ESG and the Communications Imperative: Five Key Takeways
Over the past few months, Paradigm Consulting met with a range of experts to gather their insights on how they are experiencing the rapidly growing space of ESG. Our interviewees span a diverse range of industries from across Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK, each with a unique perspective on this increasingly critical approach to business.
Click here to read the interviews.
One of the consistent messages across all the interviews was that in recent years companies have recognised the importance of having a clear sustainability strategy and the value it creates in their engagement with stakeholders. In equal measure, developing the right ESG narrative to support the facilitation of long-term profitability has also become a priority. An effective ESG communications strategy is essential to enable companies to differentiate themselves and contribute to the sustainable development of society.
What follows are our key communications takeaways from each interview:
Creativity to harness engagement: Be mindful that your employees are receiving a deluge of information every day. To cut through the noise, be creative in the way you communicate volunteering opportunities, such as creating a mini campaign to generate buzz. Volunteering has proven to boost employee’s self-esteem and confidence and the pandemic has created an opportunity for companies to look at ways to empower their people to support their local communities.
Resonate with your employees: Effective employee communications is essential to support businesses looking to holistically transform their operations for greater alignment with their ESG vision. A key consideration when developing your narrative is to ensure it resonates with each employee so that values and rewards are aligned. In doing so, this will ensure most employees are connected and willing to effect change.
Connect across all levels: Communicators need to work closely with business leaders to drive the company’s ESG narrative and at the same time consider the employee value proposition and company-wide objectives. In doing so, an effective communications strategy can be developed that harnesses the right platforms to achieve stakeholder engagement.
Spotlight on the ‘E’: Having a strong environmental proposition is becoming increasingly important. Companies need to place greater focus on their impact as well as their social governance by communicating environmental performance, policies, practices, and future direction.
Materiality, intentionality and additionality: There is no universal process to determine a good company and therefore investor communications will vary across organisations. Given this, there are three points to prioritise:
Materiality - how material various ESG factors are to a company’s financial performance;
Intentionality - whether the company intends to take action and ‘do good’ via its products, services and interactions with wider society; and
Additionality - whether ESG investing generates societal benefits in addition to financial ones.
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