How To Get Employees To Complete Sustainability Initiatives

Feb 13

After you’ve created an effective initiative, you need to get employees on board. After all, as we’ve talked about numerous times, employees complete sustainability tasks. Not a committee, the employees.

You’ve got your initiative set and ready to distribute. You know who should be doing it, so now it’s time to bring those people on board.

Getting employees on board with an initiative is a unique mix of solid communication, motivation and a little incentivizing. You must take your company’s culture into account when turning employees onto sustainability initiatives.

Think of this blog as complementary with the previous one on creating an initiative. Learn ways to engage employees once you’ve sent out the initiatives and get them to continue movement on making the necessary changes.

Use Company Culture

Like we talk about when sharing sustainability, use what you already know and do to carve a path for employees. You already understand your company’s culture, how you motivate employees to get other things done and how engaged employees are right now. If you’re not tuned into the culture, make it a priority. Understanding how employees act in the company culture is the best way to motivate them.

It’s Not An Extra, It’s Their Job

A lot of companies get stuck because they brand sustainability as an “extra” item. Messaging and leadership give the impression sustainability is an optional, bonus add on to work. Company leadership is responsible for communicating sustainability as a job requirement.

Leadership needs to share the initiative with the indication that it's a new job requirement.

Tie Sustainability to Performance

One way to make sure employees are acting on sustainability is to tie it to their job performance. Include the sustainability initiative in both job descriptions and during review times. Employees will be motivated when they know it is tied to other metrics in their position.

This also encourages managers to regularly check items and treat is as part of regular job functions.

Other Incentives

What other incentives can you offer employees? Social media shoutouts? Pizza parties? Again, look to company culture to dictate how you motivate and engage employees, including incentives. Are there incentives you offer employees now to complete tasks? Use sustainability initiatives as part of those incentives.

Survey Employees

Get a better understanding of your employees by performing a survey to see how they feel about sustainability.

Get 20 questions to survey employees on sustainability.

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Create Time

It’s hard to do anything when employees are swamped and overwhelmed. Make sure employees are adequately supported to make sustainability part of their day. Employees should feel like they are doing their regular jobs, not including sustainability as after hours or extra work.

Part of the “it’s their job,” includes telling employees they must be completing action items and reporting on progress during business hours.

Stick To Your Side of the Deal

Your side of the deal is “We’ve created these initiatives, now it’s your job to do them.” It’s your responsibility to create support mechanisms, open communication, and time for employees to be able to complete the initiative. Mixed messages or a lack of motivation from the top won’t encourage employees to deliver.

Time Blocking

Time blocking has become popular as a method of time management and productivity. You can easily apply time blocking to sustainability by asking employees to block out a specific time each week to focus on their sustainability tasks or action items.

Regular Check-ins and Reports

Don’t just send employees off with initiatives and wish them well. Schedule a manager to regularly check in with employees on progress. The check-in can be over email or a quick meeting. But make sure employees are regularly being checked on to make sure they are working on their initiatives.

Ask for Feedback

Get employee feedback on how their tasks are going, what management support they require and how they integrate sustainability into daily schedules. Scheduling quarterly surveys or check-ins will keep your initiatives on track and make sure you’re supporting employees to complete the tasks required to complete the initiatives.

Ask for and use the feedback given to make sure you’re working at optimal efficiency.

Employees are crucial to getting sustainability work completed. Without employees, a great initiative is dead in the water. Setting up a system that allows them to thrive while making sustainability work is crucial to the success of your initiatives.

What other motivational tricks do you use with employees? Share in the comments.

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