Green Selection Practices

Introduction

Today, the world is confronted with numerous social, political, economic and ecological challenges that require urgent attention and solutions through innovative ideas. It is an undeniable fact that the environment has undergone drastic changes over the years and, as a result, most countries have started to realise the importance of safeguarding the environment (Aanganathan, 2018). Globally, the concept of “sustainability” is fast becoming a strategic concern for many companies, across various sectors and industries, as an approach to addressing social and ecological issues (Haanaes, 2009). Sustainability has become a “hot topic” for research and discussion in many sectors, including the world of business. According to Adams, Thornton & Sepehri (2012), apart from environmentally sound production methods, the term sustainability includes the attention that is paid to other important social and cultural goals, such as diversity, in leadership. From the above narrative, sustainability may be defined as meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. There are three main pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. However, the question is: How can organisations achieve environmental sustainability through selection practices? To address this question, various departments within organisations need to incorporate green agenda or green practices into their strategic decisions like selection.

Aranganathan (2018) claims that currently the corporate world is adopting green practices in all their functional areas as an initiative to protect the environment. He argues that HR Departments, in particular, have a major role to play in transforming e organisations into green environments, since they are responsible for attracting and maintaining a workforce aware of the most serious and current issues including political, social and environmental. Renwick, Redman & Maguire (2013) explain that the integration of corporate environmental management into human resource management (HRM) is termed as green HRM. Green HRM is all the activities involved in the development, implementation and on-going maintenance of a system aimed at making employees of an organisation aware of green issues. It is the side of HRM that is concerned with transforming normal employees into green employees so as to achieve the environmental goals of the organisation and finally, to make a significant contribution to environmental sustainability (Opatha, 2013; Opatha & Anton Arulrajah, 2014). In today’s labour market, there exists strong competition among firms to become green, thereby enhancing their recruiting and selection leverage to identify, attract, develop and retain a high-performing and innovative workforce that is more environmentally conscious. There are several green HRM practices that promote sustainability, but the focus of this chapter is on green selection practices.

According to Obaid & Alias (2015), green selection is the procedure of hiring or choosing job applicants who behave with knowledge of and competencies and skills in organisational environment management systems. Moreover, Saini & Shukla (2016) maintain that in green recruitment and selection, applications are invited through online mediums like e-mail, online application forms or through the global talent pool. It can be argued that when it comes to selection, some companies consider candidates’ environmental concern and interest as selection criteria. Also, when interviewing job candidates or evaluating applicants for selection, environmentally related questions form part of the interview questions.