The Four Benefits of Sustainability for HR Professionals: Ethical Christmas Gifts for Corporates

In today’s world, HR professionals work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. To keep up with the pace and demands of the modern workplace, HR professionals need to be resourceful and innovative. These departments face increasing pressure from various stakeholder groups to help move their organisation toward a more sustainable future. The public is becoming increasingly aware of how our ‘business as usual’ practices affect the planet. HR are experts on people, processes and technology in the organisation. They have plenty to gain from introducing and integrating sustainability into the department’s everyday life, from process to giving sustainable gift hampers. Here are four benefits that you can get from being involved with sustainability as an HR professional:

HR professionals can gain a better understanding of their organisation’s environmental impact.

Organisations with a strong sustainability focus often have an in-depth understanding of their environmental impact. If your organisation is committed to sustainability, you will have access to the necessary tools, metrics, and benchmarks to measure your carbon footprint. This knowledge can be vital for HR professionals tasked with finding ways to reduce the cost associated with an organisation’s carbon emissions. Use your increased understanding of carbon emissions to inform everything from your travel booking decisions to your office supply purchasing practices. Furthermore, you can choose a sustainable supplier for corporate gifts for teams and clients - one with carbon offset delivery.

Alternatively, your company may not be made a commitment to sustainability yet. Using your role as an HR professional, you can influence and inspire your company to take on sustainability, one step at a time.

HR professionals can help to build a more sustainable company culture.

The best way to ensure that your organisation’s sustainability efforts are successful is to start with employee onboarding. New employees are some of the most likely people to be open to sustainability activities and initiatives. By utilising your influence as an HR professional, you can help to build a sustainable company culture from the ground up. You can do this by introducing sustainability initiatives early on in the onboarding process. For example, you can introduce your organisation’s sustainability manager to new hires as soon as they are brought on board. This gives sustainability a more central role in the onboarding process, helping to ensure that all new employees are aware of their organisation’s sustainability efforts. Another example is through changing the ways your organisation can undertake it is gifting strategy. Changing up from standard gifts to gifting with sustainable gift boxes and sustainable gift hampers means you are showing your team the impact created with these. With Social Stories Club, the positive impact created is rewarding to employees and gets them involved in creating this impact. Furthermore, there are options to brand your sustainable gift boxes so the organisation's logo is featured on a belly band around the box.

HR professionals can gain insight on how to retain current employees and attract new talent.

Achieving a sustainable future can be challenging if your organisation is failing to retain its employees.

Did you know: 47% of HR teams identify retaining employees and employee turnover is one of their biggest challenges? (NetSuite, Work Institutes Retention Report, 2019). 

If you are working with a retention problem, it is likely that your team feel that their concerns and ideas are not being heard. They may also feel that they are not being given the opportunity to make a positive impact on the world. If you are able to integrate sustainability into your everyday operations, you can help to address many retention issues by giving your employees the opportunity to make a positive impact. Finally, sustainability initiatives are often attractive to potential employees. If you are committed to sustainability, you can use this to your advantage when recruiting. Not only can you use sustainability as a way to attract new talent, but you can also use it as a tool to differentiate your organisation from its competitors. Integrating sustainability in the first step a new hire takes in your organisation can be a great way to leave a good impression on them. Whether it is having an open discussion on it with them, gaining their insight on how to get sustainable at work, to giving them a sustainable onboarding gift box for their onboarding.

HR professionals can add value by utilising their crucial organisational skills.

As an HR professional, you are an organisational expert. You understand how people, processes, and technology fit together to create an efficient and effective workplace. By integrating sustainability into your responsibilities, you are giving yourself the opportunity to leverage your crucial organisational skills in a new way. By actively participating in sustainability efforts, you can help your organisation to reduce its carbon emissions, cut down on waste, use alternative suppliers and achieve other sustainability goals. This can be an excellent opportunity for you to demonstrate the value of an HR team and their important organisational insights. Choosing a social enterprise to work with on a variety of your organisation's areas can allow you to be a champion of sustainability at work and trailblaze the use of social enterprise at work. 

Sustainability is not a fad or trend, but rather an essential change in the way we do business. HR professionals can gain a lot from getting involved with sustainability and helping to bring this change to their organisations. By getting involved with sustainability, HR professionals can gain a better understanding of their organisation’s environmental impact. They can help to build a more sustainable company culture. They can gain insight on how to retain current employees and attract new talent. Finally, they can add value by utilising their crucial organisational skills by introducing sustainable organisations that can help them on their journey.


If you are looking for bespoke gifts of branded corporate gift boxes, Social Stories Club is the best sustainable gifting company for businesses. Sending sustainable corporate Christmas gifts has become increasingly popular, but why not welcome new starters to your team with an employee letterbox gift. 

To find out more about employee gifting, visit Employee Gifting.
You can also view our employee onboarding gift box here.