Employees: how to ensure they make – not break – your green IT program: Seven tips for successful employee engagement

Upper management’s approval? Check. Green IT baseline? Check. Green IT strategy? Check. Engaged employees? Not quite.

This is the scenario of many organizations implementing green IT programs. Employee engagement is one of the most critical components to your organization’s green IT program but it’s often overlooked.

“I see a lot of situations where employees learn of their organizations’ green IT initiatives after the fact, through a memo or newsletter,” says Jessica Vreeswijk of Terrabytes, a green IT consulting firm. “It’s a huge missed opportunity for the specific initiative and the entire organization.”

However, says Vreeswijk, with some time and thought, you can not only achieve true staff engagement but you can impact your business positively in a number of other ways.

Workforce surveys consistently demonstrate companies that value corporate social responsibility (CSR), including environmental programs, have an easier time recruiting and retaining employees. MonsterTRAK, for example, conducted a survey of college students that found 92 percent would chose working for an environmentally friendly company. Further, the Kenexa Research Institute found employees are also more likely to believe that senior management supports and practices high standards of ethical conduct in companies with strong CSR programs.

Green initiatives rely heavily on employee engagement to be successful and green IT is no different. Green IT often challenges the status quo and requires looking at IT management differently. It is critical you recognize the cultural and behavioural challenges you will face and create a strategy to engage employees across your organization. Following, are seven tips to help you successfully inform and engage your company’s staff.

Know your Audience
You’ve probably heard the phrase “know your audience” before – maybe, like me, your mother spouted it at you when you requested cookies for breakfast. The point is: when trying to effect behaviour, you must understand the people you are targeting.

Consider bringing in an outsider to hold a focus group with a representative sample of staff. This will arm you with an understanding of how best to engage them – from what messages they need to hear, to what communication tools you should be using (ie. Maybe they are sick of corporate memos from the CEO and would be more receptive to a grassroots campaign).

Develop a Communications Plan
Experts recommend starting with a communications plan to identify the many ways you can communicate with staff and keep them motivated. Here, you will explore the corporate culture and establish the best tone for your messaging. Some organizations will role their green IT communication strategy into their larger environmental communications strategy. It’s hard to say whether this is the ideal method without knowing the scope of the project and company. If your green IT project requires considerable staff support, then a dedicated engagement campaign is probably required.

You communications plan will force you to think about how you want your employees to participate. What do you want them to do? Turn off computers and peripherals when not in use? Print less? Your goals will determine the best messaging and communication tools.

Inform
Ongoing, repeated, consistent communication internally will ensure that your employees care about and participate in your initiatives. There are many strategies, including hosting lunch and learns, holding competitions, and launching fun campaigns.

When you are communicating your efforts, remember that employees value honesty and transparency. Don’t be tempted to announce your IT is suddenly ‘green’ when in fact you have a ways to go. Instead, talk about your diligent research, your goals and the current steps you are taking. This will help convince them that your efforts are worth their support.

The tools you choose to use will depend on the culture of your organization. For the Fairmont’s green IT program, the VP of technology recruited the company’s existing green team to help him inform and engage the chain’s 92 hotels. Whatever methods you use, note that consistently and repeatedly delivering your message is important.

Empower
In addition to providing information to the employees, it’s important to empower them to monitor their behaviour. Engaging them with targets and empowering them to monitor their consumption are very effective strategies. Tools like printing controls, which track who is printing, how much, to what printers, and if they are printing double-sided help to change users’ behaviour.

Recruit
Literally engaging employees in your efforts will make sure your campaign is supported from not only the top down, but the bottom up. Recruit a green IT team with representatives from various departments. This will give you a thorough understanding of opportunities and challenges across the organization. You will not only receive ideas, support and feedback from the green IT team but the team members will likely receive informal feedback from their colleagues.

Set Targets
Metrics drive awareness and commitment. They prove that the employees’ efforts are making a difference and that the initiative is worthwhile.

An assessment of your current operations is the best way to start because so it will give you a baseline to measure your efforts against. Armed with hard numbers and targets, you can set goals for the organization and employees. This will be one of the most effective engagement strategies you use.

Celebrate success
Finally, when you have started to see results, celebrate! Encourage and thank employees by rewarding them. Intel, for example, has just implemented a corporate employee bonus metrics around sustainability and incorporated green IT. This, they figure, will motivate Intel employees to participate in green IT and other environmental initiatives. With a bonus at stake, I’m sure they are right. If your organization can’t write cheques, a simple thank you email or Friday afternoon BBQ can go a long way.

Consider a tiered level of rewards tied to performance. The better the organization performs on the green IT campaign, the better the celebration.

Britt Burnham offers communications services through Terrabytes, a leading green IT consulting firm that helps organizations measure and reduce the impact of their IT operations. www.terrabytesconsulting.com