With people around the world getting more and more environmentally conscious, sustainable mobility has become quite a mainstream topic. Many people now feel the need to lower their carbon footprint and play a part in cleaning up and conserving the environment. Business organizations can leverage this need to improve their employee appreciation and reward system. One way to do this is to introduce sustainability mobility as an employee perk.
Sustainable mobility in the workplace runs deeper than you’d imagine. Your employees drive to work every day, for example, contributing to environmental degradation in the process. These employees are probably aware of how they harm the environment when they drive to work, but they lack better alternatives. As an employer, you can help and encourage your employees to adopt sustainable mobility by packaging it as a perk.
Here is the how and the why behind sustainable mobility as a perk in the workplace:
1. Sustainable mobility isn’t necessarily expensive
In most cases, employee appreciation and rewards cost companies an arm and a leg. What’s demoralizing is that many of the expensive rewards that employees get don’t exactly tickle their fancy. Sustainable mobility presents employers with a chance to give employees inexpensive rewards that make a huge, lasting statement. You can, for example, give your employees sustainable travel perks in form of e-bikes. You can work with a local e-bikes outlet to sell e-bikes and cycling gear to employees at a discounted price. If e-bikes are too expensive for your taste, you can encourage staff to walk or run to work by rewarding them with discounted sports shoes.
Since many companies were forced to adopt flexible working when the pandemic started in 2020, not many employers and employees were sufficiently prepared to make the shift, both mentally and in terms of tech infrastructure. Many employees were depressed as a result while others were forced to deploy their own internet, personal computers, smartphones, sim-only deals for data and other tech infrastructure to do office work from home. After 2 years of working from home, most workers are now used to flexible working and would love to continue with the status quo. That’s why this is the best time to start promoting sustainable chances to your hybrid teams.
2. Sustainable mobility doesn’t have to be boring either
Low-carbon holiday travel perks, for example, will give employees all the fun they crave without harming the environment. Air transport is the world’s biggest emitter of harmful toxins. Your staff members can eliminate their flying emissions completely by abandoning flights for low-carbon travel options.
Of course, people choose to fly to their vacation destinations out of the need to save time and maximize the few vacation days they have. They avoid low-carbon alternatives (e.g. cars and trains) because of how slow they are. As an employer, you can make the slower sustainable travel options more appealing to employees by offering them a little more downtime for vacations. Longer travel times won’t be off-putting when vacationers are assured that the days they spend on the road won’t eat into their precious vacation days.
3. Sustainability as a topic can drive employee engagement
Driving engagement in the workplace has been a tall order for many employers for the longest time. However, with environmental-based employee perks, it is quite to create a strong foundation on which companies can launch employee engagement programs. Think of it this way: Environmental and sustainability programs are at the heart of communities and societies. When a company starts sustainability programs and empowers its employees to join those programs, employees feel facilitated and supported to do something positive for their communities. That’s a source of pride for many people. Also, when a company is seen to gravitate towards tackling wider environmental and social issues, employees feel more attached and become loyal to their employer. They are proud to be associated with their employer.
4. Your sustainability efforts improve job satisfaction and productivity
Some companies are now offering relocation subsidies to employees, helping them move to within a few miles of the workplace. Employees can walk or cycle to work as a result and that helps them cut down their emissions to a bare minimum. The move also improves employee satisfaction and, with shorter commutes, employees are less fatigued when they get to work in the morning. That improves productivity quite significantly.
Final word
The return on investment (ROI) for sustainable mobility is too high for companies to ignore. Introducing sustainable mobility as a perk will improve every aspect of your company, from community engagement to HR and revenue. This is the time to make this shift if you haven’t done it already.
Written by Josh Levinne.
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