Another ROI shade of going green

BANGALORE, INDIA: There's another angle to return on green investment, in form of employee pride. Across all countries surveyed as per a report, working for an organization whose employees positively view corporate responsibility efforts has a significant, favorable impact on how they rate their pride in the organization, overall satisfaction and willingness to recommend it as a place to work. Furthermore, employees with favorable opinions of their organizations’ corporate responsibility activities are more likely to state an intention to stay.

A research conducted by the Kenexa Research Institute evaluated workers’ opinions of their organizations with regard to corporate responsibility initiatives. The latest research suggests that an organization’s participation in corporate responsibility and environmentally friendly business practices has a significant influence on employee engagement and business outcomes. The report is based on the analysis of data drawn from a representative sample of workers surveyed through WorkTrends, KRI’s 2010 annual survey of worker opinions.

An organization that is considered to have a strong corporate responsibility climate is one where business choices are made that support environmental responsibility, its actions demonstrate a genuine commitment to corporate

responsibility and it contributes to the communities where employees live and work.

“Our research clearly indicates that organizations operating with a strong corporate responsibility climate have more engaged, confident and customer oriented employees,” said Anne Herman, research consultant, Kenexa Research

Institute. “It will be of great interest to senior leaders in organizations, however, that our, results also indicate that those organizations that implement corporate responsibility efforts outperform those organizations that do not on important financial metrics such as diluted earnings per share.”

Employees in today’s job market still care about the organization’s values and reputation. Previous research indicates that corporate responsibility plays an important role in attracting interested candidates. Employees indicate that their organizations’ corporate responsibility activities increase their overall job satisfaction. This is particularly true for those

in upper and middle management roles and this knowledge can be a key tool in helping organizations achieve their retention targets.