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How To Promote Your ESG Program To Your Employees (And Why You Should)

Implementing a new ESG initiative for your company is one thing. Getting your employees to care about the ESG initiative you've implemented is another thing entirely.

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Often, sustainability leaders invest significant time into brainstorming, planning, and preparing only to find that they’re still missing out on one of the most important elements for a successful ESG initiative: employee buy-in. 

In this article, we’ll discuss why this happens and how EHS&S professionals can use internal marketing to promote ESG programs and build support for their initiatives.

“A failure to communicate”

Let’s say your organization has decided that one of its social issues (the ‘S’ in ‘ESG’) is reducing the number of workplace safety incidents. As part of your data collection efforts, you’ll rely heavily on employees to report information about safety issues, so you decide to launch a new mobile reporting tool for them to submit their observations and concerns. 

Employees receive an email that says: “Here’s your login information and password.” There’s no explanation of what the tool is or why it’s being implemented, and no one receives training on how to use it. 

Weeks pass, and only a few reports trickle in. EHS&S is frustrated because they’re relying on employees to be their eyes and ears in the field, but employees aren’t using the new software. This is an unfortunately common scenario, and one that can be avoided or prevented. How? One way is by leveraging some simple internal marketing tactics.

What is internal marketing?

Put simply, internal marketing is when a company “sells” itself and its objectives to its employees. Internal marketing revolves around the idea of treating your employees as customers. 

In the same way that traditional marketing aims to raise awareness and get consumers to buy your products and services, internal marketing seeks to raise awareness and get employees to buy into your organization’s initiatives.

 Internal marketing can be focused on promoting the company’s overall mission and vision, or specific programs like ESG. 

Does internal marketing really work?

Internal marketing is an effective way to increase engagement and trust among employees, which in turn makes them more loyal to your organization. That translates into real return on investment (ROI) for the company. 

In fact, organizations with effective communication are 3.5X more likely to outperform their peers. Likewise, companies with employee engagement programs achieve 26% greater year-over-year (YOY) increase in company revenue.

How can internal marketing be applied to ESG?

As we mentioned above, internal marketing can be applied to any initiative within your organization — and ESG is no exception. Here are three internal marketing tactics that can easily be applied to ESG programs:

1. Content marketing

Content marketing is a strategy that relies on creating and distributing written, visual, and audible information (aka content). One of the most well-known examples of internal content marketing is the employee newsletter. Internal emails, social media posts, and even training videos are also examples of content marketing. 

However, most companies don’t think of these types of internal content as “marketing”, so they don’t use them as effectively as they could. When writing an employee newsletter, for instance, it’s common for companies to focus on their own needs and interests. In effective content marketing, by contrast, the focus is on providing value for the reader — also known as the “What’s in it for me?” or “WIIFM” principle. This simple mindset shift can help make your safety content much more effective. 

2. Surveys and focus groups

Employee feedback surveys and focus groups are another tool that safety professionals can borrow from the marketing department. These tools can help assess employees’ awareness, perception, and attitudes toward a new ESG initiative. They can also provide important feedback about employees’ wants and needs. 

Suggestion boxes, pulse surveys, one-on-one interviews and Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys are a few of the formats available for gathering feedback. Marketing departments can be a great resource here since they have a lot of experience with choosing the right survey format and asking the right questions to get the desired information.  

3. Word-of-mouth/influencer marketing

If you’ve spent any time on social media, you’re probably familiar with the concept of influencer marketing: tapping into celebrities or influential people to generate buzz for a product. Brands leverage influencer marketing when they pay NFL players to wear their sneakers, or give TikTok influencers free products to promote to their followers. 

In the context of ESG, influencer marketing might look like identifying respected employees to become sustainability champions. These employees can help promote ESG initiatives to their peers, field questions, and provide day-to-day support and motivation. 

A word of caution, though: Without a strong, top-down commitment to sustainability, ESG marketing can quickly veer into sustainability propaganda. Promoting an ESG program that’s all talk and no action will likely do more harm than good, both with customers and employees. 

The truth is that strong ESG initiatives aren’t built just by a clever marketing campaign. Rather, they depend on establishing environmental responsibility, social justice, and strong governance as core values of your organization. Only then should you consider using internal marketing to get the word out to employees.

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