THE GREEN STANDARD

Sustainable Human Capital: Consider the Stress

By Conor Burke

THE PARKING INDUSTRY HAS RECOGNIZED the value in implementing sustainable products and equipment in our facilities, however, one branch of sustainability that could be developed further is sustainable human capital. The sustainable human capital approach is paradoxical, because one side requires looking at your teams as the assets that need to be managed in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way, while the other side is prescribing solutions that embrace the holistic approach of seeing the workforce in their entirety as both workers and humans. This is accomplished by inputting the cost-benefit analysis for employees, employee retention, and the work-life balances employees face, and synthesizing the end goal, which is promoting a healthier work environment. The downstream effects of this type of management will help companies become more efficient, save money, and reduce their carbon footprint while also making sure that employers are able to retain more talent.

Professional Relationships

The parking industry requires operational management skills that encompass a wide array of abilities, that have populations dispersed through large areas with managers in solitude locations working closely with their team. The idea that these managers are easily replaced discounts the working environment they have established with their team and the rapport they have also built with the client on a day-today basis. This presents a problem because many of these professional relationships cannot be fully replicated by a new individual in that role.

Building a successful employee retention program and talent pipeline is imperative for reducing and/or mitigating these transitional periods and helping keep healthy and positive work environments for teams that might not feel the corporate culture as easily an in-house staff does. Current estimates of how much it costs to replace employees is anywhere from 50 percent of their salaries for entry level workers to 250 percent of senior level employees. Shifting to a new mindset requires a change in focus, as these sustainable human capital decisions are about the benefit cost analysis and translating out of a bottom-line cost element that retention and recruiting currently fall under.

Sustainable human capital does not look to reinvent the wheel when looking at a healthier work environment; the main goal is to establish work-life balance into the context of worker productivity and limit the negative effects of internal and external forces. There are two forms of stress that need to be under consideration while looking at sustainable human capital: job-related stress and financial stress.

Sustainable human capital does not look to reinvent the wheel when looking at a healthier work environment; the main goal is to establish work-life balance into the context of worker productivity and limit the negative effects of internal and external forces.

Considering Stress

Job-related stress can produce burnout and higher absenteeism that will undermine employee retention in the long run. While job-related stress may lead to a lower retention rate and produce higher health care costs for employees, the more insidious of the two major stresses on a day-to-day basis is financial stress, which can impact the work product.

For half of all employees, nearly a month’s worth of productivity is wasted on worrying about financial stresses every year, and this does not even take into consideration any loss of focus that taking on a second job may have on their primary career. Stress is a universal force all employers must contend with and try to resolve, however it is only one element of an unhealthy equilibrium that can make employees feel disengaged—and those who are disengaged but still employed are only performing at a 66 percent productivity level.

To combat this disengagement and reduce stress, human resources professionals have begun to implement employee incentive programs and other ancillary policies to make these employees feel reengaged and appreciated. The parking industry has great resources through associations like IPMI, and making sure your company follows these standards can ensure that there is a cohesive message for continued learning, job training, and salary increases that could help prevent any disconnects in policies.

Sustainable human capital is an expanding theory in strategic human resource management and the effects that it can have when implemented correctly can be beneficial for the parking industry, our corporate cultures, and the lives of our respective staffs. While this is an introduction to the topic and barely scratches the surface into it, the hope is that this will start the conversation by advocating for employees to engage in these programs and seeing the benefits of including the work forces’ lives as something that can be treated in the realm of sustainability. ◆

CONOR BURKE is general manager for VPNE Parking Solutions and a member of IPMI’s Sustainability Committee. He can be reached at cburke@vpne.com.

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