What is the role of HR in sustainability? This is not a trivial question, and since the mid-80s, strategic human resource management scholars have recognized the role of human resource management and of the human resource function for the implementation of strategy and for change. And the change toward sustainability is the one we are considering today. Building on a recent study carried on with two colleagues at Bocconi, Federica De Stephano and Arnaldo Camuffo, we can think of four possible roles for HR sustainability: HR for CSR, sustainable HR, HR for community sustainability, and HR for the ecosystem sustainability. Let's start from HR for CSR. HR for CSR is the technical process role played by the HR function in implementing sustainability initiatives at the organizational level. It addresses the ways in which different human resource management practices and systems support organizations in becoming more sustainable. HR practices that can affect behavioral and attitudinal outcomes towards sustainability range from staffing, training and development to performance evaluation and compensation or safety management and standards implementation, including practices able to establish an overall climate favorable to sustainability. Let's move to sustainable HR. Being the employees the primary stakeholders of the HR function, social sustainability naturally belongs to the HR domain, and it's a defining feature of the HR scope in organization. In this case, the goal of HR is not facilitating CSR but social sustainability per se as part of the HR domain. Sustainable HRM, or socially responsible HRM, means considering the organizational environment as well as the physical environment as part of sustainability. That's giving increasing attention to social sustainability in terms of employees wellbeing and to HR as a toxin handler. Sustainable HRM requires ensuring that the procedure for hiring, developing and terminating employees are fair. In addition to avoiding large layoffs and other practices detrimental to employee wellbeing, health conditions and job security. One is to notice that issues such as wellbeing, health and safety, welfare, diversity management, job security, responsible downsizing, lifelong learning and workplace banners have always been HRM issues, but mainly developed in isolation rather than within an integrated HRM sustainability framework, which will rather benefit both areas. We now move to HR for ecosystems sustainability. Here, the focus of HR policies are or should be, on acquiring and developing skills, as well as motivating and rewarding the behaviors needed to support CSR and sustainability initiatives beyond organizational boundaries. One example is represented by HR practices to support sustainability initiatives across supply chain, which affects suppliers, social sustainability and ultimately working conditions and social performance. HR here is more a support function to procurement and logistics in dealing with social sustainability. A second example relates to the enforcement of labor standards in global supply chains. This topic might imply the HR contribution through training, formal communication and its ability to foster commitment to responsible behaviors. A third and final example is in the development of labor and industrial relations aimed at improving working conditions, an issue that transcends organizational boundaries and involves entire networks, supply chains and ecosystems. We now move to the final role: HR for community sustainability. Here, the HR role, typically people oriented, matches with direct involvement in the communities, where the organization operates and in the society as a whole. The HR role is two-fold. On the one side, HR supports, designs and implements employees’ volunteering programs with the idea that permitting and encouraging employee volunteer efforts enable a company to achieve sustainability values more quickly. On the other side, the HR function provides development and training to generate employment opportunities, usually in the context of broader initiatives for external stakeholders, to guarantee improved living conditions to local communities and to the wider society. The HR function rarely promotes and endorses these initiatives. However, given the increasing evidence of the effects of such programs on employees’ motivation and behavioral outcomes, HR managers might gain a more prominent role. These are in synthesis, the four roles HR plays, might play, or should play in CSR and sustainability.
