Introduction
The term sustainability is derived from the Latin word ‘sustinere’. To sustain can mean to maintain, support, uphold, or endure. In a wider sense, sustainability refers to the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time. In business and policy contexts, it seeks to prevent the depletion of natural or physical resources, so that they will remain available for a long period. Human resources are key drivers in incorporating sustainability into the brand and enabling strategic alignment.
Sustainability of business refers to a company’s strategy to reduce the harmful environmental impact resulting from its operations in a particular market. An organization’s sustainable practices are typically analysed against environmental, social, and governance – ESG metrics. Sustainability is a business approach to long-term value creation by taking into consideration how an organization operates in the ecological, social, and economic environment.
the changing role of human resources in building competitive Advantage
competitive advantage can be gained when the organization selects and develops human resources and structure job duties and reward systems in order to motivate the team to perform well and this contributes to organizational effectiveness.
developing a high-performance system is crucial for organizational sustained profitability. The management practices like providing employment security, selective hiring, encouraging self-managed teams, creating extensive training programs, and compensation standards are the key areas to be focussed on. This practice leads to innovation, flexibility, enhanced customer services, increased productivity, cost reduction, a learning platform, and so on. The variables of high-performance systems have a significant impact on organizational sustainable profitability.
Main pillars of sustainability
The 3 main pillars of sustainability are:
- Social sustainability focuses on corporate social responsibility and being a business that customers, the surrounding community, employees, and investors want to support. Companies practicing social sustainability need to adopt fair labor practices and invest in long-term community relationships by giving back to the local community among other steps.
- Economic sustainability focuses on long-term business profitability and includes activities such as corporate governance, risk management, regulatory compliance, ethical business practices, and accounting transparency.
- Environmental sustainability garners the most attention from businesses. It requires companies to focus on improving energy efficiency in data centers and other facilities and on reducing their carbon footprint, packaging waste, and water usage, among other environmental issues.
Conclusion
Today acceptance of sustainability norms has evolved from a risk-mitigating tool to a core strategic priority for most companies. The role of human resources is growing for a long time, in building competitive advantage for organizational sustainability. In all stages of building sustainable models, human resource is the key in terms of planning, execution, and value creation. Human resources are evolving as per the needs and growth of the business. Business dynamics are molding people to be creative, take up contemporary challenges, and be competitive. A long-term perspective makes a business favorable to investors, and can improve the overall financial performance of a business.
See Also:
- Land to Fork – Induction on ABM
- Corporate Social Responsibility
- How to Respond to the Most Common MBA Interview Questions?
- Brain Teaser with Accounting Puzzles
- Caliper Profile–A Session on Personality Test
- 5 Entrepreneurial Strategies to Empower the Handloom Industry in India
- Top 10 Strategic Edge of Friendship for Future Entrepreneurs
