Businesses often fall short when it comes to human sustainability
Although 9 in 10 executives say their organizations is advancing human sustainability in some capacity, only 4 in 10 workers say the same.
The pandemic and its aftermath have driven home the point that people are any company’s most valuable asset.
“While organizations grapple with a myriad of challenges, a fundamental shift they should embrace is putting humans back at the center of work — after all, it is humans, more than any physical assets, that drive business performance,” said Art Mazor, global human capital practice leader and principal at Deloitte Consulting. “To achieve this, leaders should focus less on how much people benefit their organization and more on how much their organization benefits people.”
Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report for 2024 looks at the importance of human sustainability, which it defines as the degree to which an organization creates value for people as human beings, leaving them with greater wellbeing, employability and equity. Researchers found a disconnect between managers and workers:
- Although 9 in 10 executives say their organizations is advancing human sustainability in some capacity, only 4 in 10 workers say the same.
- Less than half of workers say their organizations have left them better off than when they started.
The report offers several ways employers can boost human sustainability.
Focus on metrics that measure human outcomes. Organizations often design people metrics either to quantify worker outputs and activities or as a box-checking exercise, rather than as an assessment of progress on outcomes and impact.
Make the business case for human sustainability. Making the mindset shift toward human sustainability often requires that leaders, executives and board members have a clear picture of the business advantages of making this shift.
Tie leader and manager rewards to human sustainability metrics. Organizations should set goals to advance on key human sustainability outcome metrics and drivers, and attach incentives to achieving them.
Integrate human sustainability governance into the board and C-suite. Human sustainability is increasingly taking center stage on the boardroom agenda as the board provides oversight on the intersection of strategy, risk, culture and ESG and its relationship to business results.
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Involve workers, future workers and others in cocreating their roles and human sustainability initiatives. To create value for individuals, organizations need input from individuals. Leaders can engage workers, future workers, contingent workers, community members and other members of the organization’s human ecosystem in dialogue about what they value and how it can be pursued together.
Learn from leading organizations’ workplace practices. Organizations in the forefront of human sustainability are implementing initiatives — and in some cases rewiring organizational practices — to add greater value for workers and society.
“A human sustainability perspective is grounded in a few simple principles,” the report said. “The people connected to your organization have the power to affect it in important ways. Your organization has the power to affect each of them. And by understanding and creating value for each other, your organization and its people can improve business, work and life for everyone.”