Does being 'green' motivate employees?
By Richa Sharma, SiliconIndia   |   Wednesday, 16 February 2011, 23:18 IST   |    4 Comments
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Does being 'green' motivate employees?
Bangalore: Being green and environmentally concerned is the latest trend amongst organizations. Does this trend have any impact on their respective employees too? - is the one of the questions least pondered upon. A recent research done by Cassandra Walsh and Adam Sulkowski, University of Massachusetts, seems to provide some answer to this question. The study found a positive relation between employees'satisfaction level and the perceived 'greenness' of the company. It came up with a conclusion that by being green and extensively promoting their efforts, organizations can boost up employees' morale as well as lead to increase in retention and recruitment. This was derived from the study done on 113 companies where employees with perceived environmental responsibility were compared to employees with solid financial performance. The same views came up, when Anoop Rana, Manager QA, Oracle said, "Green initiatives taken up by our company has positively influenced our associates. There is a greater sense of belongingness and responsibility which helps them in feeling associated with their work too." Vandana Chaturvedi, Sr. Manager HR, NTPC, also confirmed that the employees show more interest in working for the organization when they have a better image of the same. Along with the steps, its also the recognition, which employees get, motivate them to work for the organization. Employees' efforts are acknowledged through various ways such as in-built incentives or giving certificates commending their efforts at various meetings and gatherings. These kinds of appreciation not only increase their interest in the green initiatives but also in the work too. Recognition is a result of employees' participation in varied kinds of forums, which are being formed by organizations. "In NTPC, we have forums like 'quality-checker', where ideas on energy-conservation and other similar topics are shared and later implemented", said Vandana. Even in Oracle, they conduct 'web-casts' which allow employees from all over the world to participate and listen to the selected speakers on the matters related to environment. These initiatives need not be on a large scale. Organizations, such as Oracle, have various employee-driven initiatives along with having many at organizational level too. In many companies, employees have been directed to take few basic steps which need to be taken for the energy and paper conservation. For instance, use of regular glasses in place of disposable glasses or cups, switching off computer-monitors while going for coffee or tea breaks are few of them.

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