GREEN HRM POLICIES & PRACTICES

G. David Raju MBA, M.Phil., (Ph.D.)

Asst. Prof. Dept. of Business Administration, KBN College PG Centre, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh 520 010. Email: davidgollapudi@yahoo.co.in Mobile: 094404 27797

Abstract Across the globe, we are moving from an industrial-based financial system to a talent based economy. We are also entering a green economy one in which consumer and employee expectations and future environmental change will require businesses to address green issues. Environmentally conscious organizations will become increasingly prominent as we re-enter into a period of growth. While CO2 growth may have stabilized during the recession, it is destined to increase again as businesses increase production and other business activities. In addition, during the recession, the main environmental focus of many businesses was placed on reducing waste and optimizing resources. Green HRM involves the use of HRM policies to promote the sustainable use of resources within business organizations and, more generally, promote the cause of environmentalism. The kinds of action take within green HRM initiatives include educating employees about climate change and other environmental issues, training in working methods that reduce the use of energy and other resources, promoting and incentivizing more sustainable means of travel to work (e.g. car sharing, cycling, public transport), and auditing employee benefits to eliminate those that are environmentally damaging (e.g. unnecessary provision of a high powered company car). Key words: Green Management Initiatives, Environmental Management Strategies (EMS), Green HR Policies, green work-life balance concept, Effective downsizing, Knowledge Capital, Green HR Activities *** Introduction Green awareness is not a new topic from last few years. Most interesting thing is HR professionals in the organization are not only aware about this rather they start working for it. HR professionals in organization can develop a powerful social conscience and green sense of responsibility internal and external customers, stakeholders, partners etc. Recent times, consumers demand ethics and environmental credentials as a top priority. Society and business see their agenda align. HR department have to drive corporate behavior towards more environment friendly path. HR professional cannot wait for others like production or supply chain department or the engineering team will initiate the program. Its part of CSR and HR has to launch it now. The environmental lobby is so pervasive that organization, especially the HR department must be quick to react to consumer concerns about any aspect of their business which could be deemed unethical. Meaning: The term Green HR is most often used to refer to the contribution of people management policies and practices towards the broader corporate environmental agenda. Typical green activities include video recruiting, or the use of online and video interviews, to minimize Travel requirements. Green rewards can include the use of workplace and lifestyle benefits, ranging from carbon credit offsets to free bicycles, to engage people in the green agenda, while continuing to recognize their contribution. While many employees often feel it is not their responsibility to protect the environment while they are at work, the new workforce of millennials are emphasizing environmental consciousness as they chose their employers. There is also a broader opportunity to engage the workforce given that more and more people seek meaning and self-actualization in their jobs. Other simple green actions include minimizing the amount of printed materials used in performance management, salary reviews and so on. While there is definitely a substantial amount of green washing occurring in reducing waste, there are many opportunities here too. However, HR is never going to have a truly significant impact on a business through the improvement of HR processes alone so the greater opportunity is to contribute to the green agenda of the business as a whole. Definition Green management is defined as the process whereby companies manage the environment by developing environmental management strategies (Lee, 2009) in which companies need to balance between industrial growth and safeguarding the natural environment so that future generation may thrive (Daily and Huang, 2001).

Green HR is an employment model designed to assist industry professionals in retaining, recalling, preserving, and developing talent needed to ensure future business initiatives and strategies are met. Efficiency afforded by the Green HR model can lower operational costs and enables industry professionals to better utilize their investment in knowledge capital. In summary, green management refers to the management of corporate interaction with, and impact upon, the environment (Lee and Ball, 2003), and it has gone beyond regulatory compliance and needs to include conceptual tools such as pollution prevention, product stewardship and corporate social responsibility (Hart, 2005; Pullman et al., 2009; Siegel, 2009). Scope & limits of Green HRM A complex interplay of individual, interactional, situational, cultural and structural factors influence employees environmental behaviour in the company. These factors are not only considered by Green HRM but also by environmental management. Environmental management systems such as EMAS or ISO 14001 are holistic and complex intervention mechanisms which have the potential to address multiple factors successfully. These standards can be helpful for companies to systematically implement, control and improve environmental activities including Green HR activities (Daily & Huang, 2001; Steger, 2000). It can be said that companies with environmental management systems are particularly dependent on elaborated Green HR policies. They are not immune to gaps between rhetoric and reality. If they have high expectations concerning their environmental performance, it is especially important for them to transform aspirations and good intentions into actual everyday behaviour. Daily and Huang (2001) have emphasized decisive human resource factors according to the key categories of the ISO 14001 guideline. They argue that top management support, environmental trainings, team work, employee empowerment and reward systems are crucial for implementing successful environmental management systems. Even though these activities can be perceived as highly relevant, the range of possible green human resource interventions is much wider. Green human resource activities do not necessarily have to take place within the scope of environmental management systems. All companies that strive for environmental protection are well advised to pay attention to their employees. As Wehrmeyer (1996, p. 7) already stated in the mid-nineties: If a company is to adopt an environmentally- aware approach to its activities, the employees are the key to its success or failure. ESSENTIALS OF GREEN HRM Green HR is one which involves two essential elements: environmentally friendly HR practices and the preservation of knowledge capital. Green HR involves reducing your carbon footprint via less printing of paper, video conferencing and interviews, etc. Companies are quick to layoff when times are tough before realizing the future implications of losing that knowledge capital. Green HR initiatives help companies find alternative ways to cut cost without losing their top talent; furloughs, part time work, etc. POLICIES Green HR policies focus on collective and individual capabilities to bring about green behaviour. Collective capabilities are mainly discussed in relation to cultural characteristics of the company that are considered significant in either restraining or advancing the corporate greening process. Building on the assumption that culture can be managed at all, Green HR policies are aimed at promoting an environmental corporate culture. It is argued that an environmental culture is needed to socialize employees according to a companys environmental strategy. Once an environmental corporate culture is formed, individual behavioural changes are assumed to be most likely. It is suggested, for instance, to advance communication and interaction processes (e.g. feedback and exchange

mechanisms) or to extend employee participation and employee involvement with regards to environmental issues. These cultural improvements are assumed to increase, for instance, employees motivation and their commitment to the company and its environmental ambitions. Green HR policies also focus on individual learning and the personal environmental competences of employees, for instance, by setting up specific trainings and further education programs, and by implementing appraisal tools or reward systems. Environmental trainings at the workplace might include, for instance, environmental law issues, instructions for new devices, or corporate codes of conduct, which help to advance employees environmental performance. GREEN MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES In the past, sound economic performance of the firm was expected to guarantee corporate success by companies and its shareholders, but now it is no longer valid; economic and financial outcomes need to be accompanied by minimization of ecological footprints and increased attention to social and environmental aspects. Therefore, the new strategic issue, corporate environmentalism or green management emerged in1990s and became a popular slogan internationally in 2000s (Lee, 2009). This concept becomes a strategic dominant issue for businesses, especially multinational enterprises operating their business globally (Banerjee, 2001). Business firms play a key role in the issues of environmental management since they are part of our society and cannot be isolated from the environment, and in fact, they contribute most of the carbon footprints in the past (Liu, 2010). EMS includes commitment and policy, planning, implementation, measurement and evaluation, review and improvement (Hersey, 1998). Callenbach et al. (1993) argued that in order to carry out green management, employee must be inspired, empowered and environmentally aware of greening to be successful. Application of innovative technology could alleviate the environmental deterioration by developing, for example, the biotech products and by searching for alternative energy to reduce the use of finite natural resources. Thus, business should put more effort into the research on innovative technology to minimize the impacts of environmental destruction by creating products that are nontoxic and less pollution to environment (Liu, 2010; Ozen and Kusku, 2008). GREEN HRM - HR FACTORS AFFECTING GREEN MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES Many researchers, especially in the area of HRM, argued that the effectiveness and successful in any management innovation and strategic tools are defending on the availability and ability of their human resources employed in the strategic manners (Boselie et al., 2001; Paauwe and Boselie, 2003). Organization generally organizes HR practices into systems that are consistent with their culture and business strategy (Boselie et al., 2001). Many researchers agreed that HRM is the most effective tools which contribute to the creation of human capital, and in turn, contributes to organizational performance and competitive advantage (Boselie et al., 2001; Paauwe and Boselie, 2003). Currently, many corporations are implementing a proactive, strategic tool known as an EMS to gain competitive advantage (Daily and Huang, 2001). This system provides a structure that allows management of the firms the ability to better control the firms environmental impacts (Barnes, 1996; Florida and Davison, 2001). An On the other hand, to effectively implement green management initiatives and fostering environmental innovations, corporations require a high level of technical and management skills (Callenbach et. al., 1993; Renwick et al., 2008). A new perspective for Green HRM Green HRM can meet its full potential only by considering employees in their twofold role as producers and consumers. Employees learn different kinds of behaviour not exclusively at the workplace, but also in private life. Since reciprocal interactions between working life and private life occur, a green work-life balance concept is suggested to facilitate environmentally friendly behaviour in both life domains. The concept offers chances not only for the environment, but also

for the company and its employees by increasing, for example, work motivation and job retention. However, challenges like employees reactance to allow corporate influence on private life need to be addressed. Green HR in 2013 HR Green in 2013 is an exciting new initiative to retire paper-based processes and install automated end-to-end processing in the Human Resources area. HR is working closely with University clients and IT professionals in CITS on a three year program of business process improvement activities. The aim is to improve human resource management processes through the use of the very best administration technology. Goals and objectives of Green HRM: Retire burdensome paper-based processes and improve productivity Better meet and respond to our client demands Reduce turnaround times Improve the look and feel of the workspace Reduce costs/paper consumption

IMPLEMENT AND ENCOURAGE GREEN PRACTICES FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Implement green practices to assist in environmental waste reduction, while promoting and encouraging stewardship growth, better corporate ethics and long-lasting practices that promote both personal and corporate accountability. The value inherent in embracing green aspects of corporate responsibility is clearly understood, given the direct impact that rising energy and utility costs has on employees pocket books. Conservation has become an accepted means of making our planet healthier. Reducing each employees carbon footprint is a great way of getting energy conservation and recycling waste initiatives off the ground. Here are suggestions to start: 1. 2. 3. Recycle paper, cans and bottles in the office; recognize departmental efforts. Collect food and donations for victims of floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters around the globe. Encourage reduced energy consumption; subsidize transit passes, make it easy for employees to car pool, encourage staggered staffing to allow after rush hour transit, and permit telecommuting to the degree possible. Encourage shutting off lights; computers and printers after work hours and on weekends for further energy reductions. Work with IT to switch to laptops over desktop computers. (Laptops consume up to 90% less power.) Increase the use of teleconferencing, rather than on-site meetings and trips. Promote brown-bagging in the office to help employees reduce fat and calories to live healthier lives and reduce packaging waste, too.

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CONCLUSION This has reviewed the literature on environmental management (EM) and HRM, and offered a process model and research agenda forward in Green HRM. In conclusion, future research into Green HRM may provide interesting results for all stakeholders in HRM. For employers and practitioners, these may be to establish the usefulness of linking employee involvement and participation in environmental management programmes to improved organizational environmental performance, perhaps via a specific focus on waste management and recycling; for unions and employees, they may help them lobby employers to adopt Green HRM policies and practices that help safeguard and enhance worker health and well-being; and for academics, they may reveal additional data to add an HRM element to the knowledge base on Green Management in general.

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