1 © IOP University of Berne Mykolas Romeris University, Sept 2006 Sustainability in Human Resource...

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© IOP University of Berne

Mykolas Romeris University, Sept 2006

Sustainability in Human Resource Management

Norbert Thom, Robert Zaugg, Adrian Blum

Presented by

Prof Dr Dr hc mult Norbert ThomDirector of the Institute for Organisation and Human Resource Management (IOP), University of

Berne

www.iop.unibe.ch

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Work-Life-Balance

Individual Responsibility

Empl

oyab

ility

Individual

Companies

Strategies Objectives Instruments Methods

Processes Structures

Culture Attitudes Values

Model of a sustainable human resource management

(All diagrams and statistics from Zaugg/Blum/Thom 2001.)

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Three pillars of sustainability

Work-Life-Balance♀: Growing importance of professional career♂: Growing importance of private and family life

Individual ResponsibilityIncreased autonomy and self-determination in questions of professional development

EmployabilityFocus on continuous development and professional agility rather than specific activity

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Survey* of 1016 European companies. Aims:

• Overview of state of the art of HRM in Europe• Determining conception and stage of implementation of

sustainable HRM in European companies• Cross-country comparison

The pillars in practice

*The project was kindly supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Personnel and the European Association of Personnel Management (EAPM).

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Sample

Switzerl. Germany Italy France Spain Netherl. Austria England Country

Questionnaire Abs. % Abs. % Abs. % Abs. % Abs. % Abs. % Abs. % Abs. %

Mailed Questionnaires

3020 47 500 7.8 500 7.8 500 7.8 500 7.8 500 7.8 400 6.2 500 7.8

Returned Questionnaires

749 73.7 45 4.4 81 8 42 4.1 37 3.6 37 3.6 12 1.2 13 1.3

Return rate 24.8% 9% 16.2% 8.4% 7.2% 6.8% 3% 2.6%

Total of mailed questionnaires 6420

Total of returned questionnaires 1016

Total return rate 15.83%

• Sectors: industry, service providers, trade, transport, public sector, IT, healtchcare, banking, construction, insurance

• Company size: 40% >500 empl; 47% 50-500 empl; 13% <50 empl

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Objectives of HRM in European companies

1

2

3

4

Economic objectives

Employability

Self-realisation

Pleasure at work

Individual responsibility

Quality of life

Social contacts

Compensation

Social responsibility

Health

Europe Netherlands France

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Central objectives of HRM in European companies

• Contributing to achievement of economic objectives

• Promoting individual responsibility (90% of questioned companies!)

• Ensuring adequate pay and promoting employee health

• Enhancing employability (strong dispersion: 68% of Dutch vs. 22% of French companies)

- HRM is gaining in strategic importance.

- Sustainability as defined by the model is an issue.

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Conception of sustainability in European companies

• HR development: training, continuous education, career planning

• Employee characteristics: motivation, flexibility, responsibility

• Leadership: consistency, social skills, MbO

• Staff retention, incentives

Keywords associated by HRM responsibles with sustainability in HRM:

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Con

cep

tion

of

su

sta

inab

le H

RM

in

Eu

rop

ean

com

pan

ies:

keyw

ord

cate

gori

es

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„I am of the opinion that our company has a particularly innovative concept for sustainable human resource management .“

57

2423

37

40

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

agreeentirely

partly agree tend toagree

tend todisagree

partlydisagree

do not agreeat all

Perc

enta

ge

Sustainability in European companies

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Major instruments of sustainable HRM

•Recruitment: requirement & job profiles; HR marketing; labour market research

•Deployment: health management; staff composition (older employees!); advanced working-time management

•Development: encouraging continuous education; career planning; promoting individual responsibility & participation

•HR marketing; image analysis & improvement

•Retention: sophisticated incentive systems

•Disemployment: exit interviews; outplacement

•Management & Leadership: participative management styles; MbO; assessment of superiors

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The instruments in practice – selected resultsDeployment: health management

Effective health management rests on systematic collection of data on absences and health of employees.

Health management more sophisticated in large (>500 empl) companies of the industry and construction sectors. Less common among service providers.

~ 60% of questioned companies across countries charge at least 1 person or unit with employee health.

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Deployment: staff composition

Demographic and economic developments in Europe increase the significance of the potential of employees of advanced age.

Less than 5% of questioned companies indicate that they have recognised and made efficient use of the potential of older employees!

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Deployment: working-time

Flexible working-hour models are conducive to improved work-life-balance. Especially so are

• Job sharing

• Sabbaticals

• Telework

• Long-term or lifelong working time schemes

Flexible working hours are used in more than two thirds of the questioned companies, though mostly for individual cases only. Systematic implementation is still very rare.

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Advanced working-time schemes in European companies

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Sabbaticals (long-term leaves)

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Development: promoting individual responsibility

Participation and/or autonomy in decision-making is a crucial feature of sustainable HR development.

Around half of the companies interviewed report that their employees can directly participate in important decisions. Also roughly half claim to promote individual responsibility & partial autonomy of their employees.

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Individual responsibility

In our company we specifically encourage our employees to develop a sense of responsibility (e.g. by providing them with course budgets that they can administer

themselves).

3,31

3,35

3,16

3,75

3,89

2,80

2,98

3,54

3,22

1 2 3 4 5 6

Switzerland

Germany

Austria

Netherlands

France

Italy

England

Spain

Europe

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Management & Leadership

Management and leadership styles contribute essentially to participation and individual responsibility on the part of employees.

~ 80% of European companies claim to be using participative management styles, and also MbO seems widely implemented. Far less widespread is superior assessment, which would provide an excellent opportunity for enhancing sustainability in HRM.

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Staff retention

Attractive non-material incentives are an essential element of sustainable HRM.*

While around four fifths of the companies questioned claim to offer generous material incentives to their employees (compensation, fringe benefits, bonuses), 40% believe that non-material incentives are "rather not" or "not at all" attractive for employees.

*Cf. also Thom/Friedli 2003

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Non-material incentives

Our company offers its employees attractive non-material incentives (scopes of decision-making).

3,86

4,46

3,32

3,24

4,68

4,00

3,62

3,66

4,25

1 2 3 4 5 6

Switzerland

Germany

Austria

Netherlands

France

Italy

England

Spain

Europe

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Disemployment

Sustainable HRM must take into account the needs of employees laid off or leaving on their own initiative in order not to harm the company image on labour and sales markets.

A large majority of European companies uses exit interviews systematically as a classic method of disemployment. However, a significantly lower percentage (61%) consider it important to give professional advice to employees during their leaving process.

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Conclusions

• Sustainability in Human Resource Management is an issue in companies throughout Europe, though with local differences.

• A considerable variety of specific instruments supportive of sustainable HRM is in use. However,

these instruments so far have been implemented only restrainedly and unsystematically. Much more could and will have to be done to ensure and enhance employability, individual responsibility and a work-life-balance that does justice to the societal changes of recent decades among European workforces.

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Further steps

• Reconsider staff composition: make sure to fully exploit the potential of "minorities", esp female and elderly employees.

• Do not underestimate the motivating effects of non-material incentives. There are many more of these besides having employees participate in decision-making.

• Include superior assessment in a comprehensive workforce assessment scheme.

• Take better advantage of the great potential for flexibility in the area of working time schemes.

The above conclusions suggest the following immediate recommendations to European HRM responsibles:

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… and always remember:

Sustainable Human Resource Management concerns both the individual and her or his employer as equal partners: it is not simply a question of better satisfying the individual needs of employees, but stands in the service of corporate competitiveness – fully in agreement with the central purpose of HRM to support the achievement of the company's economic objectives.

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References

Zaugg, Robert J.; Blum, Adrian; Thom, Norbert (2001): Sustainability in Human Resource Management. Evaluation Report. Bern 2001.

Thom, Norbert; Friedli, Vera (2003): Retention. Case Studies on High Potentials. Bern 2003.

Further results to be published in:

Zaugg, Robert J. (2006): Nachhaltiges Personalmanagement. Eine neue Perspektive und empirische Exploration des Human Resource Managements, Wiesbaden 2006 (in press).

1 © IOP University of Berne Mykolas Romeris University, Sept 2006 Sustainability in Human Resource...

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