Top of mind...

Nick McKissack is Chief Executive of HRNZ. Nick is passionate about people development and sharing the success of members and organisations leading the HR profession in New Zealand.

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say we will never forgive you. We will not let you get away with this. Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not."

Just a snippet of Greta Thunberg’s speech to the UN. She has a powerful message, and within it is a call across generations for rapid and substantial change.

Greta Thunberg is a strangely polarising character. Her call for change makes a lot of people feel pretty uncomfortable. Which, of course, is her intention. I have a feeling there are a lot of us who need to get used to these feelings of discomfort and the idea of making fundamental changes to the way we live.

I had similar feelings when the Extinction Rebellion protests were happening in Wellington. I resented the disruption and the ‘in your face’ nature of the protesting, but, on another level, I completely understood why they were taking this approach.

A whole generation is emerging that believes in activism and is prepared to make a stand for the things that matter to them. Climate change is absolutely one of those issues that matter.

When it comes to the issue of climate change, there seem to be three different camps. There are those who whole-heartedly believe we are facing a crisis and are prepared to take action – the Greta Thunberg’s of this world. We also have the climate change deniers who claim it’s all ‘fake news’. Finally, we have those who kind of believe it but either can’t see how they can make a difference or prefer to avoid the issue because they fear the personal sacrifices they might have to make.

We are increasingly going to see a collision of these three perspectives in all areas of society, and our workplaces are no exception. There are some serious realities for all employers who will be faced with both consumer activism and employees who put increasing pressure on their employers to adopt sustainable business models.

For HR professionals, now is the time to start leading change in their workplaces towards sustainable business practices. This isn’t about ticking boxes to satisfy the ‘greenies’; it’s about fundamental and difficult change. It will get personal.

HR people are used to driving change and are often called upon when the change is hard, but the drive for sustainability is going to be different. This will be a change driven by the people, which will place pressure on those with the most to ‘lose’ to make transformative changes to their business models. If ever there was a time for HR to take that seat at the table and contribute to the solutions we need, then that time is now.

I guess the first step we each need to take is to decide which camp we’re in: are we the activist, the denier or the avoider? Once we’ve decided that, we need to determine whether we believe we can make a difference. One thing’s for sure, the first steps to failure will be to decide you can’t make a difference and then do nothing. I think Greta is asking us to decide that we can make a difference. I’m in.

Nick McKissack, Chief Executive HRNZ