Engineering People-Centric Sustainability

As societies become more aware of the social, environmental and sustainable impact that businesses have on the world, employers are faced with the fact that employees have an opinion, want to express that opinion and most importantly want it to be listened to. Furthermore, employers are aware that employees are far more likely to make a choice between employers that is based upon the culture and ethics of an organisation rather than just the size of the salary being offered. By weaving sustainability into the employee experience, HR can help shift the perception of ESG as a separate initiative to a central pillar of how the business operates. The paper will discuss why we have “people” at the top of our sustainability strategy and the initiatives we have taken to give staff from all levels of the company the opportunity to influence the overall employee experience within the organisation. The paper will also discuss the challenges and successes of an initiative taken to change the traditional and formal annual employee appraisal into a more agile and flexible Micro-Appraisal. It will explain the theory behind the benefit of creating shorter and more regular connections between employees and their line manager. It will demonstrate how this approach gives opportunity for both employer and employee to reflect on current performance, current development needs and summarise how the culture of the business has had to change to one where it is acknowledged and accepted that goals, personal ambitions and development needs can change, and can change quickly. The paper will conclude with a discussion on the research we are undertaking with a UK University to better understand the barriers to gender diversity in Civil Engineering and to better understand why so many women either do not enter the industry at all or leave shortly after graduating from engineering degree courses.