Keep your top talent when they switch to a green career

One-third of employees say they want their next job to be with a sustainable company¹ and that rises sharply in APAC, particularly for young people, where 77% say they want to work in the green economy.²

For companies in the region, this shift in values presents several challenges. Firstly, companies must maintain their current talent even when sustainability isn’t the primary business objective and secondly, they must plan for an emerging workforce that wants to see robust green credentials above all else.

The rate of green-skilled talent growth is not matched with the employer's needs. Currently, 22.4% of advertised jobs require at least one green skill but only 12.3% of the workforce have any green skills.³

To remedy this, employers must delve into their current talent pool to pull out the transferable people and skills into new, sustainability roles.

Train the people you have

Traditionally, sustainability roles have focused on environmental science and engineering skills. But, since the training is long and narrowly focused, employers are paying top dollar for these highly skilled people. So much so that people with green skills can expect to be paid 29% more than the workforce average.³

To break free of this talent trap, employers must think laterally about the skills needed to service the sustainability needs of their company. 

Singtel’s very own Aileen Tan is the perfect example of this in action. Aileen has an extensive HR background and now heads the organisation’s sustainability agenda. The convergence of her art and science qualifications, alongside her people-focused skills, gives her a unique power in a sustainable future for the business and its people. Andrew Buay is another Singtel leader who gathered a unique set of people, planet and business experiences to enable him to lead Singtel Group’s sustainability arm. 

In their Green Skills Report, LinkedIn identifies STEM and digital skills as key prior careers for people transitioning into green roles. They note, “Digital skills are important, as companies develop and deploy tech-enabled solutions to achieve their sustainability objectives.”³ Data literacy is another skill that is also critical to sustainability with measurements needed across data capture, analysis and ESG reporting. 

Whereas sustainability specialists are expensive, 48% of non-sustainability workers would accept a lower salary to work in environmentally sustainable organisations.⁴ This strategy keeps the talent in-house and offsets the higher premium of new, environmentally trained hires. 

Training talent to apply their existing skills to new, sustainability challenges also builds resilience as companies with robust ESG credentials outstrip their peers in profitability by 2% total shareholder return.⁵

While training teams on sustainability skills is the right move, retaining that talent is the next key objective. To keep these newly enlightened people, the business itself must be truly sustainable. 

Build sustainability at the core

If the business is not inherently ‘green’ reframing existing activities as sustainable risks greenwashing and will push your newly trained talent into other, more evidence-based, companies. Instead, companies must build sustainability into the core of the business.

Establishing centres of excellence for key products and services that build sustainability has proved successful for Singtel. Nxera is a new data centre brand that will make AI adoption more accessible in Singapore and across the region. Nxera uses renewable energy to be operationally resilient but also plans for future staffing needs by training more than 150 students annually for its data centre business, ecosystem partners and the industry as a whole.

Expand sustainability to all areas

Once sustainability is at the core it can expand to further prongs of the business such as deploying tools and methodologies that have energy-saving outcomes. 

As-as-Service models reduce the need for hardware and focus on meeting demands, rather than making upfront payments based on anticipated need. Tools such as Network-as-as-Service (NaaS) deliver these savings by allowing customers to change their consumption pattern to an on-demand basis rather than investing in hardware and waiting for workloads to happen.

What’s more, new technologies such as SD-WAN enable networking infrastructure with more agility and flexibility which optimises energy consumption and streamlines resource utilisation.

For organisations seeking increased sustainability, the benefits of these Software-Defined networking technologies are clear. They can reduce their hardware footprint, lessen their energy demands and meet emission targets.

Achieving corporate sustainability means drawing on teams and resources from all corners of the business to find opportunities for planet-positive growth. Both employer and employee must be on the same sustainability journey to reach these goals in the little time left to achieve them.

Providing on-the-job training and ‘greening’ aspects of the business to achieve sustainability goals are the key pathways to achieving these goals and for many, this is already underway. 

Are you ready for a green transformation?