Last updated: 12 Nov 2024 10:00 Posted in:
UK organisations are placing increasing importance on the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) credentials of employee benefits providers when selecting a partner for their business, according to research by Group Risk Development (GRiD).
The industry body surveyed 500 HR decision-makers and found that 86% said that it is either a ‘priority' or ‘fairly important’ to work with employee benefits companies that have a strong ESG policy.
This marks a 34% increase in the number of businesses who said this over the past 12 months, which GRiD said shows that businesses are recognising the value of incorporating ESG policies into their day-to-day HR operations.
Additionally, employers thought that partnering with companies who have a strong ESG policy was also important to their staff (88%), compared with 62% of employers who held this opinion last year.
GRiD’s Katharine Moxham said: “ESG is going to be increasingly important to businesses of all sizes, but in many cases, the social responsibility element has played second fiddle to environmental and governance concerns. HR departments can rectify this, and increase their focus on social responsibility, by focusing on the wellbeing of their staff.”
GRiD said that group risk benefits can be effective in helping companies comply with the social element of an ESG policy due to the way they are set up and their affordability.
Moxham added: “Negative practices towards staff can be harmful to the reputation of an organisation but the opposite is also true. Looking after the wellbeing of staff is not just the right thing to do, or something that ticks a social responsibility box, but it has a fundamentally positive impact on the organisation.
“It’s also important to consider that if employers are judging their partners on ESG credentials, then the potential customers or clients of the employer will also be doing the same. The social aspect of ESG can be the more challenging of the three areas, but caring employers who support the health and wellbeing of all their staff will find they are helping their organisation meet their ESG intentions while also retaining healthy, happy and productive staff.”
"Looking after the wellbeing of staff is not just the right thing to do, or something that ticks a social responsibility box, but it has a fundamentally positive impact on the organisation."
Katharine Moxham, Spokesperson, GRiD