Recruitment
Selecting the right people who fit the profile and share the same cultural values of the organisation is a lot easier that attempting to change one's values. Taking notice of the candidate's values and ideas with respect to CSR is a powerful instrument when designing a common identity. Look for those who actively want to contribute to a better climate and society.
Employability
Employability means being flexible enough to adjust to changes within society, by providing a proactive environment for employees in which each and everyone is responsible for their own career. Internal entrepreneurship is one option, education another. Providing education is not merely meant for professional development, but for personal growth as well. Finally, employability also includes replacement processes in case of organisational change. This can be achieved by education, the possibility to specialise and by handing over responsibility and trust with respect to one's tasks.
Assessment
Evaluation of one's performance is a well-known instrument. There should be a system that would not require judging employees' way of working. In an ideal world people are trusted to control their own career, take their own steps. However, some guidance might be good. Several organisations have already included CSR values in performance conversations. However, whether this is merely ticking the boxes or having an actual conversation mainly depends on the manager. CSR assessment instruments are thus only effective as soon as there is an executable system that is valued by its users. For example, one could evaluate the employee's CSR competencies, or encourage volunteering (partly) in work time.
Our partner Groei in Werk helped us formulate this argumentation:
- Sustainable HRM motivates staff
- Which requires less control and less management
- Employees are therefore granted more freedom
- Which in turn results in staff taking on more responsibility, creating more room for initiative and innovation
- Higher levels of productivity and loyalty
- And lower absenteeism and employee turnover are the result
- Which will lead to satisfied staff, customers, financiers, business partners et cetera.
Competence management is quite a populist instrument of HRM. In fact it is nothing more than a vague appellation for something that belongs to the last HRM instrument, assessment.
