Employee Motivation

Without doubt your employees play a key role in making sure your business is sustainable. Top management cannot be the only ones who make green choices. As noted in previous entries in this blog, going green has to be done by the whole organization. What can your business do, however, if your employees simply do not care and are not assisting with your efforts? Nothing can be more discouraging for a business owner but some creative management techniques can be used to change behavior.

For starters, offer incentive programs for employees to encourage them to be green. For instance, for every green education seminar your employees attend, they may receive an extra $25 in their paycheck. However, a different approach may need to be taken. Some employees – even with incentives – still may not assist in making the changes needed for your business to be sustainable. You may have to take a stricter approach and give warnings out to employees who are violating policy. For instance, if an employee is caught not putting proper materials into a recyclable container that would be a strike. 3 strikes, for instance, may result in not being scheduled for a week etc.

You may be asking, why should my business spend so much time caring about the few employees who are not participating in being green? Remember the key parts to green marketing –be honest and have everyone in the organization be on board. You are, in essence, lying to your consumers if you say you are being green but have some employees acting counterproductive. Consumers will see this behavior and your credit and image will go down in the community. Do not let some in your business take away from all the work you have accomplished. Educate them, enforce policies, and be strict. This way you make sure your business is truly green.