A Core Evaluation of Green Human Resource Management - More than just for Hotels

MN7234ES - People and organisations: principles and practices in global contexts

Introduction

Green Human Resource Management is an emerging field of study that needs an in-depth analysis of it.

Human Resource Management

Going back to basics, we explore the concept of Human Resource Management. Professor Opatha (2021), in his journal' Definitions of Human Resource Management," describes Human Resource Management as "the efficient and effective utilization of employees to achieve goals of the organization. It is about managing people at work, being the human side of the Business Administration, having policies, procedures, rules, and systems influencing employees of the organization."

Impact of Climate Change. Source: Yilmaz (2024)

Green Human Resource Management

Riding on the coattails of traditional Human Resource Management, Green Human Resource Management efficiently and effectively utilizes employees to achieve an organization's goal of sustainability. It creates awareness of eco-friendly practices and energy conservation, as well as fostering job satisfaction and holistic approaches to the well-being of fellow employees. Therefore, human resource management has become 'Green' merely because of its values and newly improved sustainable practices.

When you take the word 'green,' it is an adjective and a noun. However, in a broader sense, the term is coined with 'environmentalism, conservationism, preservation, eco-activists, or nature lovers. We also tend to visualize green to associate it with grass, leafy pastures, and trees full of life. If we break these terms, we can further simplify the definitions as follows:

Environmentalism concerns the environment, particularly to the point of championing environmental causes while trying to reduce humans' negative impact on Earth.

Conservationism – a movement to protect and preserve natural resources, ecology, endangered species, national monuments, and landmarks.

Preservation is the act of keeping something as it is to prevent it from deteriorating, being damaged, or being destroyed.  

Eco-activists – a group of people or individuals who try to protect the environment and promote environmental awareness.

Nature lovers – people who enjoy the outdoors, time amongst nature, the wilderness, wild animals, flora, and fauna.  

Deskilling of workers in Fordism & Taylorism. Source: Cosmonaut (2021)

Taylorism & Fordism – Early Personnel Management 

Suppose you take the study of Green Human Resource Management against traditional Human Resource theories like Taylorism and Fordism. In that case, we see a stark contrast from the early personnel management in history. In the early 1920s, the era of the Industrial Revolution, productivity overshadowed employee well-being, autonomy, job satisfaction, and the environment. Shoobridge (2023), in his LinkedIn blog, quotes about Taylorism as follows: "Taylorism may be the efficient machinery of progress, but it grinds the souls of employees into dust, reducing them to cogs in a heartless industrial mechanism."

On the other hand, Fordism, with its drive for capitalism, had enormous repercussions environmentally, as mass production exploited much of the non-renewable resources, brought about climate change through pollution, and accelerated biodiversity loss.

How Important is Green HR Management. Source. W Chan (2017)

Conclusion:

The importance of Green Human Resources in the world today is to create environmental awareness within the individual and the organization. Badow (2022) mentions that "environmentally conscious human resources management initiatives that lead to increased efficiencies, reduced costs, improved employee engagement and retention" help "organizations" to "reduce employee carbon footprint through electronic archiving, car sharing, job sharing, virtual interviews and conferences, recycling, remote working, online recruitment, and training" while operating within "energy efficient offices."

Companies implementing Green Human Resources have achieved the following benefits:

• Reducing turnover – retention of talent.

• Growth opportunities by going greener and creating an eco-friendly environment will contribute to massive operational savings through carbon emission reductions.

• High levels of employee engagement and job satisfaction leads to consistent productivity and sustainability.

• Positive work culture with the well-being of all employees.

• Popular and improved brand image for the public, which builds up excellent public relations. Social media platforms have empowered many companies to share their success stories worldwide, increasing sales and customer base growth.

• Increased employee morale – who doesn't like working for a company with green values that values the individual and the Earth? The millennial and Gen Z workforce are huge international "go green" advocates and would prefer to work for a company with a "go green" initiative.

• Overall, it reduces the company's environmental impact.

• Reducing operational costs, such as energy efficiency and using less wasteful technologies, can bring significant savings.

• Tax benefits—Local governments and municipalities offer compensation or aid to organizations that better manage their utilities and energy consumption. With tax benefits in place, establishing a "go green" company is much more accessible.

• With consistent training by upskilling and reskilling, rewards, and other benefits, employees are motivated to manage the environment better and participate in the transformative "go green" human resource principles.  

With these common principles at the core of Green Human Resource Management, organizations other than hotels can also participate in the "Go Green" GHRM revolution, as the benefits are vast. 

References:

Badow, A. (2022) Advantages of Green Human Resources Management, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advantages-green-human-resources-management-abdulla-badow/ (Accessed: 28 March 2024).

Chan, W. (2017) (PDF) Green Human Resource Management: An organisational strategy, How important is Green HR Management to the Malaysian Financial Services Industry? Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321796044_Green_Human_Resource_Management_An_Organisational_Strategy_for_Sustainability (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Davenport, A. (2024) Taylorism, COSMONAUT. Available at: https://cosmonaut.blog/tag/taylorism/ (Accessed: 28 March 2024).

Giumarro, G. (2018) How Might Henry Ford Evaluate Ecological Impacts?, We are POWER. Available at: https://www.powereng.com/library/how-might-henry-ford-evaluate-ecological-impacts (Accessed: 24 March 2024).

Hounshell, D.A. (2021) The Same Old Principles in the New Manufacturing, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/1988/11/the-same-old-principles-in-the-new-manufacturing (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

Kanger, L. and Sillak, S. (2020) Emergence, consolidation and dominance of meta-regimes: Exploring the historical evolution of mass production (1765-1972) from the Deep Transitions Perspective, Technology in society. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7480399/ (Accessed: 23 March 2024).

National Geographic (2024) Conserving Earth, Education. Available at: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/conserving-earth/ (Accessed: 20 March 2024).

Opatha, H.H.D.N.P. (2021) A Simplified Study of Definitions of Human Resource Management. Available at: https://journals.sjp.ac.lk/index.php/sljhrm/article/view/5010/3845 (Accessed: 28 March 2024).

Shoobridge, G. (2023) Taylorism and the dark side of employee exploitation, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/taylorism-dark-side-employee-exploitation-gonzalo-shoobridge/ (Accessed: 24 March 2024).

Yilmaz, H. (2024) How to fight climate change using AI and Computer Vision, Plugger.ai - Creative AI assistant to make your photo, video, and sounds tasks. Available at: https://www.plugger.ai/blog/how-to-fight-climate-change-using-ai-and-computer-vision (Accessed: 31 March 2024).

Green Human Resource Management – Can it be effectively implemented in recruitment, employee engagement, and hotel retention?

MN7234ES - People and organisations: principles and practices in global contexts

Introduction

Green Human Resource Management involves high employee engagement as it significantly becomes a way of life for a company and its employees. The concept is introduced to create a green industry within the context of restoring balance to the world by reducing environmental pollution. A sustainable ecological balance is generated by a regular series of green practices and policies introduced by the Human Resource Management team with the support of employees and the organizational leadership (Pailé, 2022). However, is it easy for employees to implement green practices and policies? Issues about the environment are interdisciplinary, requiring initiative and pro-environmental behavior from every individual employed in the company.

 

Therefore, studies show that any green practices ought to be formulated in groups as this generates employee involvement formally and informally when carrying out activities related to the environment.

Green Recruitment

Hotels need to formulate the following steps when using green human resource management:

• Green employer branding
• Green recruitment in selecting the best candidates who may come across as environmentally        responsible.
• E-recruiting or recruitment marketing through targeted advertising.
• Awareness building about sustainable best practices.
• On-the-job, hands-on training
• Job shadowing
•  Coaching and mentoring
•  Educating staff on the importance of environmental changes and its impacts
•  Upskilling and reskilling employees in green skills

-      Financial and nonfinancial rewards are given to employees who adhere to environmental best practices, in-group collectivism, conflict avoidance, and goodwill among staff at work.

Green Employee Engagement

I have seen Green Employee Engagement at Aman Resorts, where I've worked, and seen its implementation being carried out at a more evolved level.

Of all the learning styles taught by the VAK model, at Aman, I saw that the kinesthetic method of hands-on learning was working at its best with most of the hotel personnel. Aman Resorts states they are "a company with a purpose; we care about our guests, employees, suppliers, and the environments and communities surrounding us. Our ethos has always been to support the well-being of people, society, and our planet, Earth." Aman Group (2024)

Image 1: Sustainable farming at Amanfayun, China - Aman (2024)

Therefore, I considered using Aman Resorts as a likely case study as they've been socially responsible for years and are known to be using the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) while being recommended by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). Aman Group (2024) Therefore, Aman Resorts is one of the best examples of implementing Green Human Resource Management policies within their property culture.

Image 2: Organic Vegetable Garden in Amandari, Ubud, Indonesia  - Aman (2024)

 AMAN’S SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY IN GREEN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Social Responsibility	Aman Resorts promotes gender equality, child protection, and education through support for orphanages, female empowerment, and entrepreneurship. Healthy organic and seasonal food for guests and staff and healthcare of employees and local communities. Local farmers and local vendors – employment for locals, fair trade, cage-free, and free-range products. All eggs will be acquired from cage-free sources by the end of 2024. As of February 2024, 72% of Aman hotels and resorts worldwide have achieved this goal of having cage-free eggs.
Local Heritage	Fifteen Aman properties are on or close to UNESCO-protected sites, and Aman resorts support these cultural sites actively and financially. Local protected landmarks, whether artificial, natural, or spiritual, Aman properties support their betterment.
Local Culture	Indigenous traditions, craftsmanship, and rehabilitation of lost traditions are a few of the cultural causes Aman supports. They further support local artisans by purchasing local products and encouraging guests to do the same. Local cuisine: cooking classes dedicated to the local culinary culture of the location, activities for the guests in kitchen gardens and local farms with the guidance of choosing their produce and using it in their cooking.
Environmental Protection	Respect and preserve native milieus and ecosystems by planting trees, mangrove protections, safeguarding corals and sea turtles, clean beach initiatives, and keeping open lands. Waste Management: recycling, reusing, reducing, and reuse of waste.   Food waste management: Composting Water conservation: low flow equipment, use of grey waters Energy Efficiency: LED lighting in all properties Eliminating single-use plastic: Glass bottles for water Educational programs: programs for employees and guests at Aman's Nature Discovery centers   Respect and preserve native milieus and ecosystems by planting trees, mangrove protections, safeguarding corals and sea turtles, clean beach initiatives, and keeping open lands. Waste Management: Recycling, reusing, reducing, and reuse of waste. Food Management: Composting. Water conservation: low flow equipment, use of grey waters. Energy efficiency: LED lighting in all properties. Eliminating single-use plastic: Glass bottles for water. Educational programs: programs for employees and guests staying in Aman. Low carbon kitchen practices by sourcing plant-based meals through a rich array of vegetarian and vegan meals, growth of organic produce within the surroundings of the resort

 

Table 1: Aman Group – Sustainability (2024)

 

Table 1: Aman Group – Sustainability (2024)

Image 3: A Vegan Meal served in Aman Grand Canal, Venice Italy (2024)

 

Green Human Resource Management on Employee Retention:

 

"Green human resources management practices are the application of human resources management practices such as recruitment, selection, training, performance appraisal compensation job analysis, separation, etc., targeted towards environmental sustainability and employees' safety." (Akpa et al., 2022)

 

Conclusion:

 

Green Human Resource Management is effective in Green Recruitment, Green Employee Engagement, and Green Human Management on Employee Retention. The major disadvantage of implementing this in hotels or any other organization is that it requires a very innovative restructuring of any existing Human Resource Management, as it takes time and resources. Existing employees can feel burdened at first in the initial stages as it may create extra work for them (for example, recycling initiatives where staff would need to sort materials into separate bins). However, long-term positive effects include saving hiring costs and growth opportunities, as many people favor sustainable companies and those with green policies. Not to mention that the employees begin to take pride in their work and to be associated with a green company that promotes the well-being of the environment and for them.

 

References

     

Akpa, V.O. et al. (2022) ‘Effect of green human resource management practices and green work life balance on employee retention in selected Hospitality Firms in Lagos and Ogun States, Nigeria’, European Journal of Human Resource Management Studies, 5(4). doi:10.46827/ejhrms.v5i4.1265.

Dias, G. et al. (2024) ‘Should human resources management “go green”?: The impact of green human resources management on employees’ green behavior, affective commitment and company Green Performance’, Management and Industrial Engineering, pp. 71–93. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-52811-8_3.

Gonçalves      , A. (2021) Green human resources management - meaning and definition [2021], youmatter. Available at: https://youmatter.world/en/definition/green-human-resources-management-meaning-definition/ (Accessed: 19 March 2024).

        Group, A. (2024) Sustainability - aman, Aman resorts. Available at:                         https://www.aman.com/sustainability (Accessed: 19 March 2024). 

Khan, K. et al. (2022) ‘Green Human Resource Management and Green Service behaviour in organisations: Examining underlying mechanism’, South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management, p. 232209372211199. doi:10.1177/23220937221119908.

Sembiring, N. (2019) ‘Green Human Resources: A simple review and research direction’, Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Resources and Technology [Preprint]. doi:10.5220/0008506000730078.

Sousa, B. and Valeri, M. (2024) Human Relations Management in Tourism. Hershey,  Pennsylvania (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 17033, USA): IGI Global.

Wargo, J. (2009) Green Intelligence: Creating Environments that protect human health. New Haven, CT. USA: Yale University Press.