How ESG will change who you work with

A new focus for Audit International and our clients is ESG. But there is one thing all of us are perhaps not considering as much: ESG’s impact on the workplace.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors are changing how companies conduct business in many ways, including:

• New ESG or climate-related disclosure regulations to comply with, especially in Europe.
• The need to effectively identify and manage ESG risks (including compliance, financial, and reputational risks), and integrate them within the existing enterprise risk management framework.
• Bringing a host of environmental and social metrics at par with financial information, especially with regards to data quality. There is a growing need for investor-grade ESG data.
• Ensuring that ESG factors give you a competitive edge in attracting investors, customers, and talent.

But there’s another change brought by ESG that’s not getting enough attention: The effects on workplace interactions.

• Firms that ‘get ESG right’ understand that ESG isn’t the responsibility of only one person. You can’t simply appoint a Vice-President or Director of ESG, or just place ESG under the Chief Financial Officer or Chief Sustainability Officer.
• Also, different departments can no longer work in their own little world with occasional collaborative efforts across functions. The important changes brought by ESG will also bring fundamental changes to the workplace.

The ESG team :

ESG is a team sport. People from different departments will have to work together as part of a single team.

You may be in Finance, Legal, Risk, HR, EHS, Sustainability, Operations, IT, or Procurement, but now, in addition to your regular teams and colleagues, you will also be part of the ESG team.

And your company’s ESG team will play a critical role because strong ESG performance drives corporate performance.

This represents a significant shift because suddenly key employees will have to align with a new set of stakeholders. They will have to work together with colleagues they might not have worked with before, or even knew. Here’s a sample of the types of interactions to expect:

EHS will have to provide key metrics to Finance for combined financial and ESG (or non-financial) reports.
EHS will also have to show to Finance and auditors (internal or external) how they provide limited or reasonable assurance on the data.
Procurement will seek guidance from EHS and the Sustainability team on how to capture greenhouse gas emissions data to calculate Scope 3 emissions.
HR will be asked to provide more tangible metrics on DEIB to Finance for inclusion in the combined financial/ESG report.

Did you bring together key stakeholders across departments as part of your ESG strategy?

Have you recruited members of your ESG team yet? If this is a topic you are actively hiring for, then please get in touch with us here at Audit International to assist you with any hiring needs you may have.

Audit International specialises in recruiting Auditors and various Corporate Governance Professionals, including Internal Audit, Cyber Security, Compliance, IT Audit, Data Analytics, etc, across Europe and the US.

If you would like to reach out to discuss your current requirements, please feel free to reach us via any of the following:

Switzerland: 0041 4350 830 59 
US: 001 917 508 5615
E-mail: info@audit-international.com