3 Ways to Enhance Employee Engagement With Sustainability

Did you know that 51% of employees want their employer to invest in sustainability initiatives? As a business interested in food waste and sustainability, you may be wondering how you keep up this momentum and interest in practice. 

At Orderly, we know that the businesses that get the most from tech are those who include CSR in the process. As a B Corp, we understand how important it is to give back to the community and the environment, and the positive impression this gives both your employees and customers.

But it can be difficult to get started with sustainability in your business. Knowledge bottlenecks, blind spots and lack of interest in the long term can be challenging to overcome. Here’s how to keep sustainability top of mind:

1. Measure and share the impact

For sustainability initiatives to succeed, it is crucial that employees across all departments understand the importance of their roles and the broader impact of these initiatives. When people understand how sustainability affects them and their work, they are more likely to support and actively participate in these efforts.  Yet, 93% of workers don't know how to apply their company's sustainability strategy to their work.

Providing the business with stats with no context also doesn’t address this. You may be focused on reporting the data, but without it being understood, it loses so much of its power. It needs to tell a story. 

That's why we created our Digital Assistant. It contains a feature called the Orderly Scorecard, which uses simple steps to suggest improvements and reward good behaviour, rather than presenting mindless data and reports.

It's a snapshot that makes it easy for anyone to see the business value various sustainable activities are having. Plus, you can compare the performance of your different locations and determine which ones may need some additional help. 

2. Showcase successes

Any new initiative falls short when the communication stops at the launch stage. Ensuring employees are consistently engaged with sustainability activities means regularly communicating the impact and success of these projects and initiatives.

Consider all the channels available such as social media, newsletters, and internal messaging, and also think about frequency. It’s incredibly important to keep on promoting their great work and publicly show appreciation. 

3. Make your ethos sustainability-focused

It’s become common to promote and talk loudly about corporate social responsibility, but 52% think their employer is likely to greenwash. Business leaders have the opportunity to make any ESG initiative a true value. An example? It doesn’t sit very well to tell employees that they mustn’t do something because it causes food waste, and to then see other areas of waste elsewhere in the business. A company that sets standards in one area must be seen to be upholding them consistently across the entire organisation, also known simply as ‘Living the values’.

Employees love the Orderly system!

At the heart of any change needs to be momentum. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to turn big data into actionable insights that help businesses like yours make better decisions, improve operations and drive down waste as easily as 1, 2, 3.

Orderly’s supply chain management software contains innovative insights that are generated from integrations with a range of data sources to provide the right insights at the right time, from three things the store manager is doing well, two things they can improve upon one score out of five, benchmarked against peers. It’s comprehensive but not overwhelming, delivering true impact. Speak to us today to find out more.