The holiday season starts with being thankful and ends with ESG.
The holidays are when many begin reflecting on things most important to us – family and friends, core values, and being grateful for what we have. Let’s also remember to value our work. To some, it’s “only” a job, but in my experience, most employees derive a great deal of pride from their work and how they contribute to the company.
Take time this holiday season to capitalize on that. Carpe diem the heck out of it and ensure our employees know our companies truly are the purpose- and value-driven places they want to spend their time with.
As we’ve learned in previous blogs, younger employees want to work with and for companies they feel deeply connected to. They want to work with companies whose values mirror their own Environmental, Social, and Governmental values. Yup, that’s ESG.
Managing your company’s ESG means managing resources and preventing unnecessary pollution. It means you’re reducing emissions and excessive climate impact. It means creating a clear vision and mission, then being able to eloquently articulate it to anyone who asks.
- Managing resources and preventing unnecessary pollution. Over the past two decades, the resource industry has made tremendous strides in this vein (yes, that’s a mining joke). Overall, we’ve done a good job of showcasing efforts to make our sites sustainable with as little impact to the environment as possible while still garnering what our global society requires. But let’s ensure each company is doing it on their own, too. Telling employees, or those who may become recruits one day, exactly what we’re doing while being as friendly to the earth as possible, can go a long way towards making our workforce feel connected with our companies.
- Reducing climate impact and emissions. Here’s a chance to show off. Has your company moved away from using some measure of fossil fuels? Have you reduced your water consumption? Have you created synergies that reduce waste? I suspect many of your companies have, but scant few talk about it in the hiring process or in all-employee communications, and even fewer when creating dialogue with potential mining workers. Capitalize on that. Remind anyone who will listen that you’ve moved the needle away from taking and more to giving.
- Create a clear mission and vision, then talk about it. Your company likely already has a mission statement and many also have a vision to guide your operations. How are you using them? Are you articulating them in your hiring practices? Can you explain to an 11-year-old at a career day how we’re producing copper sustainably, taking care of society, and why our industry is so critical? You can. It just takes a little practice.
The resource industry is creating tremendous value that others outside the organization (and even sometimes within our organizations) don’t understand. Our work is valuable. Let’s take time this holiday season to weave these messages into our everyday work lives. Our coworkers want to hear it, and future employees need to hear it.
If you’re looking to make a career change, MRC can help connect with us or submit your resume.