Circular economy at Siemens Strategic HR
to be easy for a firm 15,000-strong
in the UK.
Which was where Todd’s
lightbulb moment came in. “I said
‘I want to sponsor the circular
economy’ because I could see it was
all about things like: how do you get
that discretionary effort from
people? How do you get that
additional buy-in? How do you
incentivise people without it being a
reward issue?” she says.
“We often talk about HR being a
support service, but in this context it
genuinely is because it’s supporting
that wider agenda with the
underpinning infrastructure.”
Todd could also see that there
were several clear HR ‘wins’ to be
gained in return for Siemens being
successful here. “I could see a
number of things from an employee
perspective that were really going
to drive motivation, engagement,
the way people feel about the
organisation,” she says. “I also
wanted to test out if HR could really
play a role in something that
typically isn’t HR’s role.”
What with Blue Planet, Our
Planet, Greta Thunberg and the UK
government this year announcing a
‘climate emergency’, the popular
rhetoric is now such that
organisations can ill afford not to be
talking – and walking – a good game
here when it comes to attracting and
retaining talent, says Todd.
“On Glassdoor the comments are
around the social purpose we offer
and sustainability is part of that, and
we’re all competing for talent,” she
says. “It matters to people in their
personal lives, therefore as an
employer it has to matter to us. We
want to be seen as a good employer,
we want to attract the best talent,
therefore it’s a no brainer.”
There are real engagement and
wellbeing wins to be reaped with
existing staff as well, Todd says. In
relation to more and more people
apparently experiencing ‘ecoanxiety’
Todd comments: “Part of
what we’re trying to do here is build
that wider sense of wellbeing as part
of the circular economy, to reduce
some of that anxiety. So employees
know the company they’re working
for is actively doing something and
they can participate.
“Going back to that fundamental
role of HR being about right people,
right place, right time, this reduces
absenteeism, increases retention,
motivates people… So from an
HR point of view it’s central to
what we should be supporting the
organisation to achieve.”
Embedding change
Most crucial perhaps has been
launching L&D activity geared
around the circular economy.
“We’ve done a managers’ bite-size
session. We run those on all sorts of
different topics. It’s once a month, a
time for managers to get together in
the business and hear about
something and understand what
they can do about it,” says Jones.
“We’re also embedding the
circular economy into our project
management programme, our
leadership development
programmes and so on. It’s just
getting it in there so people don’t
hear it for the first time from
someone like me.”
Siemens has also started to
produce webinars that colleagues
watch either live or as recordings.
“We’ve built up an intranet with
lots of different resources such as
YouTube videos,” says Jones.
“People often say ‘I haven’t got
time to sit down and watch an hourlong
webinar’, but an eight-minute
snapshot they can watch while they
have a coffee. So it’s making it a bit
more flexible.”
HR is also working to build the
concept into job design “so it’s not
an add-on or extra thing you have to
do,” says Todd.
“Whether you’re on a production
line or in finance, everyone has a
role to play,” says Jones.
But it’s important to get the
balance between this being part of
all job roles and KPIs, and letting
staff guide their own learning and
activity, says Todd.
“We have an open-access online
campus. So if there is an
environmental issue you want to
pick up on you can go onto that,
type in ‘circular economy’, and it will
direct you to the video you need.
You don’t need permission from
your manager.
“We’re seeing individuals coming
together almost organically and selforganising
teams to promote and
produce ideas for improvements, so
it’s not having to be pushed by the
senior leadership team,” she
continues. “You can do as much
or as little as you need to do. For
some people it’s simply swapping
out their throwaway cup for a
reusable one.”
But while it’s important to allow
staff to lead the agenda, the senior
team must give it clear “legitimacy,”
says Todd – hence her appointment
as executive lead on the topic: “To
keep that rhythm going we make it a
priority on our executive
committee. So sustainability is
one of the things we discuss
every month.”
This gives people the permission
to spend that bit of extra time or
perhaps money finding a circular
economy-friendly solution,
says Jones.
“It might be a project manager on
Siemens can use
its technological
expertise to find
new ways to be
more sustainable
a construction site looking at
different ways of managing waste. It
Siemens UK:
Vital stats
Sectors
Gas and power,
health, digital
industries, smart
infrastructure,
transport,
healthcare,
renewable energy
Number of staff
15,000
Number in HR
190
Locations
Frimley, Manchester
and across the UK
Revenue
£5 billion
Employees are encouraged to find solutions that work for them
hrmagazine.co.uk October 2019 HR 29
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