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Going green encourages staff retention

Environmentally sustainable businesses have a better chance of retaining staff, according to a new Australian Catholic University study.

Research from the Peter Faber Business School has found links between green innovation, organisational performance, worker goal attainment and staff retention.

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Business Strategy and the Environment, the study found employees were more hopeful when their individual beliefs on green innovation aligned with their employer’s values.

“We know that hope significantly increases perceived organisational performance, which in turn is linked to employee goal attainment and their intentions to stay,” ACU researcher Dr Hormoz Ahmadi said.

“Individuals with an environmental conscience bring that mindset with them to the workplace. Their preferences for green innovation drive their emotional state.

“When that aligns with the company’s values, then it has a positive effect on their intentions to stay.”

Researchers from ACU, Coventry University, the QUT Business School, University of Otago and Macquarie University surveyed 403 Australian employees to explore the relationship between workers’ preferences for innovative green organisations, hope and intentions to stay.

The respondents were drawn from a range of industries, including telecommunication and information technology (11.3 per cent), government (10.9 per cent), financial and legal services (9.2 per cent), health care (9.7 per cent), tourism (3.7 per cent) and education (6.9 per cent).

With job mobility at its highest rate (9.5 per cent) since 2012, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the findings of the study have implications for executives who have been urged to consider the impact of green innovation on employees’ emotional responses and ambitions.

“Developing green abilities enables employees to align their personal green values with their efforts at work,” Dr Ahmadi said.

“Organisations that recognise this, and cultivate a green culture, will have a fighting chance with regards to retention.”

Dr Hormoz Ahmadi is available for interview.

Media Contact: Damien Stannard, 0484387349, damien.stannard@acu.edu.au