How to promote your ESG and DE&I practices
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) practices have been around for decades but are increasingly essential to candidates and employees – in fact, research from Supercritical has revealed that over a third (35%) of employees claimed they would leave their jobs if their employers don’t make sufficient efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. ESG has also become a deciding factor for more than half (54%) of potential employees as they consider the sustainability programmes of organisations before applying for roles.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) is also an incredibly important focus - with the financial climate exacerbating issues, not least pay disparity between genders and ethnic minorities. Recently, DE&I has evolved to include ‘Belonging’ (DEI&B). Indeed, research commissioned by Morgan Philips states that more than half (59%) of employees described feelings of isolation, while 47% expressed a reduced sense of belonging at work.
BP plc is a great example of how a business can develop and thrive: it reinvented its Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and committed to reaching the United Nations 2050 deadline to become a net zero emission business - which has helped it see unprecedented interest in roles over the last year.
Like BP raising awareness of its actions in the Unleash article (link in paragraph above), it’s important to promote ESG and DEI&B activities so that candidates and employees are aware. Here are 4 key methods to promote them.
Media Relations
Media coverage is one of the best ways to promote your activities as it not only helps build trust around your brand, but it also widens your reach to different audiences. Digital media has made it even easier to track progress and understand what is and isn’t working. Once you have decided on your ESG and DEI&B actions, consider their educational and informative angles and share these with relevant journalists so they can tell your story to their audiences.
Social Media
Social media platforms are a strong tool for emphasising core ESG and DEI&B messages on a more personal level through real-time responses and open discussions. However, it’s important to understand which platforms work best for your brand for time efficiency and maximum impact as demographics can differ. Consistency is key, so make sure to create a weekly schedule of content aimed to encourage user engagement. This can range from sharing media coverage and images, posting blogs and reposting others' content with commentary. On off days, look out for industry trends, useful consumer data and brand perceptions - social listening is a great way to understand audience views to shape your own activity.
Internal Stakeholders
To really show the value that your organisation places on ESG and DEI&B, you want your employees to actively participate and talk about your activities. Of course, you can’t force them to promote actions for you, but ensuring you have a strong internal comms strategy in place will help to encourage them and bring them along on the journey.
Firstly, make sure your leadership team is on board to lead by example. Beyond this, try to engage with your workforce as much as possible on the direction of your actions - keep in contact with them through emails, surveys or newsletters, for example, and try to gain their genuine feedback and suggestions. By helping employees to feel that their voices are valued in your decisions, they’ll likely feel more engaged with the process.
In a digital world, employees who talk positively about their company’s actions will be heard by new audiences, improving company image and employer branding along the way. Their interactions with your social channels could also do your social media strategy a big favour, driving the reach and engagement of your posts.
Influencer Relations
Getting an industry influencer to talk about your work is a great way to gain exposure to their engaged audiences. Because of their sway, their good association can do wonders for your image, increasing awareness.
To start, you must first identify which influencers are best for your campaign. You’ll want to find people who are interested in similar topics, have similar brand values and the right target audience. Good promotion should feel authentic so the people/brands you find need to match your ethos and interests. Then once you’ve built up the right relationship with them, you may arrange for them to discuss your work in their blogs, social media posts or partner with you to attend/host events.
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Ideally, your promotional campaign should use a combination of different channels to promote your work. Together, each component has the potential to expand your exposure, reach and audience engagement in a variety of ways to truly make the most of your activities.
Not sure where to start? Get in touch for help planning and managing your ESG and DE&I promotional strategies.