Deciding to go green in your business is a great thing to do. However, everyone may not be on board. Many times, employees hesitate because change isn’t always easy to deal with. They may feel like these changes are forcing them to do things that make no sense or make their jobs harder. It is your duty as the boss to ensure that your employees find going green to be easy and to reduce any hassles that could occur. Here are some tips to help you do that.
Understand How to Handle Conflict
Before you ever get the ball rolling, you should make sure you have brushed up on your conflict resolution skills, like those mentioned by ACU. There is sure to be some pushback from some employees, and you want to be able to handle it fairly when it happens. By being prepared, you can be ready to clarify things and rebut objections. This will help things to move along more smoothly, and hopefully, prevent more conflict.
Make Sure They Understand
It’s essential that you make sure your employees understand why you are going green. Give them very specific reasons. Instead of just saying something general, like we need to reduce waste to help save the planet, you should give them a specific idea why going green is a good idea, like stating how much waste you have and how reducing that will reduce expenses and reduce your impact on local landfills. Having employees who understand the reasons behind the changes will allow them to become more engaged in going green and less likely to have problems with it.
Go Slow
While you may want to make all the changes all at once, this isn’t always the best approach. By going a bit slower and introducing new ideas gradually, you are able to get employees used to the new ideas. If you try to dump a ton of new policies on them at once, there is sure to be some resistance. Create a plan for implementing your go green ideas. Let employees get used to changes before introducing more. Start out with the easiest things first and move to the more complex later. Going green can work for any industry, such as social work field talked about by Case Western, so you can make this work but only if you don’t alienate or scare off your employees.
Give Them a Chance
While employees may push back at first, give them the chance to acclimate to the new ideas. Monitor who is complying and offer help to those who aren’t. Maybe they just can’t get used to new routines, such as recycling instead of throwing things in the trash. Small reminders can be very helpful and work much better than threatening punishment.
Going green is admirable. It helps the planet and will also be beneficial to your business. However, it usually means a lot of changes have to be made. Employees may not be too quick to jump on board because change is something people naturally resist. However, if you plan carefully and keep employee feelings in mind, you can make your go green campaign successful.
Steve Barker is a senior full stack database admin and web developer with a penchant for languages – digital and human. On weekends he’s usually marathoning dramatic HBO shows (Game of Thrones) or at the park with the family dog. He loves writing about environment, green energy etc.
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