7 - Employee Engagement

Summary

Many employees want a work life that aligns with their personal values. Employees who value the environment can feel increased workplace engagement when they believe their employer is genuinely working to reduce its environmental impacts. Better employee engagement can reduce labor costs through easier recruitment, stronger retention, and more productivity among employees. Some companies offer engagement programs that allow volunteer employees to work towards environmental goals as an additional feature of their employment. The case of Diana Glassman and TD Bank illustrates the challenges of developing and implementing effective environmental employee engagement programs. Important challenges for employee engagement programs include offering co-benefits that fit with employees and assuring employees that the environmental improvements and co-benefits are genuine. Glassman addressed these challenges by using employees’ peers to communicate about the engagement programs and aligning the engagement programs with TD Bank’s company culture.