In all organisations, HR, internal communication and even innovation are working to increase employee engagement. But are they thinking about the topics that most engage people? What are the main unifying themes? CSR (Social and Environmental Responsibility) is one of these topics. Indeed, CSR touches employees in their humanity and is often a source of intense commitment. Here's how to involve your employees in your environmental strategy, in order to increase commitment to the company.

Environmental strategy at the heart of the company

The need for companies to make a commitment to the environment is not new. The principle of environmental strategy is therefore not so recent. However, the Covid crisis has accelerated things. Indeed, many employees working from home or on short-time working have often taken a step back from their activity. Sometimes, this step back was even synonymous with a loss of meaning. In short, employees no longer felt aligned with their company's project.

It is therefore urgent to reconnect with employees. A solid environmental strategy is an excellent lever for realigning employees with the company's business and mission. It will make them feel part of the energy transition and positive change, which is essential for them. In other words, we now want to work for organisations that make us feel we are actively involved in making the world a better place.

A study shows that 81% of companies expect to increase the social or environmental commitment of their employees. And 46% of companies consider that their CSR strategy should focus on environmental issues and climate change.

The pillars of employee engagement

Let's take a step back from the environmental issue and look at the pillars of employee engagement. A strong and widespread commitment often results in regular and reciprocal interactions between the company and its employees. Both parties listen to each other and commit to each other. In this sense, employee engagement cannot do without a few essentials:

• First of all, it is essential tolisten to the field. Because in order to be committed, your employees must feel that they are being listened to. Feedback is therefore essential.

• Employees should feel well informed on all types of issues. They need to have access to cross-cutting information. This information will help them to better understand, on an individual basis, the place and role they can play.

• Employees must take ownership of the company's values and mission. These should not be communicated only through top-down internal communication. On the contrary, it is the way in which the field takes ownership of these values and mission that counts. You can therefore use co-creation actions. For example, organise the co-construction of a company manifesto. With this type of action, you will ensure that your employees understand and take ownership of the meaning of the company's mission.

• Commitment also means concrete action! Employee disengagement often stems from the idea that the company's mission is just an idea, and that its commitments are just words. But employees want to see actions implemented to see that the commitments are concrete and that they can participate in them.

Why CSR initiatives fail

One can have the best intentions in the world, but when CSR commitments remain theoretical and are not translated into action, it is very disappointing. And because they are disappointed, employees do not provide the commitment so hoped for by top management.

The following are the causes that can hinder the engagement of employees in a CSR strategy:

• CSR commitments that are too far from the reality of employees. Indeed, some CSR commitments are decided at a global level, which is not aware of the reality and challenges on the ground. Employees would certainly prefer to be able to see the impact of actions at a local level.

• The absence of a dedicated CSR field team, fully involved in the realisation of the pillars and in the commitment of employees to these pillars.

• Lack of transparency. Employees need to have visibility on the investments made and their potential impact.

• The challenges of facilitation. To maintain a stable and lasting commitment, it is essential to animate your employees. But this can be difficult when you don't know where to start!

How to increase commitment to your environmental strategy

As you will have understood, companies can no longer do without a solid environmental strategy and a strong commitment from their employees to support this strategy.

The engaging environmental strategy must therefore be participatory, or at least offer opportunities for employee participation.

According to an Insign survey, 87% of employees in the private sector are ready to invest in the implementation of a positive strategy in their organisation. Employees are therefore ready to invest in a better world through their company.

Here are some tips to boost engagement with your environmental strategy. Pay attention to these tips because they can really change the way your employees perceive your CSR system, and want to get involved.

• Start from the local/field level. Propose concrete, local initiatives that speak to your employees and in which they can easily see themselves getting involved.

• Involve your staff in designing new actions. Because while you propose strategic directions, your employees, because they are in touch with the reality on the ground, are capable of making concrete proposals to put them into action.

• Also, involve your staff in the decision-making process. This involvement can take several forms. It can consist of a vote: everyone votes or allocates points from a kitty to their favourite projects. You can also ask employees from the field to be part of a jury to select the environmental projects to be implemented.

• Communicate about your scheme and its objectives. Your communication will enable you to ensure that all your employees are at the same level of information. It is also an opportunity to promote those who are involved and to encourage new people to get involved!

Putting collective intelligence at the service of your environmental strategy

As you will have understood, your environmental strategy will only generate commitment if it is participatory. That is, your employees understand the meaning of it, can participate in it, and feel that their commitment is valued.

A collective intelligence andcollaborative innovationplatform like Beeshake can help you boost your CSR commitment.

How can we do this? By allowing you to :

• Provide feedback, because it is the basis for a strong commitment 😉

• Create and distribute simple and effective acculturation MOOCs to give all your employees a good level of information on your environmental strategy.

• Open a CSR idea box, allowing each employee to propose local and concrete initiatives. You will also be able to manage these ideas, evaluate them, select them and monitor their deployment.

• Communicate about your programme, the concrete ideas being deployed and the people involved.

• Organise events to keep your employees connected, and prevent them from feeling lonely and disengaged.

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