Tweet

Green Jobs: It's about growing your existing employees too

Written by: Gregg McLachlan

Article Overview: Looking to green your workforce? Perhaps the perfect candidate is already in your workplace, just waiting to be unleashed to help green your environment. On-the-job learning is still a major factor in the growth of green jobs

Green Jobs: It's about growing your existing employees too

OK, so you want to grow a green culture in your workplace and find green employees to fill new positions or expand upon current ones. Where do you start? Maybe place classified ads in newspapers, advertise online, or spread the word. With any luck, you'll find the right candidates. Or maybe not. Perhaps the perfect candidate is already in your workplace, just waiting to be unleashed to help green your environment.

It's no secret that the explosion in demand to fill green-related jobs is far ahead of the supply of actual candidates. The reality is that educational institutions are still racing to expand existing programs and develop new ones to meet that demand. That means there's an increasing need to also look within your own workforce.

You can have all the degrees or diplomas you want in your workplace, but many times the green component of a job is still something that's value-added later on. Fact is, on-the-job learning is still a significant factor in growing green jobs. That means, as a business owner, it's also about investing in, and growing current job descriptions and the culture of your workplace to become green-focused. So what does that mean? Well, that person in the lunchroom who keeps an eagle-eye out for co-workers who throw their pop cans in the garbage, and reminds them to recycle, could be encouraged to take on a role as your business's waste diversion coordinator. Put another employee in charge of doing an energy audit (yes, a basic energy audit, with little training, can be done by anyone to spot when power is being wasted and possible remedies).

Most municipalities and hydro utilities now have programs to help businesses become more environmentally friendly. Often, these programs are free or low-cost. And when you launch these initiatives, get your employees involved, not just the managers, as the liaisons with officials.

Remember, growing green jobs -- or just green enthusiasm in the workplace -- can start with your existing employees. Chances are, you'll find they're eager to jump on the bandwagon.

Related Articles
  Beware greenwashing your business
  How to Sell Green & Increase Sales
  Should You Switch to Selling Green?
  Is Your Job Recession-Proof?
  Green Cleaning Means More Than Clean

Article Tags: basic energy, business owner, co workers, eagle eye, educational institutions, energy audit, explosion, garbage, hydro utilities, initiatives, job descriptions, jobs, liaisons, lunchroom, municipalities, newspapers, perfect candidate, pop cans, waste diversion, workforce



Related Forum Posts
Re: Prospects in animation business in coming years. - Yes the Animation Industry is growing and it needs cost effectiveness, more employees producing quality work. Whether you make a 2d or a 3d animation it requires lots of money, concentration, patience and it sometimes become painful too. Half of the job is done once you have developed the storyboarding. As video advertising is growing, it would adversely affect the television advertising. Recent trends have shown that advertising budgets for online advertising is rapidly growing against television advertising all over across the world. Gaming industry is on its peak these days and animation is in huge demand.
Re: Finding AND Keeping Good People - Employee retention or as you mention “Keeping the Good People” is one of the biggest challenges for any growing business. It takes a huge effort from the entrepreneur’s end. I can come up with the following when it comes to KEEPing the good people- 1. Motivation of the employees 2. Recognition of the needs of the employees 3. Activities to make the employees feel valuable towards the organization 4. Make benefits more accessible 5. Offer profit sharing incentives 6. Create clear career paths at the company 7. Consider telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible working arrangements 8. Incentives are essential and they don't have to be huge 9. Have other managers praise an employee's work 10. Be sensitive to the balance between work and private life
Helping Businesses Grow - Over the years, I've been hired by a number of businesses for the purpose of fixing the existing problems, reorganizing the business and training existing or new employees to do a better job. The problem I faced with some of these people is that they want to experience and ability, but they want to pay for an entry level person. When you find someone who is qualified, pay them what that position and their assistance is worth. Something else that came to mind is that there are some positions that anyone thinks they can handle and bookkeeping is one of those jobs. Its not something that everyone can do, but a qualified bookkeeper can not only keep your accounts up to date, but they can also help you track business expenses and trends, help you spot negative trends in time to fix them and they can save you a lot of money in unnecessary tax payments. Shri
Re: 10 ideas to make you money in 2010 - I think Education would be hard to break into. Baby Boomers, Life Support and Trading Down, however, seem like good markets. As for Green technology goes, I don't think the business has to be entirely based on Green ideologies, but rather a business that embrace Green philosophies and use that as a marketing tool.
Women care about employees - I think women entrepreneurs care more about their employees than men so it makes sense that they would consider how the new owner would impact the employees.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

You Have A Website What Now

Coaching Tip: Identify Your Core Values

Using Social Media Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.