green hrm assignment

Green HRM: Definition, Advantages, Green HRM Practices, Policies

GHRM is a new concept and is becoming popular all over the world. It has got different meanings to different people. There is no comprehensive definition of GHRM.

It refers to making efforts to improve energy efficiency or reduce the pollution produced by our home, business, and general living habits.

The main purpose of going green is to reduce the potential negative impact that energy consumption and pollution can have on the environment.

What is Green HRM?

Ramachandran defines Green HRM as the integration of environmental management into human resources management .

The term green HRM is mostly used to refer to the contribution of HRM policies and practices towards the broader corporate environmental agenda.

It refers to using every employee to support sustainable practices and increase employee awareness and commitments on the issue of sustainability.

Anjana Nath defines Green HR as environment-friendly HR initiatives leading to better efficiencies, less cost, and heightened employee engagement levels.

Typical green activities are performed to travel requirements through video recruiting or the use of online and video interviews.

It involves undertaking environment-friendly HR initiatives resulting in greater efficiencies, lower costs and better employee engagement and retention, which in turn, help organizations to reduce employee carbon footprints by the likes of electronic filing, car-sharing, job-sharing, teleconferencing, and virtual interviews, recycling, telecommuting, online training, energy-efficient office spaces, etc.

Green HR initiatives help companies find alternative ways to cut costs without losing their top talent. Focus on Green HRM as a strategic initiative promotes sustainable business practices.

Therefore, developing a new organizational culture through GHRM practices becomes a manager’s concern.

Developing a green culture can affect employee behavior and introduce certain values that build an internal culture.

Green behavior is assumed to be instrumental in the implementation of the green HRM culture and adopting formal environmental strategies.

According to Mandip, the practice of green HR should be translated into the HR processes, such as recruitment, training, compensation, etc.

From the definitions stated above, it can be concluded that Green HRM needs the participation of all the organization’s members to create and keep the organization green.

Benefits/Advantages of Green HRM

Green HRM involves undertaking environment-friendly HR initiatives resulting in greater efficiency, lower costs and better employee engagement and retention, which in turn, help organizations to reduce employee carbon footprints by electronic filing, car sharing, job sharing, teleconferencing, and virtual interviews, recycling, telecommuting, online recruitment and training, energy-efficient office spaces, etc.

The Green Human Resource Management plays an important role in the industry to promote the environment-related issues.

Organizations must formulate HR policies and practices, train people to increase awareness about the environment, and implement laws related to environmental protection.

The Green HRM may also help the employers, manufacturers in building brand image and reputation.

Organizations need to conduct an environmental audit, thus changing the organizational culture, thinking about waste management, pollution, and helping the society and its people, those are getting affected by pollution.

It will also make employees and society members aware of the utilization of natural resources more economically and encourage eco-friendly products.

Experts have identified the benefits of GHRM, which are mentioned below:

• Helping companies to bring down costs without losing their talent.
• Organizations have huge growth opportunities by being green and creating a new friendly environment, which helps in enormous operational savings by reducing their carbon footprint.
• It helps in achieving higher employee job satisfaction and commitment, which leads to higher productivity and sustainability.
• Create a culture of having concern for the wellbeing and health of fellow workers.
• Improvement in the retention rate of the employee.
• Improved public image. Any time a firm adds a green initiative to its workplace, it can use the event to generate positive public relations. Organizations can promote environmental contributions to the media through press releases to earn the attention of potential customers and possible new sales.
• Promote employee morale.
• Improvement in attracting better employees. Dolan’s (1997) study of USA MBA students found that most of the graduates would take a lower salary to work for environmentally responsible organizations.
• Reduction in the environmental impact of the company.
• Improved competitiveness and increased overall performance.
• Reduction of utility costs significantly. Even small businesses can significantly reduce their utility costs by using technologies that are energy-efficient and less wasteful.
• Rebates and Tax Benefits. Going green is easier with the assistance of governments, local municipalities, Water supply authority, and electric companies that offer tax incentives and rebates.
• Increased business opportunities. Some government agencies, commercial businesses, and nonprofit institutions mandate that only businesses that meet specific green standards can bid on their contracts. Some also mandate that their purchasing departments only buy green products or use products and services sold by companies that meet certain green standards.
• Reduction of environmental damage. Encouraging employees, through training and compensation, to find ways to reduce the use of environmentally damaging materials.

Today, most educated and affluent consumers look for companies that adopt environmental standards . Organizations pursuing environment-friendly human resource policies are also immensely benefitted.

This may help in arriving at greener products and green savings from waste elimination. The promotion of such values may also indirectly improve consumer satisfaction.

Disadvantages of GHRM

While environmentally friendly living is a positive ideal, there are several possible disadvantages of going green. Gregory Hamel has made a review of the disadvantages if an organization is going green.

Initial costs

Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of going green is that it often requires a high initial cost.

For example, installing a new roof or new insulation to keep heat from escaping our home would be considered a green home improvement, but it would cost a large sum of money to get the work done.

Inadequate savings

The aim of going green in many cases, such as building an energy-efficient home or purchasing a hybrid^vehicle is to reduce environmental impact while saving money in the long term.

Green buildings and vehicles tend to use less energy, so initial costs can often be recouped over time through energy savings.

The problem is that the savings generated by going green are often less than expected; they do not make up for the initial cost quickly enough to make them economically viable.

Increased capital outlays

Some green conversions require an initial cash outlay that decreases the firm’s bottom-line performance while the investment is paying for itself. This can decrease the earnings or annual profits of a firm.

Uneven competition

In the business world, going green can be an attractive goal to gain goodwill and consumer support, but unless green improvements are economically viable, it can put a business at a competitive disadvantage.

For instance, if one company decides to adhere to strict, self-imposed pollution standards which require the installation of new technology and workers, while another sets loose standards, the second company will be at an advantage since they will have lower production costs.

Marginal impact

While going green is focused on reducing harm to the environment, the impact that any specific individual can have on the environment by going green is often negligible.

The theory is that if everyone were to go green, it would have a significant and noticeable impact, but not everyone can be convinced to go green, and many believe that doing so has no real impact outside of the economics. This makes going green a personal choice for many.

Employee apathy and reluctance

Many employees feel that it is not their responsibility to protect the environment while they are at work.

But the newly educated workforce is emphasizing on environmental management consciousness when they choose their employers,

How to Implement Green HRM

Jabbour and Santos (2008) consider HRM may contribute to environmental management in companies if they:

• recruit and select people committed to the environment;
• train and evaluate employees’ performance based on environmental criteria;
• implement ways of rewarding individual and collective environmental performance is remunerated and non-remunerated ways;
• stimulate continuous education in environmental management;
• treat environmental aspects as values of corporate culture; and
• promote interaction between teams to deal with environmental problems and strive for continuous improvement of environmental management activities.

From a study of three companies, Kitazawa and Sarkis reveal a continuous reduction of pollution is significantly related to the empowerment and participation of employees who are trained in activities of environmental management and incentive programs, such as profit-sharing, that will increase employee participation in companies.

Moreover, team-based approaches, skill improvements, open communications, and management supports for continuous improvement in operating activities for pollution reduction are also found important.

Based on research involving employees from two different companies, Perron, Cote, and Duffy (2006) emphasize on measuring employee performance after being trained on environmental issues to check employee performance improvement on environment management.

Other researchers have also asserted the importance of environmental training and communication, organizational learning, and the performance of environmental management programs.

Dutta explains GHRM is directly responsible for creating a green workforce that understands, appreciates, and practices green policies.

An organization can maintain its green objectives throughout the HRM process of recruiting , hiring, and training, compensating, developing, and advancing the firm’s human capital.

The implementation of rigorous recruitment and selection of employees, performance-based appraisal system, training programs aimed at green management initiatives have basic importance to fostering environmental innovations.

Gaining a reputation as a green employer is an effective way to attract new talent. Phillips finds 8% of UK firms reward green behaviors with various types of awards and/or financial incentives.

Green responsibilities can be used by environmentally responsible employers to attract talent that fits and contributes to achieving the organization’s environmental goals.

Baron and Gomez-Mejia find the effectiveness of executive pay practices related to greater pollution prevention success in US firms operating in high- polluting industries.

Govindarajulu and Daily find recognition programs are another popular component of corporate environmental initiatives.

Strategic Aspect of Green HRM

HR plays a vital role in making the environmental responsibility of the organization as a part of the corporate mission statement.

The responsibility of the HR managers is to create awareness about the Green HRM, the Green movement, and the utilization of natural resources, helping the corporate to maintain the proper environment and retain natural resources for future generations among young and working people.

A green job is employment that directly works with strategies, information, materials, and technologies that contribute to minimizing environmental impact and requires specialized knowledge, skills, training, or experience in these areas.

According to Zoogah, D. (2010), five major platforms where sustainability principles can be applied in the transforming an organization to the wholly sustainable enterprise is as follows;

• “The Green products/services Portfolio” including waste and pollution management, resource replacement, sustainable design, and adaptive reuse.
• The Green Workforce” including Human Resource strategies, culture, recruiting and retention, training, career path development, and diversity.
• “The Green Workplace,” including global locations, physical plants, ergonomics, virtual workplaces, green buildings, environmental discharge, waste and energy, use, and source.
• “The Green Function/Process Model,” including sustainability applied to traditional functions, enterprise-wide green process modeling to incorporate green practices and sustainable-management.
• Green Management and Governance Principles,” including board and management accountability, sustainability test, compliance, incentives, ethics, reporting, and assurance.

Green HR polices emphasis on group and individual capabilities to convey green behavior. The goal or objective of such policies is to create a corporate environmental culture.

The focus of Green HRM concentrates on employee’s environmental behavior in the working place, which in turn, employees can practice such kind of behavior in their private life.

Green HR Policies

There is no doubt that organizations are the main cause of environmental problems. They should, therefore, play a large role in addressing environmental management issues. Bebbington (2001) has identified a wide range of GHRM practices.

Green HR Policies are;

Sourcing and acquisition of human resources

As higher-level executives have more responsibility for green initiatives, green targets should be included in the managerial job description. As the requirement of employees, environmental consciousness can be included in the competency model of the organization.

Green recruitment and selection

Company websites can be used to invite applicants to apply for vacant positions. Resumes can be submitted online to reduce wastage of printed materials.

Companies can also use web portals for onboarding documentation like offer letter, credentials, and testimonials regarding qualifications and experiences and acceptance letter of selected applicants.

Environment-friendly firms receive better qualified and motivated job applicants. Some applicants are preferred to sacrifice salary potential to work for environmentally responsible organizations.

Some Job descriptions of an announced position and other information about the company can post on its website, which helps in the orientation of the new employees.

Again several environmental aspects can be mentioned in the job description. Green issues should be specified in the job description.

Such type of job description includes environmental reporting roles, health and safety tasks, harmful elements/probable radiations for staff, and then match worker’s attributes according to the environmental competencies.

An organization can set “Green awareness” as a preferential criterion to select employees. Firms recruit employees who are green aware.

Orientation

The employee induction program should be planned in such a. way-as to enable the induction of new employees into a culture of green consciousness.

Employers should highlight the concern for green issues of employees like their health, safety, and green working conditions in the orientation program.

Learning and development

Learning, training, and development policies can include programs, workshops, and sessions to facilitate employees for improving and acquiring knowledge in environment management, green skills, and attitudes .

For future talented green managers, job rotation in the green assignment should become an important part of their career development plan.

Training contents should be settled to increase employee competencies and knowledge in green management.

Extensive use of online and web-based training modules and interactive media can be used as a training tool for environmental management training.

Environment-related aspects of safety, energy efficiency, waste management, and recycling can become the central points of green training.

Training managers should depend more on the online course material and case studies rather than on printed handouts, thus further reducing the use of paper.

Green performance management

The goal of the Performance management (PM) system in green management is to measure ecological performance standards through different departments of the organization and achieve useful information on the green performance of managers.

Green performance indicators should be included in the PM system.

Green PM system can be successfully initiated through developing performance indicators for each risk area in environmental awareness and instruction.

It is important to communicate green schemes to all levels of staff. Managers/ employees can set green targets and responsibilities.

Green compensation and reward management

The compensation package should be adapted to reward green skills acquisition and achievement by employees.

Monetary, non-monetary, and recognition based environmental reward systems and monthly managerial bonuses can be provided based on performance outcomes in environmental balance.

Carbon emission standard and regeneration sources of energy are the key consideration for executive payment as an appreciation of green efforts. Employees meeting green goals can be rewarded.

Green HRM Practices

Researchers suggest a few Green HRM practices, which are mentioned below:

• Encouraging employees, through training and compensation, is to find ways to reduce the use of environmentally damaging chemicals in their products.
• Assisting employees in identifying ways to recycle products that can be used for playgrounds for children who don’t have access to healthy places to play.
• Designing a company’s HRM system is to reflect equity, development, and well­being, thus contributing to the long-term health and sustainability of both internal (employees) and external communities.
• Emphasizing long-term employment security is to avoid disruption for employees, their families, and their communities.
• Use of job portals of companies for recruitment and custom of telephone, internet, and video interviews, which can lessen the travel requirements of the candidate and affecting the reduction in paperwork.
• Green rewards to employees can be provided by companies in the arrangement of the nature-friendly workplace and lifestyle benefits through providing carbon credit equalizers, free bicycles, and pollution-free vehicles for transportation to the workplace to engage employees in green agenda.
• Talented, skilled, and experienced employees are environmentally conscious now, and they always look for self-actualization to be committed to their work. Green HR can create this commitment by following green values and practices.
• Green actions can occur with minimum use of paper and printed materials in recruitment, training and development, and performance appraisal.
• A company can create a green business environment by reducing the use of printed materials, increased ‘recycling, using eco-friendly grocery and lunch bags, and prohibiting the use of bottled water, plastic in the workplace.
• Luminous light bulbs and other energy-saving green devices can be used in the workplace.
• Companies can inspire their employees to change their travel and transportation ways through reducing official car trips, using public transport for business travel, carpooling, providing interest-free loans to purchase hybrid cars, and cycling or walking to work.
• Conduct business meetings and conferences through the internet, telephone, and video conferencing wherever possible to reduce business travel.
• Provide flexible work opportunities to employees in telework or work from home by using emails and company portals through intranet and internet.
• Wellness programs for employees, their family members, and general people can be arranged to focus on physical fitness, proper nutrition, and a healthy lifestyle. As an important green objective, environmental management can be included in the mission statement of the company as a part of their social responsibility. Organizations can arrange cleanliness and waste management initiative in the workplaces and surrounding society to cause awareness about green issues.
• Encourage the employee to turn off lights, computers, and printers after work hours and on weekends for further energy reductions.
• Inspire employees to place computers and printers in energy-saving settings when they will be away for a while.
• Turn off office lights while attending meetings and at night and over the weekend. Turn lights off in restrooms, conference rooms, libraries, and so forth when the room is not in use.
• Work with IT to switch to laptops over desktop computers because Laptops consume up to 90% less power.
• Arrange an air conditioning system with discretion.
• Purchase large or refillable containers of creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, and butter instead of individual containers.
• XII. Arrange green-themed games to promote environmentally friendly behavior and staff togetherness.
• Provide green promotion, which includes loan discounts on fuel-efficient cars and energy-saving home improvements, discounts at local green merchants.

It is evident from the discussion so far made that GHRM promises potential benefits for both organizations and those employed by them.

For the organization, there is some evidence that better environmental performance is also associated with improved financial performance outcomes; the so-called ‘Green pays’ argument.

The GHRM practices identified in this section may have a role to play in improving not only the environmental performance but also the financial performance of the organization.

Equally, the GHRM practices analyses here are likely to improve employee wellbeing in the workplace, not least through improving the working environment and satisfying the needs of an increasingly environmentally aware workforce.

In sum, we believe that GHRM has the potential to contribute positively to both employee wellbeing and improved organizational performance.

Green HR helps in achieving greater efficiency and lower costs within a process, reducing and eliminating ecological wastage and refurbishing HR products, tools, and procedures.

Being environmentally conscious, organizations are starting to integrate green attempts into their regular work environment with society.

Green HR attempts to create better employee involvement in a working environment, which helps the organization to work in an environmentally sustainable fashion.

The employers and specialists can establish the usefulness of linking employee involvement and participation in environmental management programs to improved organizational environmental performance , like with a specific focus on encouraging green practices and help green management change and develop.

Unions and employees can help employers to adopt Green HRM policies and practices that help safeguard and enhance worker health and wellbeing.

As organizations are the main cause of environmental problems, they should, therefore, play a large role in addressing environmental management issues.

So organizational managers should launch eco-initiates to address environmental management.

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Green HRM: Meaning, Advantages, Policies, and Practices

In the present scenario, Green HRM is an emerging topic. Green HRM was developed from the Green movement around the world.

The concept of Green HRM has become popular worldwide. Its meaning differs from person to person. It attempts to boost energy savings or reduce the pollution created by industries and general living habits. The primary aim of greening is to minimize the possible adverse effects of energy consumption and pollution on the environment.

Implementing green technology as a corporate plan will promote business success in the ever-evolving world. The inevitable fact is that organizations will play a critical role in the fight against global warming. HRM will fulfill the company’s dedication to green practices with the help of management and its employees. Green HRM's function may become the operator of sustainability goals, which will aid in achieving your company goals.

What is Green HRM?

Green HRM extends its role in the promotion and achievement of sustainable objectives within a company. The word green HRM applies mainly to the contribution of policies and activities in the field of HRM. It is commonly known as green human resource management or GHRM.

It involves all workers in adopting sustainable practices and improving awareness about eco-friendly lifestyles. They include the promotion of energy conservation.

Why is Green HRM Important?

Within thousands of businesses today, sustainability plans are growing steadily due to the threats and uncertainties that climate change has caused our world. The support of senior management is crucial in the implementation of its sustainability management by an organization.

Benefits of Green HRM

Companies need to carry out an environmental audit that can focus on recycling and help society and its people. It will help the workers and members of organizations to understand the use of natural resources and promote eco-friendly goods. Some benefits of Green HRM are as follows-

It can support organizations to minimize expenses without losing talent.

It decreases a company's total costs as it becomes more effective concerning the use of electricity, water, and manufactured goods.

It helps to achieve greater employee job satisfaction and dedication, which leads to increased productivity.

Develop a culture of concern for the holistic wellbeing of fellow employees .

Small companies can also reduce their electricity costs by using technologies that are energy-efficient and less costly.

It can be used to create good public relations if an organization adds a green initiative to its workplace.

Policies Of Green HRM

Recruitment and selection method.

Companies can go online to hire candidates with online applications and resumes to reduce massive paper waste.

HR should ensure that the next steps of the selection process determine the applicants’ willingness to embrace eco-friendly choices after the first screening of CVs. During an interview, some questions should focus on environmental issues or a group dynamic that combines a corporate strategy with sustainability concerns. In the end, each candidate can also be given a green score and added to the total spreadsheet of scores that will eventually rank the top applicants.

Onboarding Process

Induction programs should be structured in such a way to promote the incorporation of these new workers with the culture of green consciousness of the organization. Besides, these programs should also illustrate the company's environmental issues and the green actions that are being developed within the company.

Read more: Employee Onboarding and Its Steps That You Need To Know

Learning and Development

Learning and development is a method that focuses on improving the abilities, skills, and attitudes of employees. Leaders should offer training materials to develop employee knowledge and skills in environmental sustainability. Learning and development can encourage the employees to find ways to help their organizations become more successful.

For environmental management training, companies can use digital media and web-based training modules. Energy conservation, waste management, and recycling factors relevant to the environment can become green training core points.

Performance Management and Appraisal

Performance management is a motivational approach to enhance employees' technical skills that help in achieving company goals. Thus, performance appraisal can include sustainability objectives measured with specific metrics to set up a greener company.

Green targets, tasks, and responsibilities such as creating green awareness and encouraging them to participate in the company's green activities can also be considered when it comes to managers’ performance appraisal .

Compensation and Reward Management

Green compensation and reward management aim to acknowledge workers’ commitment to developing a more sustainable organization. Three types of rewards are as follows-

Monetary rewards can be in the form of salary increments, cash rewards, and bonuses.

Non-Monetary rewards like leaves for special occasions, gifts, etc.

Recognition-based rewards highlight the employee’s contribution towards the company, appraisal from the top management, etc.

Crucial Green HRM Practices That You Need To Know

Employment security.

Life is unpredictable, and a job is a reliable thing that most people are concerned about nowadays. In reality, having an employer that helps the worker to be there for themselves and their families is the number one reason why employees come to work. Employment security allows employees to go home to care for themselves and their families after work.

Companies can benefit from employment security because it helps them retain their employees. For example, when workers get laid off, usually it is the company that pays the price. Organizations are the ones who have engaged in the recruitment, training, and growth of these workers.

Selective Hiring

Selective hiring helps a company to bring more value-adding workers to the company. You can't just hire anybody if you want individuals who are fit for the position. Organizations do their best to recruit outstanding individuals because they bring more success to the company. Therefore, hiring the right people is a secret to maintaining a strategic advantage.

We can use several different recruiting methods to find the best candidates in today's global world. To see how well they are performing, more and more businesses actively keep track of their recruiting data sources. IQ tests, personality reviews, structured interviews, task tests, and performance reviews are widely used selection methods.

Teamwork is essential in achieving goals. When it comes to success, high-performance teams are critical for any organization. Teams bring benefits because they are formed up of individuals who think differently but work towards a common objective. Then these ideas are analyzed, resulting in the selection of the best ones.

The best teams which are mentally healthy can think differently. It ensures that team members will develop ideas that are different while getting comfortable bringing them up. Like another team or a department, a team usually is a small unit of the organization. Such larger organizations need to work together as well. Teamwork helps to create a productive and successful organization.

Open Communication

Open communication is about strategies, finance, and events that promote a culture in which individuals believe they are recognized. It genuinely involves workers in the organization. It prevents negative conversations between the employees.

If you want your employees to share their ideas, they need to have a clear understanding of what's happening in the company. Being aware of the company is something that workers feel is an integral part of the company. Open communication creates an opportunity to contribute to and influence decisions that impact their work lives.

Training and Learning

Organizations are investing significantly in training for their workers. After hiring the best candidates, you need to make sure that they stay in the organization.

Learning has now become a way of being creative, growing faster, and maintaining a strategic advantage. Employers are focusing on skill-specific types of training. Nowadays, on-demand courses have increased enormously all over the world. All thanks to the internet as everybody is connected and can learn anything, from anywhere and anytime.

For modern generations, such as the Millennials and Generation Z, learning has also become extremely important. In a Gallup study, younger workers' rate of learning and personal development is as much more critical as older generations. The next generation of employees is continuously looking for growth opportunities and succeeding in their careers.

As a process, Green HRM helps in achieving greater productivity with minimal expenditure. It helps eliminate ecological waste and makes the best use of refurbished HR goods, equipment and techniques. It aims to increase workers' engagement in a work environment that allows the company to function in an environmentally friendly manner.

This article is written by Rashmi Rekha Deka . She works as a Content Marketer at Vantage Circle . She likes to keep herself informed about the HR happenings and write about topics surrounding organizational growth. For any related queries, contact [email protected]

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9 GHRM Best Practices to Achieve Success in Environmental Initiatives

Wildfires have been blazing elsewhere in Italy , as well as in France , Greece , Australia , California – can anyone remember when there wasn’t a relentless, uncontrollable wildfire somewhere?

2021 was also the year it rained on a Greenland ice cap for the first time and Canada’s last arctic shelf collapsed.

Meanwhile, July 29, 2021 was declared Earth Overshoot Day , meaning the world’s population had already consumed more that year than the planet could regenerate.

(For the record, the US and Canada hit their overshoot day on March 14 , while the UK managed to last until May 19. Pat yourselves on the back, folks.)

What does this have to do with HR management? Isn’t green branding more of a marketing problem? Or operations? Or any other department but HR?

Actually, no.

The fact is: No company can go green without employee buy-in. Don’t get me wrong – leadership has to be all-in, too, but if your people aren’t on board with your green initiatives and policies, they’re going to fail and fail hard.

Which is where HR comes in.

In this Process Street post, I’m going to lay out 9 fairly simple best practices that you and your team should be doing if you want to ensure that your pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) succeed.

• The business of going green
• Best practices to boost your GHRM yield

Reaping the rewards of GHRM

Let’s get to work!

What does GHRM even mean?

Green human resource management puts onus on HR professionals to support a company’s sustainability goals. HR’s role here is largely internal – focused on employee behaviors rather than company image – and also behind-the-scenes.

But that’s nothing new. No one notices HR until something goes wrong, am I right?

Don’t fret if this is the first you’re hearing about it, though. GHRM is a relatively new term for a relatively new idea: corporations are just as responsible as private individuals for protecting and preserving the environment.

In an era where competition is already pretty fierce, more and more people are using social and environmental responsibility as the deciding factor in the products they buy, the services they use, and the companies they work for.

76% of Millennials would be willing to accept a lower salary to work for a green company, while 61% are willing to pay higher prices for eco-friendly products.

In a previous post, I outlined the 7 indicators of Green human resource management and how going Green improves your employees’ experience at work. In this post, I’m going to concentrate on how it improves your company’s experience in the market.

(Learn more about employee well-being and GHRM in “The Impact of GHRM on Employee Retention and Well-Being.” )

Best practices to boost your GHRM

Needless to say, environmentally speaking, things are pretty ducking bad.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is important for environmental sustainability, but it’s essential if you don’t want your company to have a climate crisis, too. Aside from the altruistic benefits of implementing Green HR management to improve your organization’s corporate sustainability , there are indisputable business advantages.

Going Green is a great marketing strategy. Customers prefer Green companies. Job seekers prefer Green companies. And stakeholders prefer a company with high revenue. With an increase in customer loyalty and conversion coupled with a more talented and skilled workforce, your organization will gain more influence, a better reputation, and a lot more public interest. When it comes right down to it, not adding the G to your HRM doesn’t make a lot of sense.

With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of the 9 essential best practices to give your HR department a foundation to grow your eco-friendly actions.

According to Changing Markets Foundation’s survey, “Synthetics Anonymous,” 62% of sustainability claims by fast fashion companies (such as H&M, Louis Vuitton, and Zara) were unsupported by a third party while 59% fell short of the new CMA guidelines . In the case of H&M, their “Conscious Collection” actually contained a higher level of synthetic materials (72%) than their main collection (61%).

This, dear friends, is greenwashing and it’s bad for business (and the environment). As far as consumers are concerned, it indicates that your company is willing to deceive its customers in order to make a quick buck. No one likes to be lied to.

Taking on Green initiatives is not an easy road so you have to do it with deliberate intention. To be sustainable long-term, pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) need to be worked into the very core of your organization to build a truly Green company from the inside out.

(Learn more about becoming a sustainable business in “How You Can Create a Sustainable Business For Long-Term Success.” )

2. Nurture your employees’ engagement

I said this in the introduction and I’ll say it again: Every environmental initiative you try to put in place will fail unless your employees support it.

The simplest way to get their support is to give them your support. Get them involved in the early stages of the decision-making process.

Get their ideas and feedback on proposed initiatives, practices already in place, and what direction future initiatives should take. What suggestions do they have for making their own spaces more eco-friendly?

Find out what charities and organizations your employees are already involved with and organize donations, sponsorships, or even company-wide volunteer days.

When employees have a sense of ownership over a project or process, they’re automatically more invested in its success.

3. Develop policies to support environmental sustainability

Re-evaluate your current policies around recruitment, hiring, and development . Are you actively seeking out eco-friendly job seekers? How sustainable are your recruitment methods?

Digital applications and interviews may not seem like they’ll make a big difference, but they do have an impact on offsetting paper use, transportation emissions, and signaling to prospective employees that you’re committed to sustainability from the get-go.

Tap into the tacit knowledge of industry union representatives, too. There’s a huge overlap between PEBs and health and safety regulations, so your local union rep will be an invaluable resource when it comes to ensuring future policies are environmentally aware.

4. Think green about your internal spaces

This is a no-brainer. Sure, you want your supply chain, manufacturing, and other external operations to be sustainable, but you need to make it a daily habit at work, too.

Use energy-efficient lightbulbs and equipment. Create a paperless office . Reduce the amount of water and other resources consumed in the office. Look into what you can do to create a Green office design for your building. A study done by the World Green Building Council discovered that Green offices improve cognitive ability, performance, loyalty, and workplace satisfaction while reducing absenteeism and hostility among coworkers.

(Learn how to use an environmental management system to support your sustainability goals in “What is Environmental Management? How You Can Implement it Today.” )

5. Establish transparency and accountability for your sustainability goals

Transparency is important when it comes to greenwashing, but also in terms of your organization’s progress on its sustainability goals. Establish an effective communication platform so that employees, clients, and other stakeholders are kept informed and up-to-date on what you’re doing to reach those goals and how well it’s going.

Creating a company-wide newsletter (digital, of course) alerting your employees to volunteer opportunities, new eco-friendly policies, and recent developments will reaffirm their commitment to PEBs and reassure them that their efforts are making a positive difference.

74% of employees report higher job satisfaction when they feel they’re able to make a positive social and/or environmental impact at work.

6. Incentivize pro-environmental behaviors

Self-interest is a great motivator for those employees who feel more ambivalent about environmental issues. According to Cone Communications’ Employee Engagement Study , 87% would engage in PEBs to attain professional growth, while 85% would do it for financial incentives.

Bonuses, gift cards, and public recognition are powerful motivators to get more involved in your organization’s Green initiatives.

In addition, the easier something is, the more likely people are to do it. Motivation alone isn’t always enough to get everyone using eco-friendly actions. Cost, lack of information, or lack of facilities can all act as barriers for sustainable action, even for the most environmentally conscious person. For example, littering is more likely when trashcans aren’t available, public transport is impractical if service is too unreliable, and organic produce is often unavailable, or too costly for everyone to have access.

Establish a cycle-to-work campaign by loaning bicycles to employees, or offer “carbon credit cards” for achieving Green milestones. You could even provide PTO for time employees spend volunteering.

As with any aspect of people management, employee acknowledgment is vital to reinforcing behaviors.

7. Innovate organically

Recycling paper and plastic bottles are obvious options, but be willing to think outside the box. Both Google and Intel have onsite gardens where employees can grow organic vegetables that will later be used in the campus cafeterias and restaurants.

This again will rely on communication and transparency with your employees, particularly if you’ve been successful in recruiting eco-savvy talent. Find out what experiences and projects they bring to the table and learn from them.

What if is the single most powerful phrase in existence. Use it.

(Learn how to stay compliant while you innovate in “How To Lead Innovation When Implementing Compliance: 7 Ways.” )

8. Measure the success of your environmental actions

Establish goals. These should be challenging, achievable, and, most importantly, measurable. Naturally, there will be public, company-wide sustainability goals, but there should also be individual, internal goals for teams, employees, and managers to achieve.

Incorporate these into your regular performance review – or even conduct separate sustainability reviews – and use those reviews to determine what’s working and what’s not. As a side bonus, you’ll also discover who’s working and who’s not.

Essentially, though, people like concrete, tangible results. They like to know they’re making progress, that their actions have purpose, and that their skills and abilities are valued. Including PEBs in performance reviews is another way you can make those behaviors a habitual part of the day-to-day running of your organization.

(Learn more about creating sustainability reports in “GRI Standards for Sustainability Reporting: What They Are and Why They Matter.” )

9. Graft Green practices into your company culture

This is not so much a best practice as a culmination of the previous eight best practices. While the COO and other money-minded folk are hard coding sustainability into the business plan, your team needs to do the same with the company culture.

Sustainability needs to be an integral part of everything that happens in your organization, so much so that people differentiate between pro-environmental behaviors and “the way we do things here.”

Each of the previous eight practices will help achieve that mindset in your organization. While some aspects of company culture do “just happen” on their own, it does take intentionality and effort to cultivate those aspects and focus them in the desired directions.

This means that leadership needs to model the desired behaviors, too. If you’re offering an incentive for employees who purchase hybrid or low-emission vehicles, but your CEO pulls up in a gas-guzzling SUV every day, there’s going to be a disconnect between your eco-ambitions and employee commitment.

Change is hard and most people don’t like it. No matter what you do or how you frame it, you’re going to come up against resistance, and there will be teething problems. You’re very likely to find yourself in a two-steps-forward/one-step-back scenario. Many a manager has pulled the plug on a new initiative too soon due to initial resistance, but if you’re able to knuckle down, the seeds of your efforts will certainly sprout.

While it is crucial that your Green initiatives are grown from the bottom-up, you also need top-down support, too. During these early stages, it’s important that leadership and senior managers actively support your Green management policies. Seeing anything through to fruition is a process, and, like most processes, everyone has their part to play.

Leadership needs to set clear expectations and be able to communicate them effectively throughout your organization. Managers and supervisors need to prioritize coaching and training so employees have the skills to meet those expectations. Employees need to be able to understand what’s expected of them, have the resources to fulfill those expectations, and, of course, feel like their contributions are valued.

Start small, be realistic about what you hope to achieve with your Green initiatives, and keep those communication channels open. The more you involve employees in the beginning phases, the easier making progress will be. By doing this, employees won’t feel like the new initiatives are being done to them but by them.

While those are two very small words, they carry a lot of weight when it comes to morale, commitment, and loyalty.

How do you get your employees involved with Green initiatives at your organization? Let us know in the comments!

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Leks Drakos

Leks Drakos, Ph.D. is a rogue academic with a PhD from the University of Kent (Paris and Canterbury). Research interests include HR, DEIA, contemporary culture, post-apocalyptica, and monster studies. Twitter: @leksikality [he/him]

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Green Human Resource Management Research

Issues, Trends, and Challenges

• © 2022
• Pascal Paillé 0

Rouen campus, NEOMA Business School, ROUEN, France

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• Introduces a green employability approach to enhance green skills and competencies of labor market
• Examines the effect of green human resource management on organizational attraction to workers
• Shows the importance of training and awareness raising in motivating employee environmental behavior

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series (SDGS)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Front matter, green human resource management: introduction and overview.

Pascal Paillé

Green Employability: Re-Shaping Individual Career Perspective

• Gunjan Joshi

Modeling Green Human Resource Management and Attraction to Organizations

• Richa Chaudhary, Mantasha Firoz

Connecting Green Human Resource Management to Performance: Pathways Toward Sustainability

• Jing Yi Yong, Mohd-Yusoff Yusliza, Noor Hazlina Ahmad

A Systematic Literature Review of Green Human Resource Management Practices and Individual and Organizational Outcomes: The Case of Pro-environmental Behaviour at Work

• Adolfo Carballo-Penela, Emilio Ruzo-Sanmartín, Paula Álvarez-González, Nailya Saifulina

Green Human Resources in Latin American Organizations: A Review of the State of the Art and Future Directions

• Charbel José Chiappetta Jabbour, Adriano Alves Teixeira, Nelson Oliveira Stefanelli, Abbas Mardani

GHRM in Sustainability Reporting: An Exploratory Analysis Across Six Countries Using the AMO Framework

• Lisa Obereder, Michael Müller-Camen, Douglas W. S. Renwick

Green Human Resource Management and Employee Green Behavior: Trends, Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward

• Olawole Fawehinmi, Mohd-Yusoff Yusliza, Kahlid Farooq

What’s Next for Green Human Resource Management?

• Susan E. Jackson

Back Matter

• Pro-environmental behaviors
• Sustainability
• International green HRM
• Green employability
• Green HR practices
• Environmental leadership
• Environmental management
• Cross-national differences
• Organizational attractiveness
• Employee Green Behavior
• Transformational Leadership
• sustainability reporting
• Sustainable HRM

About this book

In contemporary times, most organizational functions (such as finance, marketing, and supply chains) have assessed their impact on the environment. HR has lagged behind other disciplines in discussions of sustainability, though the literature on this topic has grown significantly in recent years. This book, engaging SDGs 4 and 8, among others, examines green HRM from a variety of perspectives. Divided into three sections, it explores the process of human resource acquisition, the connection between green HRM practice and employee behavior, and international perspectives of green HRM. The final chapter presents a summary analysis of topics discussed in the book and outlines potential future paths of research for the field. This volume, featuring leading researchers from across the globe, further develops this emerging field for HR and organizational behavior scholars.

Editors and Affiliations

About the editor.

Pascal Paillé is a full professor in sustainable human resource management at NEOMA Business school, campus Rouen, France. His research concerns the greening of the workplace at the micro level of consideration, and focuses on green human resource management, and workplace pro-environmental behaviors. His research has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Business, Strategy and the Environment, Organization and Environment, Journal of Cleaner Production, among others.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : Green Human Resource Management Research

Book Subtitle : Issues, Trends, and Challenges

Editors : Pascal Paillé

Series Title : Sustainable Development Goals Series

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06558-3

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Business and Management , Business and Management (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-06557-6 Published: 06 September 2022

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-06560-6 Published: 07 September 2023

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-06558-3 Published: 05 September 2022

Series ISSN : 2523-3084

Series E-ISSN : 2523-3092

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XVI, 231

Number of Illustrations : 12 b/w illustrations

Topics : Human Resource Management , Corporate Environmental Management , Management , Organization , Business Strategy/Leadership , Business Ethics

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What’s next for green human resource management: insights and trends for sustainable development.

Muhammad Hamza Khan |  Syaharizatul Noorizwan Muktar *   

© 2021 IIETA. This article is published by IIETA and is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).

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The theme of green human resource management (GHRM) has got immense attention among researchers and professionals due to its potential to pacify environmental needs and simultaneously allowing firms to have win-win situation, hence achieving sustainable competitive edge over their rivals. In this context, a systematic review of 70 articles from the past 12 years (2008-2020) on green human resource management was conducted based on Scopus database in terms of (1) the reflections of green HRM, (2) execution of green HRM, (3) factors of green HRM, (4), Effects of green HRM. Results demonstrated that Green HRM is still in developing phase and a multidimensional paradigm with green training as an important element along with teamwork, management support, green organizational culture are the pioneer factors in ensuring sustainable development both at firm and individual level. Finally, this paper highlights the past, current and future endeavors in green HRM paradigm, sustainable development and serves as a guide for researchers who are new to this novel concept; it will also intensity their understanding about the productive journals, appropriate methodology, underpinning theories, sustainable development and substantial knowledge gaps.

green human resource management, Sustainable development, environmental management, systematic review, Scopus

Sustainability has arisen as a major concern in the last 20 years due to environmental deterioration caused by corporate sector [1, 2]. The corporate sector whether from developing or developed nations are now considering the adoption of sustainable practices [3] and this is due to the fact that corporations work in a highly competitive international market and such sustainable practices could be favorable for corporations in shifting from purely economic to ecological and competitive [4]. In the search of this ecological agenda various researchers like [5-7] draws attention towards the ecological side of the human resource management which is green human resource management. Theses scholars argue that rebooting the HRM functions with green practices could be beneficial for corporate sustainability, competitive edge and to meet sustainable development goals.

Since, the paradigm of Green HRM scholarship has increased during the last 10 years, as one of the core strategies to make corporations more sustainable, this concept gained noteworthy attention among scholars [8-11]. As a result, there is an enormous increase in Green HRM scholarship. Moreover, the increasing attention towards sustainability issues compelled conventional human resource management to entwine green human resource management practices to reduce waste, decreasing the amount of carbon footprints and adopt paper less approach [12]. According to Mishra and Rani [13] the HR can act as bridge to initiate environmental friendly practices. Similar argument was given by Jabbour and Santos [14] who considered that HRM has a great potential if merged with sustainability. Cohen, Taylor [15] and Renwick, Redman [16] also demonstrated the potential benefits of Green HRM in formulating sustainable business policies within an organization.

Although the concept of Green HRM is rising exponentially, however constructing a holistic approach towards this novel concept is needed. Systematic reviews were conducted on this novel paradigm but none of the systematic reviews according to the best of our knowledge were executed which divided the green HRM scholarship into four major foundations. The novelty of this review is that it has explained the past, current and future endeavors based on four major foundations. But presently, this innovative idea is deficient in terms of comprehensive literature reviews based on the questions raised below, therefore complete picture of Green HRM needs to be developed. This review article, contributes to what’s next for Green HRM by elaborating insights and trends for sustainable development. The purpose of this systematic review is to explore what has been done and what needs to be done in Green HRM paradigm. Firstly, we debated about the dimensions in green HRM paradigm and from the past twelve years various researchers have explained about the possible dimensions in GHRM literature. Secondly, we identified the applications that are useful for both employees and organizations in order to embrace GHRM. Thirdly, we identified the possible antecedents or factors in executing GRHM. Lastly, we debated on the effects of green HRM and their impact on organizations and employees’ outcomes. We extended the previous works in green HRM literature like [17, 18]. Although their work provided a huge support to understand the concept of GHRM, however we provided more in-depth understanding of on reflections, applications, major theories, and effects in a deeper manner which previous studies lacked. Specifically, the paper debates the following research questions:

RQ1: What are the dimensions/concepts/Reflections in Green HRM paradigm?

RQ2: What are the applications of Green HRM paradigm?

RQ3: What are the factors of Green HRM paradigm?

RQ4: What are the effects of Green HRM paradigm?

RQ5: How reflections, applications, factors and effects of green HRM lead to sustainable development (will be discussed in the last segment in detail)?

The current paper endorses the systematic review method for investigating, encapsulating and drawing conclusions [19] from the existing works on Green HRM.  Moreover, the technique adopted is lying on [20-22] line of work which includes four sections, time boundary, selecting the appropriate data base, choosing and categorizing articles.

2.1 Timing boundary of the papers

In order to review and evaluate papers, the span of the articles lies between early 2008 till end of 2020. The year of 2008 is considered as the pioneer year when Renwick, Redman [23] launched the concept of “Green Human Resource Management” The 2020 is the end point because the authors want to include the most recent works in Green HRM scholarship.

2.2 Deciding the database

Scopus database, one of the pioneer databases in the world incorporating 75 million records, 24,600 titles and 194000 books [24] was selected to get the overall picture of Green HRM paradigm.

2.3 Choosing and categorization of articles

In order to execute a systematic review, the study needs a well-planned approach. Firstly, we focused on the various dimensions of GHRM, in this context we focused on those studies that thoroughly discussed conceptualizations and reflections of GHRM. Secondly, we performed in detail checking of the important applications of GHRM like green training, green rewards and compensations etc. Thirdly we looked for the possible factors of GHRM. Finally, the studies which were performed relating to the effects of GHRM were checked. The figure on the right shows the article selection approach. Important keywords were identified relating to Green HRM and then these keywords were inserted into the Scopus database to get the required results. These keywords include title-abs-key (“green human resource”) OR title-abs-key (“green human resource management”) OR title-abs-key (“green human resource management practices”) OR title-abs-key(“GHRM”). Then the Span was reduced and only articles from 2008 to 2020 were considered. The initial searching resulted in 151 articles. Abstracts of 151 articles were thoroughly assessed to identify relevant literature related to Green HRM. Moreover, we also excluded those works that did not address Green HRM scholarship. We also eliminated those studies that use the word “green” as jargon. Finally, 70 papers were selected based on original contribution and clearly defined objectives. These 70 papers were inserted in excel sheet for further analysis and they were classified according to the research questions discussed above. The Figure 1 below shows the complete methodological process.

Figure 1. The complete methodological process

The results of 70 articles are classified according to the four research questions in tabular form in Table 1.

3.1 Reflections of green HRM: An overview

Comparatively from other HRM paradigms, the paradigm of green HR is recent and novel and various scholars have conceptualized it in variety of reflections. For example, Siyambalapitiya, Zhang [25] gave eight reflections by performing a qualitative study on Green HR, Shah [26] branded seven dimensions and said that it is a multidimensional construct, Mousa and Othman [27] executed a mixed method study and gave three dimensions of Green HRM. Moreover Tang, Chen [28] composed GHRM into six reflections and provided the implications of this novel paradigm at organizational and employee level. In spite of various reflections/ dimension in Green HRM paradigm, literature has unanimously debated six most important reflections which are green recruitment, green selection, green training, green development, green performance management and green rewards and compensation. Contrary to this, the conceptualization of Green HR reflected on various aspects, for instance enhancing environmental performance [29], organizational attractiveness [30], development of employee green behavior [31]. Moreover Jackson, Renwick [5] also conceptualized green HR and indicated to merge its functions with environmental management.

3.2 Execution/applications of Green HRM: An overview

Keeble [32], p 16 “Our common Future” defined sustainable development as the “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Corporations in the 21 century strives for sustainable development goals to reduce environmental contaminations caused by their operations as according to Mishra, Sarkar [33] in order to meet sustainable development goals the execution of Green side of HR is imperative. Similar argument was given Haddock-Millar, Sanyal [34] who said that to achieve environmental sustainability Green HRM practices should be applied. But on the other hand majority of the firms have not fully executed the green HRM practices [35] and among all the reflections on Green HRM as elaborated above green training was mostly executed in various organizations this is because Jabbour [36] considered it as a requirement to pursue environmental management tasks and Zoogah [37] assisted to apply this practice to transform employee behavior into green behavior to meet environmental objectives. On the other hand from the perspective of potential candidates to join green firm Khan and Noorizwan Muktar [30] elaborated that there are psychological and social and contextual processes that shapes employees attitudes. Therefore, the employers and managers must keep in mind that during the recruitment and training of employees these processes must be considered.

3.3 Factors of Green HRM: An overview

This segment highlights the factors that are needed to execute green HRM practices. Findings suggests that various studies were performed to determine the executing factors like Hameed, Khan [29] and Tariq, Jan [38] identified green employee empowerment, Yong, Yusliza [39] highlighted on green intellectual capital, Paillé, Chen [40] emphasized on OCBE, Obeidat, Al Bakri [41] stressed on top management support, Moraes Silvana de, Chiappetta Jabbour Charbel [42] considered knowledge management. Moreover Teixeira, Jabbour [43] identified that collaboration, coordination and integration of top management commitment, environmental supportive organizational culture and teamwork are the pioneer factors of green HRM. However most the factors were employee centered therefore organizational centered factors should also be considered.

3.4 Effects of green HRM: An overview

The consequences of green human resource management are numerous. Various scholars have identified the effects of this novel paradigm on multiple organizational and employee outcomes and found that green HRM is the foundation of getting competitive advantage and attracting quality employees. For example Khan and Noorizwan Muktar [30] performed empirical study on Malaysian students and found that green HRM is a source of attracting talented candidates, Chaudhary [44] tested a serial mediation model in which green HRM affected students intention to join green firms, Kim, Kim [45] from the employee centered approach studied green HR and found that it positively effects environmental performance and employee green behavior. Saeed, Afsar [46] confirmed that green HRM effects pro environmental behaviors of employees. Shen, Dumont [47] put further light on green HRM scholarship and found that it affects employee intention of not to quit through organizational identification. Moreover various sustainability performance reflections like environmental performance, social performance and economic performance were effected by green HRM paradigm like Hameed, Khan [29] confirmed the enhancing of environmental performance by Green HRM paradigm, similar studies were conducted by [10, 41, 48-51] to increase organizational performance.

3.5 Results

Table 1. Summaries of the studies

As debated earlier, that the paradigm of green HRM has got noteworthy attention among scholars and journals, this segment will put light on some of the important numerical facts relating to green human resource management from 2008 to 2020.

The Figure 2 shows the numerical analysis of green HRM in terms of concentration. 17 percent articles of the total span of the articles represent the execution of green HRM practices as this is in line with the argument posted by Dias-Angelo, Jabbour [35] that green HRM practices need formal merging with traditional HRM practices in order to executed in a correct way. Similarly, 16 percent articles of the total domain of the article represents the factors of green HRM which is lowest among all concentrations. As far as the reflection segment is concerned which highlights 26 percent of the total span of the documents tells that still room for conceptualization of the Green HRM and more dimensions should be addressed. Finally, effects of green HRM which is 41 percent of the total span of the documents shows the attention and importance of Green HRM scholarship in terms of noteworthy gains at organizational level.  

Figure 2. Divisions of green HRM paradigm

4.1 Trajectory of green HRM paradigm

The systematic review belongs to years from 2008 till 2020. The work of Renwick, Redman [23] was the initial year when this novel concept emerged. The trajectory in Figure 3 highlights that very few studies were performed during the initial year from 2008 to 2015. However, the green HRM paradigm gained noteworthy consideration after 2015. A peak can be seen from the graph (black line) in which 2016, 2018, 2019 and now till 2020 that GHRM is still in developing phase. Moreover, this peak also highlights the concerns of environmental issues among scholars and now it is a well-established fact that this topic is famous among academia.

4.2 Documents produced by countries

The current systematic review split country wise contributions in GHRM Paradigm. Figure 4 shows that UK and USA are among the top leading countries in producing Green HRM papers with 16 percent and 14 percent from the overall span of the papers respectively. Followed by Brazil 14 percent, India and Malaysia both 10 percent, Australia 8 percent, China 7 percent while France and Italy both produced 6 percent documents. Out of 100 percent 50 percent documents were produced by developed nations like UK, USA, France, Italy, Australia. On the other hand, developing states like China, India, Brazil and Malaysia produced 41 percent of the total span of the documents. These results are matched with the global trend of studies in the field of management in which the prominent societies are American and Europe followed by emerging Asian societies [91]. Moreover studies in develop nations made a cross cultural comparison for instant, Haddock-Millar, Sanyal [34] merge three countries UK, Germany and Sweden to judge the execution of green HRM practices. As far as the developing nations are concerned majority of the studies were conducted on the effects of green HRM at employee and firm level [30, 41, 45, 50, 75]. In short, this variety of distribution to study Green HRM from different perspectives shows the importance of this concept as well as their concern towards to growing environmental issues.

Figure 3. Number of papers published by Year

Figure 4. Division of countries produced Green HRM papers

4.3 Green HRM paradigm in terms of Underpinning Theories

To develop theoretical relationships among variables, theories are need and the paradigm of Green HRM also revolves around the many theories. Theories that were used in this novel concept are RBV (Resource Based View) theory, SIT (Social Identity theory), stakeholder theory, SET (social exchange theory), paradox theory, intellectual capital-based view theory, signaling theory, AMO (ability, motivation, opportunity) theory, TPB (theory of planned behavior), supplies- values fit theory, attribution theory, spill-over theory. As far as the division of theories is concerned majority of the studies based their theoretical foundations on RBV paradigm. For instance, studies which were executed on the effects of green HRM, the mainstream theory in most of the studies was RBV that was linking variables to get performance outcomes like environmental performance, social performance, financial performance. Moreover, the Green HRM paradigm is also dominated by SIT theory. This theory was mostly used from the perspectives of students who would be willing to join green firms like [30, 44, 78] as well as from the perceptions of employees like Kim, Kim [45] used this theory to check the perceptions of employees for their green behavior, Shen, Dumont [47] tested this theory to check the perceptions of employees for organizational citizenship behavior and intention to quit. Moreover, other theory at firm level [48, 88] used stakeholder theory. Other theories that were used are [44, 85] tested signaling theory, Sawang and Kivits [71] used theory of planned behavior to judge top management attitude towards being environmental responsible, AMO theory by [42, 67], Luu [79] used attribution theory and O'Donohue and Torugsa [86] used absorptive capacity theory.

4.4 Division of methods

This section highlights the major methodologies used in green HRM paradigm, namely quantitative studies, qualitative studies, conceptual studies and mix method studies. Figure 5 shows that the most prominent type of approach used in green HR was quantitative paradigm which represents 52 percent of the total span of the documents. Most of these studies used primary data as their source, followed by conceptual studies which indicates 24 percent of the total span of the documents. The least used methodologies were qualitative and mixed approach representing 17 percent and 7 percent respectively. The possible reason could be due to the fact that qualitative studies and mix method studies need more time, resources and technical skills. 

4.5 Documents produced by journals

The documents on Green HRM paradigm were published by several journals, however Journal of Cleaner Production and International Journal of Human Resource Management takes the lead in producing 8 articles, followed by Business Strategy and Environment 3 while Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resource, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management and German Journal of Human Resource Management produced 2 documents each. On the other hand, journals with less than 2 documents were inserted in others category. Based on documents produced by journals, it shows the versatile domain of Green HRM paradigm. Figure 6 shows the prominent journals.

Figure 5. Methodological division

Figure 6. Prominent journals

This systematic review from 2008 to 2020 provides a comprehensive understanding of Green HRM paradigm. It shows the prominence of Green HRM as a pathway towards sustainable development and to gain competitive edge in the current world scenario. This review adopted an impartial approach for the collection of articles. To ensure quality work, data collected from one the most reliable and prominent database Scopus containing well reputed and impact factor journals. Secondly, we divided the paradigm of green HRM into four main segments as a new way of understanding this concept. Thirdly, the available information on Green HRM from these well reputed journals provided a collaborative approach in understating the definition of this novel concept.

The peak from 2016 till now presents a holistic view of green HRM paradigm this is due to the fact that organizations are now viewing it as a source of competitive edge. Moreover, this also highlights that peak is also due to the “World Economic Forum 2015” conference which emphasized on the concept circular economies and attaining sustainable development goals.

With regard to RQ1, different scholars see the paradigm of green HRM from different lenses and provided various dimensions of this novel concept hence it will help future researchers to fully understand the various reflection of Green HRM. Moreover RQ2, on the execution applications of green HRM, the scholars acknowledged that the rank of green training is superior among all other applications of green HRM. In addition, to compete in the global world economy, the firms need proper execution of green HRM practices to embellish sustainable organizational performance and this is in line with [16, 17]. Besides this, directors, managers, supervisees must work in collaboration to apply cleaner production techniques by reducing waste at its source rather than treating it later and all this can be accomplished by execution of green HRM practices and this argument was also proposed by [18].

The third section which provided insights with regard to the factors of green HRM, the scholars agreed that teamwork, organizational culture, giving employees voices to speak about environmental issues allows firm to become sustainable. A well competent leadership and management commitment for the environmental among executives can perform human resource engineering by motivating them to engage in green tasks and solving environmental issues arise in the organizations.

The forth section which elaborated the effects of Green HRM, showed the potential benefits in terms of performance outcomes for organizations. In addition, firms can work in coordination with government agencies to reduce the harmful effects caused by the organizational operations on the nearby society. For instance, developing eco- industrial parks to reduce air pollution, reducing waste through sustainable processes during production, onsite recycling like residual of one industry can be used as raw material for the other industry etc.

In addition, the numerical analysis of green HRM paradigm, provided interesting trends, like developed counties, the developing countries are also now showing its concerns towards sustainable issues this is because emerging countries focus more on manufacturing processes and human interaction with the environment can possibly harm ecological systems. This argument was also supported by [17].

This study also contributed towards the underpinning theories on green HRM literature. This paper discussed almost all the theories and this will help future researchers to frame their theocratical models. Another contribution of this study was to identify the productive journals in green HRM paradigm, this will help future researchers to easily locate journals as potential places of publishing their work. Moreover, least used method was the mixed approach as only 7 percent articles followed this approach.

Through this systematic review, future gaps in green HRM paradigm are also enlightened. Firstly, the study will provide the future research opportunities based on the above analysis and secondly this study will explain thoroughly some more future endeavors in green HRM paradigm.

Based on the numerical analysis which shows that only 16 percent studies were conducted on the factors of green HRM paradigm, future studies should look for more factors to address green HRM. For instance, what is the role of green transformation leadership in gaining environmental excellence, moreover majority of the studies used top management and green employee empowerment as the antecedents of green HRM paradigm but none of the studies measured the intervening effect of these variables in gaining environmental excellence therefore future studies might look for these interventions.

In addition, most of the studies were conducted on the effects of green HR paradigm and no doubt gaining competitive edge is very important but none of the studies provided the working process of green HRM paradigm in gaining competitive advantage. Although scholars acknowledged working process of green training but future studies should look for green communication channels as a mediating mechanism for green HRM and competitive advantage because communication is power of this century. Flow of green communication from upper level management to the bottom level will help in maintaining a green organizational culture in the organizations.

As far as the underpinning theories in green HRM paradigm is concerned, RBV theory was mostly used at firm level and social identity at employee level, however theory of planned behavior was the least used and future studies should use this theory at employee level. Moreover, future studies can also integrate theories like AMO, SET, SIT in one setting i.e. one model for quantitative studies. The will give future researchers to predict how green HRM paradigm impacts behaviors at employee level and performance at firm level.

Future work in the field of green HRM, should look for cross cultural comparison, like developing country comparison with the developing country instead of developed country. This will help in gaining more insights about original implementation of the green HRM paradigm in developing countries and help scholars to identify cross cultural contradictions.

Moreover, the authors noted the methodological gap. There is an immense need to apply mix methodology in green HRM literature like explanatory sequential research design, exploratory sequential research design [92]. Although time, resources and skills are required in mixed paradigm but it will provide more details towards this novel concept as still it’s in developing phase.

From the above analysis on green HRM, we developed the framework that reveals how green HRM lead towards sustainable development. Specifically, this framework draws attention towards those variables which can contribute to achieve sustainable development at organizational and employee level. This framework serves as a guide to modern researchers to execute empirical studies to test antecedents, mediators and moderators by utilizing different theories to understand green HRM more deeply to meet sustainable development goals. Based on the [93], the sustainable development revolves around three main spectrums, the social, environmental and economic concerns, strives for the development that meets the of the people and for future generations and the need for all sections of life to get involved in achieving sustainability, therefore it is not limited to the environmentalists in any organization but it needs feedback from the HR executives as well. As discussed by [5, 30, 33] that HRM has a great potential if merged with sustainability.

Organizations can have win-win situation if the leaderships attitude towards sustainable issues is positive. They can make environmental strategies, technological advancements in the organizations, promotion green culture among employees to shape them towards sustainability issues. Moreover, the green HRM has the potential to merge sustainable development goals with the hiring process, selecting talent magnets who show motivation towards sustainability, green training of people in relation to sustainable development, communication new employees’ information about sustainable development issues, amalgamating environmental and social concerns in performance appraisals, giving green incentives to employees based on green performance appraisals, giving power to employee to perform green tasks and allowing them in decision making regarding environmental issues. Therefore, by incorporating green HRM and sustainable development together organizations can have improved environmental performance like reduction in wastes produced during production processes, better environmental image, improved social performance of employees like job satisfaction, less turnover and improved economic performance like growth in profits. In short, the integrative approach of all levels of green HRM can lead to sustainable development.

Proposition A: The Integration of factors, reflections, applications and effects of green human resource management supports sustainable development.

Proposition B: The persons who are in the decision making for employees’ recruitment, selection, training and development should play a role for sustainable development.

Proposition C: The sustainability performance of organization is contingent upon employee’s commitment towards sustainable development.

Proposition D: Potential mediating mechanisms like top management commitment, green employee empowerment, green employee involvement can support organizations to meet sustainable performance like environmental performance, social performance and economic performance.

Proposition E: Change management and training capacity of the firms have to be a moderator in order to improve sustainable performance of the organization.

Proposition F: Organizations with high sustainable performance can have high organizational reputation for sustainability development.

Proposition G: Organizations with high sustainable performance can further attract potential talent which further helps to support sustainable development.

Proposition H: Sustainable Corporations incorporating green human resource management practices begin to draw attention of various investors that can provide support for sustainable development.

The Figure 7 shows the path to attain sustainable performance.

Figure 7. Path way towards sustainable performance

Figure 8. Green HRM theoretical framework for sustainable development

Figure 9. Integrating green HRM with sustainable development

Our review has provided a practical approach of merging sustainable development with green HRM scholarship. Firstly, the theoretical framework according to Figure 8 in order to have win- win situation, firms should strive for initiating environmental management programs and give voice to employees to check their perceptions regarding green HRM scholarship in order to meet sustainable development goals. Inter organizational surveys can better help in getting the feedback of the employees. Moreover, green communication channels and green banners in the organizations will also provide employee insights regarding green HRM. Secondly, organizations can use objective measures to encourage employees like green employee empowerment, top management support. Thirdly, the Figure 9 shows that, to completely embrace green HRM, merge all the sections of green HRM, this will help policy makers to identify potential factors, potential practices (Green HRM), potential intervening mechanisms(mediators), potential interaction mechanisms (moderators) to gain potential sustainability performance outcomes both at firm and employee levels to meet sustainable development goals.

This review has given scholarly investigation on green HRM scholarship by advancing previous works of [16-18]. The first question regarding reflections/dimensions provided an overview and draws attentions towards developing more instruments that are reliable and valid cross culture to investigate what other dimensions can be a part of green HRM, second question was to investigate reliable applications of green HRM, due to developing nature of this field, new applications should be addressed with the help of theories, thirdly factors of green HRM, we proposed various factors in our framework that help in executing green HRM,  Fourthly we provided an integrative approach of all level of green HRM to ensure sustainable development  Lastly, we provided potential mediators and moderators to further investigate their effects on organizations and employees in order to get more insights on the effects of green HRM. Finally, no doubt there is still room in this novel paradigm to ensure sustainable development and it cannot be overlooked. Although we tried to give a holistic view on green HRM scholarship, yet this systematic review is lying on the studies conducted in Scopus database from year 2008 to 2020, therefore, studies conducted outside could be a limitation. Secondly, we looked for those journals that are high in quality but we know that other relevant works that were published in other journals therefore this study is not all inclusive. Moreover, this study also did not include the scales and the measurement items and single practices of green HRM, this was the reason of reducing more studies from the overall studies.

The authors wish to thank Azman Hashim International Business School Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for their Support and Cooperation.

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Impacts Of Green HR Practices On Employees And Sustainable Business

"We have to bring this world back to sanity and put the greater good ahead of self-interest." - Paul Polman, Unilever

The concept of green HR practices is gaining traction in the corporate world, as leaders discover ways to foster sustainability within their organization. Adopting environment friendly HR practices as an organizational strategy can help increase competitive advantages in the present business scenario.

Also, the urgent need for a proactive solution to environmental management has become a global issue. Whether it is climate change or rising poverty and unemployment, the dispute over the effectiveness of critical human resource management principles drives us to probe the unification of the sustainable, environment, and HR practices.

It is an undeniable fact that companies can play a significant role in the fight to preventing global warming. With the support of senior management and employees, HRM can fulfill the organization's commitment to green practices.

Its function can become the driver of sustainability goals that ultimately contribute to organizational goals. It involves practicing eco-friendly HR initiatives that help achieve higher work efficiencies at lower costs and better employee engagement .

What is Green HR?

Green HR is a field of HR, extends its role in promoting and achieving sustainable goals within an organization. It uses the HRM policies to build a comprehensive system of preserving natural resources by creating employee awareness.

Green HRM practices play a vital role in a forward-thinking business that develops alternative ways to save cost without compromising on their talent & essential resources. It ranges from the promotion of saving energy to the usage of ethical practices. Its initiatives align various HR processes like staffing, performance management, training, and development with sustainable business.

The role of HR in sustainable business

The involvement of HRM in an organization's vision, effective governance, and future development is crucial. When it comes to managing sustainability with human resources, HR plays an essential role in an organization. Sometimes they have to consider ethical issues beyond economic performances when operating a new path of sustainable business.

HR can act as the moral compass of an organization. They can put forth various policies and practices that are viable for humans and nature. Achieving such a reformation can be daunting at times. But HRM can facilitate the conversation between top management and employees for a mutual collaboration of sustainable working practices.

The critical role of HR is to develop a sustainability map associating Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) , HR functions, and ethics. Organizing regular meetings with transparent communication styles , encouraging employees in brainstorming ideas, or using motivational theories are few ways to support and embed sustainability within organizations. These people-oriented skills help in developing the business not economically but socially along with the environment.

Ways to do green HR

Power save by tweaking the room temperature.

Use the latest power-saving appliances or alternative energy source

Save paper by using devices to note down.

Apply 3R’s rule(recycle, reuse, reduce)

Check every leaking water sources to save water.

Promote teleconferencing.

Mandate employees to meet a specific green score.

Impact of green HR practices in your organization

1. higher productivity rate.

At present-day, companies are trying to include greener approaches inside their organization. There are several pieces of research available that prove when employees indulged in green practices, be it food habits to volunteering, they are more focused than usual day.

It helps in gaining a positive impact and social outlook on employee relations in the organization. An employee feels responsible for preserving the environment apart from their functional contribution to the job. It contributes to developing holistic employee wellbeing .

2. Helps in saving your organization’s cost

Every organization has enormous growth potential when aligned with green initiatives. It involves eco-friendly initiatives that have the possibility of lowering carbon footprints in the environment. Employees who support and practice these initiatives are less likely to fall ill.

They will be more active at work, which reduces the rate of presenteeism or absenteeism . It helps save the organization's medical budget. Green HRm also helps in cutting down the cost without compromising their niche.

3. Elevated Brand Recognition

The Green HR practices help employers, manufacturers build brand image and create influence in the society. It also makes employees and society members aware of natural resources' usage, encouraging more economical and eco-friendly products. Conducting an environmental audit, upgrading the work culture , doing waste management, and serving society and its people that are getting affected by pollution are few ways that can help in creating brand recognition .

Whenever an organization implements a green initiative to its workplace, it can publicize the event to gain positive public relations. Promoting environmental contributions over social media can gain the attention of targeted customers and generate leads.

4. Increased Employee Retention

Following green HR practices can help in improving the employee retention rate . Some employees may take pride when their organization show concerns for the environment and society. It sends a positive image that the company cares about its employees, and help them connect better with organizational values apart from their benefits.

A 1997 Dolan's study observed that most of the graduates agree to work a minimum salary when organizations are involved in environmental causes. As the Generation Z prepares for a job, they will approach awareness of sustainability in the new workplace. Accordingly, companies are trying best to apply sustainable practices for attracting quality candidates.

5. Improved Employee Morale

Apart from promoting physical fitness, nutrition, and a healthy lifestyle among employees and society, wellness programs can include environment and sustainability factors to create awareness. Green HRM uses the policies to boost the judicious use of resources that promotes the cause of environmentalism, which further boosts employee morale and satisfaction.

Green HR practices can achieve higher efficiency through electronic filing, car sharing, job sharing, teleconferencing, and virtual interviews, recycling, , online recruitment and training, energy-efficient office spaces. Conducting regular meetings to discuss the development of strategic green HR capability creates awareness among employees. It must be well-aligned with the organization's overall strategy, which for higher employee commitment and organizational performance.

Now I would like to know from you

What are the green initiatives have you followed for your organization?

Let me know in the comment section below.

This article is written by Rangana Atreya , a Content Marketer at Vantage Circle . Having a creative mind with a spiritful life, she takes inspiration from travelling and learning languages. For any related queries, contact [email protected]

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Impact of green hrm practices on environmental performance: the mediating role of green innovation.

• 1 Department of Leisure Industry Management, Commercial College, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan
• 2 Department of Management Sciences, The University of Haripur, Haripur, Pakistan
• 3 FAST School of Management, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Islamabad, Pakistan
• 4 Department of Management, School of Business, Sulaiman AlRajhi University, AlQassim, Saudi Arabia
• 5 Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Communication and Business, Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia
• 6 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prince of Songkla University, Muang Pattani, Thailand

Numerous organizations have faced substantial environmental performance challenges resulting from more than a half-century of worldwide industrialization. Grounded in social learning theory and recourse-based view theory, this study explores environmental performance and its impact on employees and industry outcomes. Drawing on a cross-sectional online survey of 500 full-time employees working in the chemical industry in Lahore, Pakistan. The results revealed a significant positive influence of Green HRM practices on employees’ Green innovation as well as on environmental performance. Additionally, significant influences of study variables were recorded on outcomes such as green compensation and reward, green performance management and appraisal, green training and development, and green recruitment and selection. Several key policy insights related to consumer resistance to innovation in low income societies and future research directions are suggested, along with theoretical and practical implications.

Introduction

Several areas of organizational management have faced substantial environmental performance challenges as an outcome of more than a half-century of worldwide industrialization. In addition, chemicals-related precautionary steps and actions help in the reduction of issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, the release of numerous toxins that pollute the atmosphere and oceans, as well as the release of audio and visual contamination, and maybe even wildlife annihilation ( Billig et al., 2022 ; Darvishmotevali and Altinay, 2022 ). The worldwide ecosystem and economic and social well-being are threatened by these manufacturing applications and their negative impacts on the environment. This critical scenario needs increased public awareness of environmental or green concerns such as reducing emissions, composting, and renewable technologies such as sunlight, winds, and hydroelectricity. In the recent days, the dangers of environmental challenges have prompted various sectors to concentrate on environmental initiatives, initiate coaching, and retrain their staff in green performance ( Johar et al., 2020 ; Ecer et al., 2021 ).

Among the most crucial parts of sustainable capabilities is green HRM. Green HRM takes an environmental approach and aims to create a green work environment that encourages workers to perform their jobs in the most environmentally responsible manner. According to current green HRM guidelines and procedures, such as top management involves inspiring employee responsibility toward the environment and team spirit in this region and hiring, satisfying, inspiring self-improvement, and mentoring individuals in accordance with the institution aims ( Pimonratanakan and Pooripakdee, 2017 ; Pham et al., 2019 ).

Among green HRM practices, green compensation and reward are important practices in which any organization gives rewards and compensation to their employees ( Maderazo, 2016 ; Mandago, 2018 ). Green compensation and reward have been defined as “a firm should praise and appreciate the efforts of employees in gaining sustainable advantage and give them incentives and rewards, in this way organization will achieve sustainable advantage and employees will also be motivated” ( Ahmad, 2015 ). Another important factor included in Green HRM practices are Green performance and appraisal. It is defined, as “as the extent to which certain employees engage in behavior (actions and activities) and produce results with respect to greening over a certain period” ( Bilal and Zia-ur-Rehman, 2017 ; Ardiza et al., 2021 ). According to the company, individual production measurement is evaluated on how they are progressing into a greener environment ( Mishra, 2017 ; Ahmad, 2021 ; Darvishmotevali and Altinay, 2022 ).

Firms should leverage their internal green social capital to strengthen the benefits that come from their green process innovations. Given that green social capital is a critical factor for speeding up knowledge flow among employees within organizations, firms should take advantage of green social capital by enhancing their ability to communicate and share knowledge among employees to raise awareness of green process innovations. Furthermore, firm managers should employ appropriate human resource management strategies to foster these connections and exchanges, as well as increase trust and social cohesion among employees. Accordingly, if members feel more connected and supported, and they are willing to share information, this can reduce some of the isolation and fragmentation issues that can occur in the pursuit of green process innovation ( Xie et al., 2022 ).

Furthermore, green HRM practices also have important factors such as green training and development. Obaid and Alias (2015) have defined development as the “Development of attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and skills in the employees that stop the corrosion of environment-related attitudes, skills and knowledge come under the umbrella of training and development.” While, on the contrary, training is defined as “the process of preparing multi-talented individuals for the improvement of instruction necessary for innovations” ( Rani and Mishra, 2014 ; Gill et al., 2021 ). Similarly, green recruitment and selection have an important part of green HRM practices. Recruitment is defined as “the process of searching prospective employees to apply for the job posting in the organizations and selection is the process of choosing appropriate applicants among the job applicants” ( Mwita and Kinemo, 2018 ). Effective recruitment and selection methods are crucial parts of any organization’s HRM entry point. Thus current research is incremental to integrate green HRM practices with green innovation and environmental performance in organizational context. Such research attempts in past literature special in green HRM literature are scarce. Hence, this study mainly contributes toward green HRM literature.

This study has advanced by bridging the research gap between key variables and linking the above HRM practices with green innovation and environmental performance. In past research, the environmental performance has been defined as “combining with the organization’s external and internal management to achieve overall economic performance like increasing market share and brand image and improving the performance of their strategic partners by making eco-friendly environment and reducing risks associated with the environment” ( Van Hock and Erasmus, 2000 ). In addition to that green innovation using as a mediating variable, which was defined as “the performance of hardware and software involved in the innovation that a company carries out in relations to green products or processes, including the innovation in technologies that are involved in energy saving, pollution prevention, waste recycling, green product designs, or corporate environmental management” ( Chen et al., 2006 ).

Finally, the present study is incremental due to conceptual grounding in social learning theory and recourse-based view theory. Social learning theory (SLT) has been defined as “how both environmental and cognitive factors interact to influence human learning and behavior” ( Li et al., 2019 ). Recourse-based view theory explains resources as “valuable when they enable a firm to conceive and implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness” ( Pohjola, 2002 ). The integration of both theories explains how HRM practices can help utilize existing unique resources by learning environmental practices to bring sustainable competitive advantage to the organization.

The study utilizes a developing country context of the Pakistani chemical industry located in the industrial hub city of Lahore. A recent survey about the environmental quality index about Lahore city has raised a question mark about the alarming situation in the second most populous city in the country ( Islam et al., 2021a ). Thus, the study becomes most relevant to the contextual case of how green HRM practices can lead an organization towards green innovation, and through green innovation, these HRM practices are linked with environmental performance. The contextual case of a populous city resembles with settings of most of the populous cities across the globe in general and the developing world in specific. Thus current study’s choice of setting will bring several generalizable key policy insights for administrators and urban planners to enhance environmental performance. Finally, the current study aims to shed light to explore the green compensation and reward, green performance and appraisal, green training and development, and green recruitment and selection impact on environmental performance. Additionally, green innovation impact and mediation of green innovation has been explored between green HR practices and environmental performance.

Literature Review

This research focused on green HRM practices, such as green compensation and reward, green performance and appraisal, green training and development, and green recruitment and selection, and its impact on environmental performance through a mediated link of green innovation. The present study has established its own social learning theory and recourse-based view theory.

The resource-based view firm hypothesis was developed in the early 1980s and became more widely known in the 1990s. This theory plays an important role in green HRM practices that are “valuable,” “rare,” “imperfectly imitable,” and “non-substitutable.” In addition, social learning theory can have cognitive interaction with human behavior and learn through environmental awareness campaigns by the human resource department and top management of the organization. Both theories also involved the rare, valuable, and unique resources coupled with rewards and compensation through learning, awareness, and motivation. Combining two diverse theories helps to understand how awareness campaigns coupled with rewards and motivational factors focused on human resources may bring sustainable competitive advantage for the firms engaged in green HRM practices.

Green Compensation and Reward and Environmental Performance

Green compensation and rewards is a monetary and nonmonetary incentive program intended to capture, preserve, and encourage people to support green environmental priorities ( Mandago, 2018 ). The following are the dimensions of green compensation and rewards: (1) rewards for skill; (2) cognitive and interpersonal; (3) sustainable technology appreciative inquiry; and (4) rewards for green, and sustainable behavior acceptability ( Ahmad, 2015 ). The previous literature also reported that employee loyalty to environmental sustainability programs was boosted when they were granted cash to bring on activities related to environmental responsibilities. Green rewards and compensation were proven successful by Berrone and Gomez-Mejia (2009) , who researched 469 US businesses that operate in high levels of contaminants industries, which was a similar setting to the current study. Employee satisfaction with green rewards and support in establishing environmental performance is stressed in green ability to do the job ( Jabbar and Abid, 2015 ; Silahtaroglu and Vardarler, 2016 ; Silva and Madushani, 2017 ).

On the contrary, green rewards contribute to the best quality of work-life, which considerably improves environmental performance ( Jabbar and Abid, 2015 ). Similar findings have been reported in work performance with the environment is influenced by green rewards and compensation ( Renwick et al., 2013 ). The use of incentives and acknowledgment based on environmental performance positively impacts staff willing to try out green projects ( Rawashdeh, 2018 ). These conditions suggest that green and environmentally focused compensation and rewards are expected to be directly linked with the organization’s environmental performance. Hence, the following hypothesis is suggested:

H1 : Green compensation and reward are positively associated with environmental performance.

Green Performance Appraisal and Environmental Performance

The use of organization-wide measures for measuring resource consumption and waste is essential for long-term environmental performance. A conceptual model for sustainable development, which tracks and audits the production and use of assets, is also required for high achievement ( Ojo et al., 2020 ; Prakash and Das, 2022 ). Another important factor included in green HRM practices is green performance and appraisal. According to the company, individual production measurement is evaluated on how they are progressing into a greener environment ( Mishra, 2017 ; Darvishmotevali and Altinay, 2022 ).

Measurement techniques in performance management are an important green human resource management strategy since they allow people to obtain immediate feedback on their environmental practices ( Chen et al., 2015 ). As a result, staff can evaluate their effectiveness in relation to the expected environmental performance. According to Govindarajulu and Daily (2004) , giving workers timely information on their environmental performances might grab their attention and encourage them to engage in the desired outcome. According to the research, people are more inclined to alter their habits in response to the critical success factors evaluated through green performance management ( Darvishmotevali and Altinay, 2022 ).

Although extending the previous literature and establishing the social learning theory and recourse-based view theory, a direct association is expected between green performance appraisal and environmental performance; as a result, the current research suggests the following hypothesis:

H2 : Green performance appraisal is positively associated with environmental performance.

Green Training and Development and Environmental Performance

Employees’ training is critical in mobilizing them with the skills and expertise needed to make informed decisions about green HRM practices ( Ojo et al., 2020 ). As a result, they will be motivated to implement green; furthermore, green HRM practices also have another important factor: Green training and development. Training is defined as “the process of preparing multi-talented individuals to improve instruction necessary for innovations” ( Rani and Mishra, 2014 ; Gill et al., 2021 ). In green HRM practices, training includes providing staff with core competencies such as teaching them how to gather trash information and increasing the company’s standard of efficiency and environmental competency ( Jabbar and Abid, 2015 ; Ojo et al., 2020 ). Workers’ desire to contribute to environmentally friendly efforts requires environmental training ( Mishra, 2017 ; Mandago, 2018 ). Training may help individuals educate about occupational difficulties and transitions, enhance and improve their abilities, and drive them to fulfill the task ( Rani and Mishra, 2014 ). Extending the previous literature, current research expects a direct link between green training and development and environmental performance. Hence, the following hypothesis is suggested:

H3 : Green training and development is positively associated with environmental performance.

Green Recruitment and Selection and Environmental Performance

Employment registrations can be handled via the website as part of the green recruitment and selection process, which includes employing environmentally conscious individuals without papers. Interviews can be done over the phone or via the internet ( Renwick et al., 2008 ). Green recruiting initiation supports job performance in long-term performance assessment and educating employees about green corporation efforts such as lowering waste and environmental damage. This, in turn, helps to improve environmental performance ( Nayak and Mohanty, 2017 ).

Green recruitment and selection have an essential part of green HRM practices. Effective recruitment and selection methods are crucial parts of any organization’s HRM entry point. The real importance is enhanced by hiring and selection procedures. By recruiting and keeping resembling employees, green recruitment highlights an organization’s willingness to cooperate to benefit the environmental performance ( Masri and Jaaron, 2017 ). Green recruitment, apart from its influence on the attraction of internal recruitment to companies, displays the organization’s environmental performance. Hence, the current study suggested the following hypothesis:

H4 : Green recruitment and selection is positively associated with environmental performance.

Green Innovation and Environmental Performance

According to past research, the effectiveness of sustainable products, green management, and quality advancement and the inclusion of ecological and financial green practices into company efficiency and overall improvement all have an impact on environmental performance ( Darnall et al., 2008 ; Chen et al., 2015 ; Dubey et al., 2015 ; Ardiza et al., 2021 ). Another important past research reported that green innovation is connected to a corporate methodology is based, and that green innovation boosts environmental performance ( Chen et al., 2006 ; Kammerer, 2009 ). Moreover, green production process improvement reduces a company’s unfavorable environmental effect and improves its economic and personal performance by reducing material wastage ( Weng et al., 2015 ). According to past research, green innovation should not be viewed as a company’s reaction to customer concerns but rather as going through a process aim and practice to improve environmental performance. It was estimated that green processes and new green product developments are essential organizational assets that the business will deploy to enhance its environmental performance and obtain trust with relevant parties via the RBV ( Dubey et al., 2015 ). The mentioned new green product developments are associated with emerging green innovation in the organizational context and are expected to be directly linked with the organization’s environmental performance. Thus, the following hypothesis is suggested:

H5 : Green innovation is positively associated with environmental performance.

Mediating Role of Green Innovation

Environmental damage has been a constant source of influence on industry to limit the environmental impact of its operational and production activities. Competitiveness in today’s turbulent marketplace significantly affects any company’s success and sustainability, and expectations for outstanding profitability and customers’ perceptions play an important role in the overall image. As a result, organizational resources, production strategies, and efficiency are critical in dealing with environmental issues, forcing the organizations to prioritize green innovation. Furthermore, business assets alone are insufficient for green innovation, new tactics, techniques, and competencies ( Pacheco et al., 2018 ). Green innovation, without a doubt, has a significant effect on long-term environmental performance ( Zhu et al., 2017 ).

In previous studies, researchers used green innovation as a mediating variable with financial resources and financial performance ( Mwita and Kinemo, 2018 ), talent capability and competitive advantage business analytics, and capability management ( Waqas et al., 2021 ). Some of the past research also investigated green innovation with green opportunities, environmental performance ( Berrone and Gomez-Mejia, 2009 ), green ability, green motivation ( Darnall et al., 2008 ), environmental strategy, and CSR ( Kraus et al., 2020 ; Ahmad et al., 2021 ). Thus, leading the way forward to theoretically propose based on RBV theory and social learning theory and further investigate this mediated phenomenon empirically between HRM practices and environmental performance. Hence, the following hypothesis is suggested:

H6 : Green innovation mediates the relationship between green HRM practices (i.e., compensation and reward, green performance and appraisal, green training and development, and green recruitment and selection) and environmental performance.

Research Methodology

Participants and procedure.

Based on a thorough literature analysis and theoretical groundings such as social learning theory and recourse-based perspective theory, a coherent conceptual framework has been developed, as shown in Figure 1 , and hypotheses were proposed in this research. The survey’s target population was permanent employees of the Ittehad Chemicals industry in Lahore; this study was chosen because of its success and reputation in Pakistan related to green environment initiatives and green human resource practices. Its nature of dealing with hazardous material and environmental consciousness in this industry related to green initiatives are main factors for choosing Ittehad Chemicals as study setting. A letter outlining the research goals was written to their management to get their official consent and approval to participate in the study. Their employees’ email addresses were gathered from targeted chemical industry management officials who agreed to participate in the survey after receiving an initial approval letter from the researchers’ institution. The confidentiality of organizations’ and employees’ identities were protected and ensured that at no point throughout the study project and even after the project any personal information would not be shared with a third party for any purpose.

Figure 1 . Theoretical framework.

To determine the appropriate sample size for the study a similar recent study was taken as a reference in similar context to justify the appropriateness of sample ( Islam et al., 2022 ). A total of 700 participants were contacted, with 540 agreeing to participate in a voluntary online survey. Authors sent online questionnaires via email and social media links; due to strict COVID-19 protocols, no physical contact was allowed. The official language of the survey was English, as it was ensured that only employees who are educated and have good expertise in the English language should take part in this survey. The survey began on November 10, 2021, and the authors received 540 completed questionnaires by January 20, 2022. Multiple follow-ups and reminders were also given during this time for better response. Due to unengaged and partially filled responses, 40 responses were eliminated after the initial evaluation based on partially filled or unengaged response observed by study authors. So the total response count was 500, with 71% of active respondents.

The strategy to perform analysis was initially demographic factors and then PLS software was used to test the hypothesized associations.

Measures of the Study

1. A 23-item questionnaire was created to investigate the impact of environmental performance on green innovation and green HRM practices.

2. A 3-item scale was adopted to determine the green compensation and reward ( Haldorai et al., 2022 ). Sample items include “Employees are rewarded for making suggestions for improvement on environmental programs” and “Employees who have achieved or surpassed their environmental goals are rewarded with bonus pay or other monetary awards.”

3. A 3-item scale was adopted to determine the green performance and appraisal ( Haldorai et al., 2022 ). Sample items include “Environmental goals and objectives are implemented in this organization for all employees” and “Contributions to environmental management are assessed.”

4. A 5-item scale was adopted to determine green training and development ( Haldorai et al., 2022 ). Sample items include “This organization offers ecological training for all employees” and “In this organization, environmental training is a priority.”

5. A 4-item scale was adopted to determine green recruitment and selection ( Haldorai et al., 2022 ). Sample items include “This organization is very particular about mainly recruiting and selecting employees with environmental concerns, knowledge, and attitude” and “In the recruitment process, our organization focuses on applicants with environmental insights, attitude, and concerns.”

6. A 3-item scale was adopted to determine green innovation ( Tseng et al., 2013 ). Sample items include “Investment in green equipment and technology” and “Implementation of the comprehensive material saving plan.”

7. A 5-item scale was adopted to determine the environmental performance ( Sobaih et al., 2020 ). Sample items include “Environmental activities significantly improved my organization’s reputation” and “Environmental activities significantly reduced waste within the entire value chain process.” In all the above scales, the responses were tapped on “a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree.”

Data Analysis and Results

Measurement model.

SmartPLS3 was applied to assess the measurement and structural model. The simulation analysis in the study revealed that respondents’ gender, designation, and marital status positively impacted their perceptions about green innovation and environmental performance; therefore, all these three demographic characteristics were controlled during the study. The demographic detail of this study respondents is presented in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Demographic profile.

Furthermore, using the measurement model, “Cronbach’s (CA)” and “composite reliability (CR)” were computed to evaluate the measurements’ consistency ( Henseler et al., 2015 ). CA and CR for all research constructs were greater than 0.7, indicating that they meet the required reliability criterion ( Sarstedt et al., 2017 ). Then, to determine the constructs’ convergent validity, factor loadings and average variance extracted (AVE) were determined ( Sarstedt et al., 2017 ). All factor loading of the study constructs was over the minimal criterion of 0.70 in both investigations, and AVE was above 0.50 ( Henseler et al., 2015 ). A full description of the article’s validity and reliability measurements are given in Table 2 .

Table 2 . Composite reliability, Cronbach’s alpha, and AVE values.

Moreover, to establish the discriminant validity of all the study constructs, Fornell and Larcker (1981) defined discriminant validity as “the extent to which a particular latent variable differs from other latent variables.” By analyzing the correlation between the latent construct and the square root of AVE, discriminant validity was determined ( Sarstedt et al., 2017 ). According to Sarstedt et al. (2017) , the use of latent variables retrieved with a value of 0.50 or more is recommended for determining discriminant validity. According to Sarstedt et al. (2017) , discriminant validity is indicated when the square root of AVE is greater than the value of latent variables. The PLS algorithm is presented in Figure 2 . Similarly, the values of discriminant validity are presented in Table 3 .

Figure 2 . PLS algorithm.

Table 3 . Discriminant validity.

Assessment of Structural Model

Hypothesis testing.

Regarding the consideration of measurement model clear links, this part focuses on the structural model, as described by Sarstedt et al. (2017) . A structural model is used in the hypothesized model to highlight the relationship’s reliance on one another. The structural model in PLS gives an inner modeling study of the direct relationship between the proposed hypotheses and their t -values and regression coefficient. In regression analysis, an indirect effect is the same as a standardized beta value; according to ( Henseler et al., 2015 ), t -values and beta values of the regression coefficient are used to determine significance. T -values larger than 1.64 are deemed statistically significant, according to Hair et al. (2017) , which are then utilized to make choices on the purposed hypothesis. There are two main purposes of studying the model: examining direct relationships and testing predicted relationships between components using a structural model. Six hypotheses are examined in this study. According to Ramayah et al. (2018) , SmartPLS 3.0 output findings include path coefficients, t -values, p -values, and standard errors. The researcher used them to determine whether the hypothesis was supported or not, and the results are presented in Table 4 .

Table 4 . Hypothesis testing.

Assessment of R2

The second stage in analyzing a structural model is determining the coefficient of determination ( Hair et al., 2011 ). The variance in endogenous constructs caused by external constructs is represented by the coefficient of determination ( Hair et al., 2011 ). Rigdon (2012) stated that the coefficient of determination is also recognized as a sample’s predictive power. If the coefficient of determination is greater, the predictive power of the sample is also greater. The value of R 2 ranges from zero to one. Moreover, Chin (1998) recommended that the R 2 of 0.13 is considered weak, 0.33 is considered moderate, and 0.67 is considered strong. The coefficient of determination for endogenous constructs is given in Table 5 . The PLS bootstrapping is presented in Figure 3 .

Table 5 . Assessment of R square.

Figure 3 . PLS bootstrapping.

Discussion, Implications, Limitations, and Future Research Directions

Findings of the study.

The results of the current study reveal that positive associations of green compensation and reward, green recruitment and selection, green performance and appraisal, and green training and development influence environmental performance through green innovation impact on environmental performance. Results showed the significant effect of green performance and appraisal on environmental performance. These results are in line with the findings of Govindarajulu and Daily (2004) who provided timely information about socially desirable behaviors that helps improve employee environmental performance. Green training and development have a significant impact on environmental performance. In green HRM practices, training includes providing staff with core competencies such as teaching them how to gather trash information and increasing the company’s standard of efficiency and environmental competency ( Jabbar and Abid, 2015 ; Ojo et al., 2020 ). Another result showed that green compensation and reward significantly impact environmental performance. Employee satisfaction with green rewards and compensation in establishing environmental performance is stressed in green ability to do the job ( Jabbar and Abid, 2015 ). Green recruitment and selection significantly impacted environmental performance in this study results. By recruiting and keeping resembling employees, green recruitment highlights an organization’s willingness to cooperate for the benefit of the environmental performance ( Masri and Jaaron, 2017 ). The results further show positive associations between green compensation and reward, green recruitment and selection, green performance and appraisal, and green training and development, which influence environmental performance, with green innovation influencing environmental performance.

Furthermore, the findings of mediation results revealed strong support for the purposed hypotheses that green innovation mediated between green HRM practices and environmental performance. These findings were consistent with similar mediated research explorations in recent literature and also in similar context ( Islam et al., 2021a , 2022 ).

Theoretical Implications

There are several theoretical implications of the current study. First, as established in the theories such as social learning theory and recourse-based view theory, the current study suggests that positive associations of green compensation and reward, green recruitment and selection, green performance and appraisal, and green training and development influence environmental performance through the mediated link of green innovation. Second, much of the academic research on the RBV has been conducted in industrialized countries, but little is recognized about the RBV beyond this environment ( Vargas-Halabí et al., 2017 ). This research is incremental due to its choice of study context and RBV approach to environmental performance and green innovation. Another major theoretical contribution of this study is combining HRM practices with green innovation and environmental performance. Such studies are rare in the literature related to innovation and HRM practices. Thus current research opened several new avenues of theoretical integration for future scholars in innovation management, HRM, and environmental science. Integration of theories from all three domains together to come up with solid theoretical foundations is the major advance of this research that will help bridge the theory gap among these three domains of research. The use of social learning theory and its integration with RBV as well as green HRM concepts along with green innovation and environmental performance is a major contribution and theoretical advance pitched by current research.

Practical Implications

The current study also brings valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners in multiple ways. First, the current study shows that green innovation is the most important factor used in this study to elaborate the concept of environmental performance with green HRM practices. It brings key insights to HR managers and top management of environmentally conscious sectors and consumer markets. These days, organizations continuously seek ways to influence environmentally conscious consumers through their environmentally friendly campaigns. In such a competitive environment, practitioners may learn from the approach discussed in this research. Second, environmental performance becomes a priority for top management and authorities, so developing industries’ environmental performance methodological approach to minimize waste, contamination, pollutants, preserve freshwater, electricity, and non-sustainable minerals contributes to improved environmental performance. Finally, they improve environmental performance by reducing chemicals wastage, avoiding polluted water draining into oceans and rivers, and controlling polluted air of industry. Industry human resource managers may set goals and exemplary measures to accomplish green goals to empower their workers. Green campaigns with motivation could be a wonderful way to encourage people to go green. Green HRM might be a more visible aspect of a company’s responsibilities and CSR measures. The current study’s findings showed that green innovation and environmental performance are the most important factors for the success of any organization working in a green consumer environment. In developing countries like Pakistan, customer resistance in the form of usage barriers can be lowered by use of one of three strategies developing a systems perspective, integrating the innovation with preceding activity, and mandating usage through governmental legislation. Value barriers can be lowered through one of three strategies: improving product performance, positioning the product successfully, and reducing price to the consumer through cost efficiency ( Islam et al., 2021a ). Risk barriers can be reduced with the following strategies: using a well-known brand name, eliciting endorsements and testimonials from users, and facilitating product trial. Traditional barriers can be overcome by educating the consumers and/or using agents; in some instances, the marketing firm may just have to respect the traditions and norms of the users and realize that coping with the situation is the best possible solution ( Islam et al., 2021b ). Three strategies are available for countering the image barrier: borrow a good image (such as a known brand name), make fun of the negative image that currently exists, or create a unique image for the innovation. Each of these strategies may be classified into one of five types: product strategy, communication strategy, pricing strategy, market strategy, and coping strategy.

Limitations and Future Research Directions

As environmental consciousness has grown, the notion of “going green” has been a major focus of several organizations. For obtaining a high degree of environmental performance, green factors such as support from management and green intangible resources are critical. In addition to various strengths, the current study also has some limitations that must be addressed in the future. First, the current research has been conducted among the users of a chemical industry located in Lahore, Pakistan, making the findings specific to the chemical industry. Future studies may consider a comprehensive sample from other industries and may also include users/consumers of other industries, like food, fabric, hotels, etc., to come up with findings that can be generalized. Second, although this study was conducted to examine the cross-sectional method, the data were collected at one point in time. Future scholars may adopt longitudinal research design for better causality. In the current study, researchers could not tap the moderating effect of several key constructs due to time and resource constraints. Researchers are encouraged to focus on moderating effects for more significant results toward theory and practice in future studies. Third, this study outcome was only environmental performance mediated by green innovation. In the future, researchers may also add sustainable economic and social performance and environmental performance. Finally, current research only uses a selected population from a developing country context. In the future, researchers may collect data from many employees in a developed country context. A comparative approach toward green HRM practices in developing and developed setting maybe another significant area of future research. Green HRM was not considered as dimensional in this study is a limitation due to theoretical conceptualization of this research focused more on green innovation and environmental performance. Thus future studies may consider it as dimensional construct and test mediation accordingly.

Grounded in the RBV approach, this study integrated constructs from three different research fields: environmental science, innovation management, and human resource management. This integration based on theoretical grounding is a major advance to the body of knowledge. Besides this unique conceptualization, the current study adopted a study context of a developing country and the organizational context of the chemical industry, which is more sensitive to green innovation and consumer resistance to hazardous environmental products. Thus making this research a unique contribution from a contextual point of view. The findings also confirmed how green HRM practices significantly influenced green innovation and, in turn, predicted the organization’s environmental performance. These findings bring key policy insights for researchers in consumer resistance to innovation, consumer adoption to innovation that how green innovation may help the companies gain sustainable competitive advantage by investing in their human resources. This research helped bridge the gap between various research domains and opened several new avenues for future research.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

Y-KK and TK developed the idea and helped to refine theoretical framework as well theory grounding and overall proof editing and improving the final paper. SI helped in data collection. FA helped to perform analysis and write-up results section. MP helped in writing literature review and hypotheses development, while RK-o has written discussion, conclusion, and implication sections. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: green HR practices, innovation, environment, performance, human resource management

Citation: Kuo Y-K, Khan TI, Islam SU, Abdullah FZ, Pradana M and Kaewsaeng-on R (2022) Impact of Green HRM Practices on Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Green Innovation. Front. Psychol . 13:916723. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.916723

Received: 09 April 2022; Accepted: 24 May 2022; Published: 14 June 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Kuo, Khan, Islam, Abdullah, Pradana and Kaewsaeng-on. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Tariq Iqbal Khan, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

The effect of green HRM on employee green behaviors in higher education: the mediating mechanism of green work engagement

International Journal of Organizational Analysis

ISSN : 1934-8835

Article publication date: 7 September 2020

Issue publication date: 18 January 2022

Building on the social exchange theory (SET), this study aims to propose a model of the effects of green human resource management on employee in-role, extra-role and green innovative work behavior (GIWB). This study proposes, building on both the job demands-resources model and SET, that the aforementioned links can be explained through the mediating role of green work engagement (GWE).

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from employees ( n . 208) working in Palestinian higher education organizations using a self-administered questionnaire. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling was the primary statistical technique adopted to examine the study’s hypotheses.

The results suggest that green human resources management (GHRM) was a significant predictor of employee in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB. Furthermore, GWE demonstrated to be a significant intervening mechanism to explain the above-mentioned relationships.

Practical implications

The results provide useful insights for higher education policymakers on how GHRM may positively contribute to employee green outcomes.

Originality/value

This paper is novel for several reasons. First, it contributes to the general literature of GHRM. Second, it contributes to the limited body of knowledge on GHRM in the context of higher education. Third, the distinct contribution of this study is the introduction of GIWB as an outcome of GHRM, and GWE as a mediating variable in the relationship between GHRM and employee green behaviors.

• Green human resources management
• Green work engagement
• Extra-role green behavior
• Higher education
• Green innovative work behavior
• In-role green behavior

Aboramadan, M. (2022), "The effect of green HRM on employee green behaviors in higher education: the mediating mechanism of green work engagement", International Journal of Organizational Analysis , Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 7-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-05-2020-2190

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Mohammed Aboramadan.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

As organizations currently shifting their strategies and priorities toward more green-oriented agendas, human resources management (HRM) professionals need to rethink the mission and extend the reach of their practices through the integration of green management practices to improve the way they conduct the fundamental HRM practices ( Ángel del Brío et al. , 2008 ). Pham et al. (2019) proposed that HRM can quantify and influence sustainability-related behaviors, attitudes, awareness and motivation of employees. Therefore, organizations may also use HRM to generate and develop environmentally-friendly policies in an effective manner ( Renwick et al. , 2013 ).

In the past few years, a growing number of higher education organizations around the world have tried to make environmental management and green practices an essential part of their provided services. As a teaching and research organizations, higher education organizations are expected to play a significant role in adopting approaches and alternates to tackle existing environmental issues ( Benayas et al. , 2002 ; Disterheft et al. , 2012 ; León-Fernández and Domínguez-Vilches, 2015 ). Besides, they need to set a precedent in revitalizing and recognizing the evolving needs and challenges of environmental management concerns ( Finlay and Massey, 2012 ). As such, to encourage an environmentally friendly workplace climate, higher education institutions should embrace the philosophy of “Go Green” ( Gilal et al. , 2019 ). Members of higher education institutions, including teaching, research and administrative staff, would need to adopt green and environmentally friendly practices in their day to day activities at the workplace ( Benayas et al. , 2002 ).

In general, employees’ behaviors that promote environmental management practices at the workplace refer to green behaviors ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ). Employee green behaviors are viewed as keys to the effective implementation of green practices in the workplace. Moreover, studies have demonstrated that involving employees in green practices is crucial for the environmental management initiatives ( Jabbour et al. , 2008 ; Mazzi et al. , 2016 ), as this would contribute to the better environmental performance and completive advantage ( Kim et al. , 2019 ). To motivate green employees’ behaviors, green human resources management (GHRM) practices are considered as a critical HRM strategy to raise employees’ environmental awareness at the workplace. GHRM processes aimed at promoting environmental management incorporates several functions such as green recruitment, green training, green rewarding and green performance appraisal ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ; Jabbour et al. , 2008 ; Renwick et al. , 2013 ; Tang et al. , 2018 ).

Research on GHRM has flourished in the past years with studies carried out in diverse industries such as tourism and hospitality ( Luu, 2017 ), information and technology ( Ojo and Raman, 2019 ) and automobile industry ( Chaudhary, 2019 ). Nevertheless, research on GHRM in higher education is limited ( Fawehinmi et al. , 2020 ; Gilal et al. , 2019 ). This was confirmed by a recent literature review by Pham et al. (2019) , who called for the need to conduct more research in diverse service sectors. Among the limited studies, the study of Fawehinmi et al. (2020) found that GHRM increases employees’ green behaviors of academics through mediating role of environmental knowledge, whereas Gilal et al. (2019) found that including green behaviors of employees in the management doctrine of higher education organizations is vital to enhancing organizational financial and environmental performance and to gaining employee commitment.

Therefore, to advance the literature of green HRM in general and in higher education in particular, this study aimed to propose a model of the effects of GHRM practices on employees’ green behaviors, namely, in-role, extra-role and green innovative behavior. Green work engagement (GWE) was hypothesized to play a mediating role among the aforementioned links. This research makes the following contributions: first, it contributes to the general literature of GHRM, as the relationship between GHRM and employees’ green work-related outcomes are in infancy stage ( Pham et al. , 2019 ; Saeed et al. , 2019 ; Yong et al. , 2019 ). Second, it contributes to the limited body of HRM research ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 b) and green HRM research ( Fawehinmi et al. , 2020 ) in higher education organizations. Third, this research is novel as it investigates a model that introduces new variables to the literature of GHRM, namely, green innovative behavior and GWE. Fourth, it improves our understanding of the mechanisms that underline the relationship between GHRM and employees’ green workplace behavior ( Ren et al. , 2018 ).

Literature review

Green human resources management and green outcomes.

GHRM practices have been defined and conceptualized by several scholars ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ; Tang et al. , 2018 ; Pham et al. , 2019 ) as practices that include green recruiting and hiring employees with green awareness and knowledge; green training to develop employees’ green skills, competencies and knowledge; green performance appraisal with established green standards for assessing performance; and green rewards to provide incentives based on the successful implementation of the green objectives set by the organization.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ in-role green behaviors.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ in-extra green behaviors.

Innovative work behavior is viewed as employee behavior that is composed of idea creation, promotion and realization ( Scott and Bruce, 1994 ). In general, innovative work behavior has been perceived as an essential component to sustaining an organization’s competitive advantage ( Bos-Nehles and Veenendaal, 2019 ; West and Farr, 1989 ). Furthermore, it has been argued that HRM practices are of primary importance in realizing innovation outcomes in the organization ( Bos-Nehles and Veenendaal, 2019 ; Seeck and Diehl, 2017 ; Zhou et al. , 2013 ). By applying the concept of environmental management to innovative work behavior, green innovative work behavior (GIWB) can be conceptualized as employees’ behaviors devoted toward green ideas generation, promotion and realization.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ GIWB.

Green human resources management and green work engagement

Work engagement is defined as “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption” ( Schaufeli et al. , 2002 , p. 74). Engagement can be seen as up to which level employees are connected to their works cognitively, emotionally and physically. Building on this, GWE can be defined as the energy an employee puts in his green work-related tasks, the willingness to exert efforts at the green level and the absorption level in green work.

In general, factors such as job characteristics ( Christian et al. , 2011 ), leadership ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 ) and HRM practices ( Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016 ) were found to be common antecedents to work engagement. The mainstream literature of HRM examined the top-down impact of HR practices and systems on work engagement. For instance, Albrecht et al. (2015) proposed a model that is composed of organizational, job, motivational and individual factors that can trigger higher levels of work engagement. Other studies ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 b; Karatepe, 2012 ; Schaufeli et al. , 2006 ) demonstrated the positive relationship between job resources and work engagement.

GHRM exerts a positive effect on employees’ GWE.

Green work engagement and green outcomes

As per the SET, it appears that employees with greater levels of engagement are more inclined to have a secured and elevated quality relationship with their organizations. This, in turn, creates favorable job-related outcomes ( Saks, 2006 ). Correspondingly, such manifestations will not only inspire workers to fulfill their jobs but also allow them to participate in voluntary activities that go beyond their work tasks ( Kahn, 1990 ). For instance, previous research ( Aboramadan et al. , 2020 ; Agarwal et al. , 2012 ; Alfes et al. , 2013 ; Haynie et al. , 2016 ; Rich et al. , 2010 ; Rodwell et al. , 2017 ) suggest that work engagement was found to be a significant predictor of work performance and extra-role behaviors, such as innovative and citizenship behaviors.

GWE exerts a positive effect on employees’ in-role green behaviors.

GWE exerts a positive effect on employees’ extra-role green behaviors.

GWE exerts a positive effect on employees’ GIWB.

The mediating role of green work engagement

GWE mediates the relationship between a) GHRM and in-role green behaviors, b) GHRM and extra-role green behaviors and c) GHRM and GIWB.

Research model.

The study aims at proposing a model of the effects of GHRM in higher education on green work-related outcomes at the individual level, namely, in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB. As shown in Figure 1 , GWE was hypothesized to serve as an intervening mechanism among the aforementioned links.

Participants and procedures

Data were collected from staff working in Palestinian higher education institutions ( n . 5). These included both academic staff and administrative employees. In total, 410 questionnaires were distributed, 215 were returned back, of which five were removed due to incomplete answers and two were removed due to the presence of multi-outliers. In total, 208 questionnaires were usable for statistical analysis representing a response rate of 50.7%. Questionnaires were distributed in Arabic, the official language used at the Palestinian workplace. The questionnaire was translated using the back-translation method of Brislin (1986) . Drop off and pick up method was used to increase the response rate. Cover letters were attached to the questionnaire explaining the main purpose of the research and ensuring that respondents’ personal information will be kept confidential. The questionnaire was short, clear and easy to fill within 10–15 min. Of the respondents, 73.1% were men and 26.9% were women. Concerning age, 44.7% were between 25 and 30 years of age, 5.3% were between 31 and 35 years, 21.6% between 36 and 40 years and 28.4% were older than 40 years. Regarding experience, 53.8% had an experience ranging from 1–5 years, 14.4% had 6–10 years, 30.8% had 11–15 years, whereas only 1% had more than 15 years of experience. All employees had full-time contracts, 70% of which occupied administrative positions and 30% occupied academic positions.

Multicollinearity and common method bias remedies

Multicollinearity was checked using the Variance Inflation Factors for each item. According to Hair et al. (2018) , data are free of multicollinearity if the VIF values are below 5. In this research, VIF values ranged from 1.061 to 3.304. This indicates that the data were free of multicollinearity. To check for common method bias, the Harman single factor test was used to check for the percentage of variance explained. The results suggest that a single factor did not explain the majority of the variance (only 31.495). As the variance explained was below the cut-off point of 50% ( Podsakoff et al. , 2003 ), this gives an indication that the data were free of common method bias (CMB) contamination.

Statistical strategy

Descriptive statistics, reliability measures and correlations were analyzed using SPSS v.24. To test the study hypotheses, the author has used partial least squares – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) ( Hair et al. , 2018 ). PLS-SEM was used as it has been widely used in different scientific disciplines, such as human resource management ( Ringle et al. , 2018 ), marketing ( Hair et al. , 2011 ), strategic management ( Hair et al. , 2012 ) and hospitality ( Ali et al. , 2018 ). PLS-SEM technique measures the path coefficients through the ordinary least squares ( Rigdon, 2012 ). Moreover, PLS-SEM deals with correlated measurement errors ( Rademaker et al. , 2019 ) and ordinal measures ( Schuberth et al. , 2018 ).

Green human resources management.

This was measured using the six-item scale developed by Dumont et al. (2017) to gauge employees’ perceptions of GHRM adopted at their organizations. A sample item was “my university sets green goals for its employees.” The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.883.

Green work engagement.

This was measured using six-items obtained from Schaufeli et al. (2006) . As this scale was originally developed to measure work engagement, the six items were modified to assess green employee engagement. A sample item was “I am enthusiastic about my environmental tasks at my job.” The Cronbach alpha for this construct was 0.851.

In role green behavior.

This was measured using the three-item scale developed by Bissing-Olson et al. (2013) . A sample item was “I adequately complete the assigned duties in an environmentally friendly way.” Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.667.

Extra role green behavior.

This was measured using the three-item scale developed by Bissing-Olson et al. (2013) to assess voluntary green behaviors. A sample item was “I take initiatives to act in environmentally friendly ways at work.” The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.667.

Green innovative work behavior (GIWB).

The six-item scale developed by Scott and Bruce (1994) was borrowed to gauge innovative work behavior. This scale was modified in which green-related terms were added to adapt to the study purposes. A sample item was “I Investigate, and secure funds needed to implement new green ideas ” The Cronbach’s alpha for this construct was 0.866.

Measurement model assessment

Factor analysis loadings were checked for the items of the research scales. As shown in Table 1 , the values of standardized factor loading ranged between 0.658 and 0.866. All the loadings were significant at the 0.001 level. The average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR) were computed to check for convergent validity and internal consistency ( Fornell and Larcker, 1981 ). The results suggest that all the research variables had AVE values higher than 0.5 and CR values higher than 0.70, indicating that the data were convergently valid and internally consistent.

Discriminant validity was checked using two tests. First, the Fornell and Larcker (1981) rule which compares the square root of AVE with the intercorrelations among the variables. The results in Table 2 , show that the square root of AVE was higher than the intercorrelation, indicating that the condition of discriminant validity was met. On the other hand, to further confirm the presence of discriminant validity, the heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) was employed. The results in Table 3 , suggest that all ratios are below 0.85 as suggested by Hulland (1999) suggesting that constructs were discriminantly valid.

Structural model assessment: quality check

To assess the structural model, several criteria were computed. First, the R square ( R 2 ) for the research variables were as follows: GWE (0.102), in role green behavior (0.164), extra-role green behavior (0.199) and GIWB (0.433). As per the recommendations of Chin (1998) , these values are considered acceptable. Second, the f square ( f 2 ) for the research variables were as follows: medium effect for GHRM on GWE (0.113), GHRM on in-role green behavior (0.026), GHRM on extra-role behavior (0.037). The effect size was of GHRM on GIWB (0.509) was a string. On the other hand, the effect size of GWE on in role-green behavior (0.116), GWE on extra-role green behavior (0.140) and GWE on GIWB (0.062) was medium. Finally, predictive relevance (Stone–Geisser’s Q 2 ) was calculated for latent variables and the results showed that Q 2 values were: 0.053 for GWE, 0.083 for in-role green behavior, 0.092 for extra-role green behavior and 0.23 for GIWB. As Stone–Geisser’s Q 2 values were higher than 0, this indicated high predictive relevance as suggested by Hair et al. (2018) .

Table 2 presents descriptive figures, means, standard deviations and correlations between the research variables of this study. Correlations were found significant and positive between the research variables. The reported correlations were: GHRM and GWE ( r = 0 .329, p = 0.000), GHRM and in-role green behavior ( r = 0.256, p = 0.000), GHRM and extra-role green behavior ( r = 0 .267, p = 0.000) and GHRM and GIWB ( r = 0.614, p = 0.000). significant correlations were found between GWE and in-role green behavior ( r = 0.361, p = 0.000), GWE and extra-role green behavior ( r = 0.390, p = 0.000) and GWE and GIWB ( r = 0.363, p = 0.000).

Hypotheses testing

Figure 2 presents the results for the direct path analysis and mediation analysis. The results suggest that GHRM was positively associated with in-role green behavior ( ß = 0.154, t = 2.38, p = 0.017), with extra-role green behavior ( ß = 0.182, t = 2.42, p = 0.015) and with GIWB ( ß = 0.567, t = 10.31, p = 0.000). The results lend support for H1 , H2 and H3 . Furthermore, the results provided support for H4 , in which it was indicated that GHRM showed to exert a positive effect on GWE ( ß = 0.319, t = 4.93 p = 0.000). GWE demonstrated to have a significant effect on in role-green behavior ( ß = 0.329, t = 4.64 p = 0.000), on extra-role green behavior ( ß = 0.353, t = 4.84 p = 0.000) and on GIWB ( ß = 0.198, t = 3.45 p = 0.001), suggesting that H5 , H6 , H7 were supported. Finally, using the 5,000-sample bootstrapping technique, the mediating effect of GWE was examined. The results suggest that GWE showed to have a significant mediating effect between GHRM and in-role green behavior ( ß = 0.105, t = 3.26 p = 0.001), between GHRM and extra-role green behavior ( ß = 0.113, t = 3.39 p = 0.001) and between GHRM and GIWB ( ß = 0.063, t = 2.89 p = 0.004), therefore, H8a , H8b and H8c were supported.

Discussion and implications

The study examined the relationship between GHRM and in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB through the mediating effect of GWE. The results demonstrate that GHRM significantly predicated both in-role and extra-role green behavior. The results were in line with the research of Dumont et al. (2017) that found that GHRM positively influenced both in-role and extra-role green behavior. Furthermore, these results were in line with the norm of reciprocity embedded in SET in which employees exchange the green management efforts of the organization with task-related and voluntary green behaviors. The results, as well, suggest the GHRM exerted a positive and significant effect on employees’ GIWB. This implies that attributes of HRM practices determine employees’ innovative work behavior as suggested by ( Wright and Nishii, 2013 ).

The results indicated that GHRM and GWE were positively associated. The results support what has been discussed in the JD-R framework ( Demerouti et al. , 2001 ), highlighting that resources at work serve as a motivational variable to encourage employee’s engagement at work. Further, GWE was found to positively affect in-role green behavior, extra-role green behavior and GIWB. This implies that employees with higher levels of GWE are more prone to have a trustful and quality exchanges with their organization, which would ultimately encourage employees to display positive outcomes such as green outcomes.

Finally, the results suggest that GWE demonstrated to be a significant mediating mechanism among the examined relationships. GWE significantly mediated the relationship between GHRM and in-role green behavior, GHRM and extra-role green behavior and GHRM and GIWB. This implies the relationship between GHRM and green outcomes may not be only direct, which means that HRM (GHRM in this case) affects workplace outcomes (green outcomes) through a particular mechanism ( Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016 ) such as GWE.

This study has several contributions to GHRM research in general and higher education research on green management in particular. Research on GHRM is evolving, and more research is needed ( Pham et al. , 2019 ), especially within the context of the higher education sector ( Gilal et al. , 2019 ). In response to that, the study proposed a model and empirically examined a new mechanism through which the relationship between GHRM and its consequences can be explained. It is the first study of its kind to use the GWE construct as a study variable and as an intervening mechanism. In previous research, the intervening mechanisms used were green psychological climate, environmental knowledge, environmental passion, green employee empowerment, green capital and green crafting ( Dumont et al. , 2017 ; Fawehinmi et al. , 2020 ; Gilal et al. , 2019 ; Hameed et al. , 2020 ; Song et al. , 2020 ; Luu, 2019 ). Furthermore, a new variable (GIWB) was introduced in the model as a latent variable, among other green outcomes. Most of what has been introduced on employees’ green behaviors in the GHRM literature was task-related green behaviors, voluntary green behaviors, organizational citizenship toward the environment ( Pham et al. , 2019 ), while GIWB was not addressed as a potential outcome of GHRM practices.

Managerially speaking, higher education organizations are called upon going green and creating a roadmap for their staff to serve as environmental activists. These organizations will need to effectively and successfully implement GHRM activities for better environmental management and to promote employees’ green behaviors at the workplace. Higher education organizations are required to adopt sustainable green practices to assist employees in resolving environmental challenges and concerns. This may lead to the improved green performance of these organizations and the community as a whole. Human resource (HR) professionals in higher education are advised to include GHRM practices at the top of their agenda, in addition to other HRM systems such as high-performance work practices and high-commitment HRM systems. GHRM practices should include clear green hiring policies, green training and development, a system of green performance evaluation and effective rewarding green rewarding and compensation policies. This research strongly recommends that HR specialists and senior management in higher education establish core organizational concepts and principles when articulating GHRM strategies. Hiring staff (academic and administrative) with common environmental protection values is an important practice to create a state of person-organization fit. Furthermore, HR practitioners in higher education may give a strong example by communicating their environmental morals and ethics at work through different techniques such as communication emails, broachers and regular seminars on green management. HR professionals can also assess candidates' environmental principles in the interview process by analyzing their awareness and readiness to get involved in green management practices. Furthermore, HR personnel can provide higher education staff with adequate training and coaching about environmental conservation, which will help align staff with the environmental policies of their organizations and increase awareness of environmental management concerns. Finally, HR policymakers in higher educations may link performance appraisal and rewarding schemes with employees’ environmental performance. This might include measuring the amount of paper used within a period of time and the number of printing orders performed, which can be tracked using printing monitors.

Limitations and future research

This study has limitations that provide opportunities for future research endeavors. First, the model proposed was investigated using data collected from one source (employees) at one point in time. Although, it was demonstrated that CMB was not a concern for this study, collecting data from multiple sources and at different intervals would minimize CMB. This includes having supervisors evaluate the green behaviors of their employees. Second, data come from employees working in five higher education institutions, which might limit the generalizability of the results. Hence, future research may consider replicating the study model using larger samples. Third, this study is cross-sectional in its nature, which puts restrictions on drawing cause-effect conclusions. Future studies may consider a longitudinal research design to examine the model over time. Moreover, the study examined one mediator (GWE) among the investigated links. Future studies may consider other intervening variables such as green engagement climate, green perceived organizational support and organizational identification. Finally, future research may consider investigating the model in diverse service sectors including higher education, nonprofits, healthcare and hospitality to check for differences between these sectors.

The study investigated the impact of GHRM practices on green outcomes, namely, in-role, extra-role and GIWBs, through the mediating effects of GWE. With data collected from the higher education sector in Palestine, the results demonstrated that GHRM showed a positive relationship with the aforementioned outcome variables. GWE was found to play a significant mediating role between the links examined. The study suggests future research to enrich the literature of GHRM with further investigation of the precise mechanisms governing the relationship between GHRM and its consequences.

Hypothesized model

Model estimates

Factor loading, with t -values, CRs and AVEs

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Further reading

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Jabbour , C.J.C. and Santos , F.C.A. ( 2008 ), “ Relationships between human resource dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model ”, Journal of Cleaner Production , Vol. 16 No. 1 , pp. 51 - 58 .

Corresponding author

About the author.

Mohammed Aboramadan is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the department of economics, management and statistics. His special interests focus on HRM and leadership in service-based contexts. Aboaramadan has published in the following journals: International Journal of Educational Management, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, International Journal of Public Administration, Journal of Workplace Learning and other published scientific pieces at AOM proceeding 2020, EURAM 2020, a Journal for Higher Education Policy and Management and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management .

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4 Ways to Green Human Resource Management

A McKinsey & Company survey of executives in a range of industries and regions found 43 percent of organizations are now trying to align sustainability efforts with their overall business goals, mission or values.  Company leaders are also increasingly seeing sustainability as a top CEO priority.

Although HR departments aren’t often in charge of enterprise-wide sustainability practices — more than half (54 percent) say they have no role or just a minor part in managing company sustainability efforts, according to Center for Effective Organizations research — some may find they’re being asked to identify, adopt and promote green initiatives in the workplace and within their department.

Creating a greener office can seem like an overwhelming undertaking. However, there are some fairly easy-to-implement sustainability practices that can increase energy efficiency and conserve resources, without requiring massive renovations or a hefty monetary investment.

The following alterations can help you green human resource management, along with other operational aspects:

Centralize document storage and use

Paper use can be reduced by 20 percent or more in most offices, according to the WWF . Moving some aspects of HR, such as training materials and health insurance documents, to an intranet can help reduce the need to print items out to share them.

Some companies have made major strides in decreasing paper use. Several years ago, GreenBiz reported that UPS had moved to an entirely electronic talent acquisition process, which allowed the shipping company to eliminate all paper — including brochures, forms, reports and other items — that had previously been used during hiring.

Tweak the temperature

Setting your office thermostat just three to five degrees higher than it is now and using fans to enhance air movement and maintain comfort can save about three percent on cooling costs, according to a U.S. Small Business Administration recommendation .

Use a new type of light bulb

Replace incandescent light bulbs with Energy Star-certified CFL lighting, which lasts about 10 times longer — and costs roughly 75 percent less to operate.

Try to have a greener office fridge

Direct Energy recommends cleaning your break room refrigerator’s coils twice a year and, if a dollar bill easily slips out when you close it between the door’s seals, consider installing new gaskets to increase energy efficiency.

Swap out workstation devices over time

When replacing computers, opt for laptops — they consume less than half the energy desktop computers do, according to EnergyAustralia, which also suggests using monitors that are 2 inches smaller than you currently have to reduce energy consumption by as much as 30 percent.

Green human resource management, in addition to other company sustainability efforts, can have an often unexpected positive effect.

Morale has been found to be higher in 55 percent of companies with robust sustainability programs; studies have also shown companies with greater corporate responsibility performance can reduce average turnover by as much as 50 percent over time, according to an article published in the Harvard Business Review.

For that to happen, however, presumably, employees have to be aware your organization is investing in sustainability and other CSR efforts. Find out how some companies are managing and communicating aspects of their corporate social responsibility initiative ; how focusing on elements that inspire company pride — like an investment in sustainability — can help drive engagement and the effect corporate philanthropy programs can potentially have on retention in some of our previous blog posts.

Our post on sharing your diversity initiative successes may also provide some tips to help you convey your sustainability practices to employees and other external parties.

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