In a global study, 82% of respondents believe that the inability to find talent for sustainability impacts on meeting companies' climate commitments
Salesforce, world leader in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, published the global study Sustainability Talent Gap Research, which looks at the gap between raising awareness and training employees in the skills needed to take on sustainability roles and help their respective companies meet their climate commitments.
Based on conversations with sustainability executives, Salesforce conducted the study in 11 countries – including Brazil – with 1,297 employees. The result reveals that companies are facing enormous pressure to meet their climate targets from regulatory agencies, boards and their own employees. Despite this pressure, organizations face a severe shortage of sustainability talent to meet their increasingly ambitious climate commitments.
The scenario of difficulty is perceived by the employees. According to the study, workers' confidence in the effectiveness of company actions is low. Three out of five respondents said they doubt their companies will meet targets on time, and four out of five have even less faith when looking at their confidence in the efforts of other companies. Yet eight out of ten global workers want to help their company operate sustainably. Already three out of five employees said they wanted to incorporate sustainable issues into their current role.
Ignorance also appeared as a relevant factor. Employees showed little awareness of their company's climate efforts, with 53% of them unaware of whether or not the company has net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.
Training appears as an internal solution for a time of shortage of talent in the labor market. 67% of workers would like more skills related to ESG practice and 94% of them said training in these skills would help build confidence in companies' sustainability commitments.
“With an emerging workforce waiting to help, companies must turn their attention to training. By empowering workers who want to make the leap into sustainability careers, organizations can get talent into hard-to-fill roles, while helping employees work on something they are passionate about.” at Salesforce.
According to the survey, the vaccine for employee skepticism is a plan to invest in sustainability training. 95% of respondents believe that easier-to-understand sustainability reporting would help build confidence in companies' commitments. However, 88% of respondents see little investment in sustainability-oriented training.
“Companies have a responsibility to empower their talent with sustainability education, and Salesforce works to achieve that goal. In the first half of 2022, we had nearly 7,000 more completions in sustainability-related education programs through the free platform Trailhead compared to the entire previous year”, concludes the executive.
More information: To learn more, read the full report: Sustainability Talent Gap Research
*Methodology: Salesforce conducted a double-blind survey of 1,297 workers in 11 countries (Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, UK and US) in August 2022.
