon have an obligation to lead the fight for our planet.”
Jassy went on to note that “solving this challenge cannot be accomplished by one company; it requires all of us to act together, and it’s one of the reasons we’re so excited to announce that more than 200 businesses have joined us in signing The Climate Pledge – a commitment to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement ten years early.”
Corporate social responsibilty and Recruitment
Despite having a very positive impact on the planet, the companies involved may see tangible benefits in the talent they attract.
For many years, the importance of corporate social responsibility has been growing. Corporate social responsibility now encompasses worldly issues like emissions rather than purely being internally focused on best practices within its workforce.
Notably, research by Cone Communications found in 2017 that 63% of Americans are hopeful businesses will take the lead to drive social and environmental change moving forward. Also, in 2016, 64% of millennials consider a company’s social and environmental commitments when deciding where to work.
More recently, Francesca Puggioni, the Managing Director of Orange Business Services for Southern Europe, discussed in a blog post the significance of a focus on responsibility.
Puggioni noted in 2020: “The world has changed and so has corporate social responsibility. In recent months, we have seen enterprises being steered not only by economic outcome, but also by social responsibilities.
“Enterprises will now be under much greater scrutiny, and technology will be key in reshaping corporate social responsibility for its role in the brave new world we will all be living in.”
Technology and social responsibility
Of course, if more people want to join a company because of its work towards an environmental cause, recruitment will need to be upgraded and HR tech can help.
The likes of Woo allow companies to have access to a pool of qualified candidates. By using its technology to find good matches and find people interested in a new role, the company removes the painstaking process of sifting through applications. The software also helps employers hire effectively through its AI-powered tools and actionable insights that optimize your campaign by using candidate feedback.
This technology has been adopted by the likes of Twitch, Audible, and Microsoft.
Needing technology’s help to sift through lots of applications is a good problem for companies to have. Nonetheless, the growing focus on social responsibility may well lead to more potential employees being attracted to employers’ who have made commitments like a net-zero pledge for 2040.
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