Can going green help retention? Surprising answer
May 19, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Document retention, Payroll software, Special Report, Telecommuting
Why should HR care about “going green?” Because your employees do.
Just under 60% of employees say they want their employers to be more environmentally friendly, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll. For workers under 30, it was 69%. That means environmental concerns will become more important as young folks enter the workforce.
Companies that make an effort see a difference, too. About 43% of HR pros at companies with environmental programs said they’ve seen a big morale boost as a result, according a survey by the Society for Human Resources Management.
Low cost
The good news for employers: Those initiatives don’t have to be expensive. A lot can be achieved at no or minimal cost, often creating energy savings in the long run. Workers said they’d like to see their employers:
- Donate or recycle old computers and other equipment
- Use electronic forms and documents to minimize paper use
- Promote carpooling and public transit
- Use energy-efficient lighting, and
- Encourage employees to turn computers off when they aren’t being used, or having IT set them to shut down automatically.
Employees benefit
As the cost of fuel goes up, going green and saving money often go hand-in-hand. That means companies can offer low-cost benefits that give real cost savings to employees. Some companies offer:
- Work-at-home options — Not everyone can do it, but those who can telecommute permanently, or on some days, should be given the opportunity.
- Carpooling programs — Sponsor a program to help employees find co-workers who live in the same area, so they can share rides.
- Public transit discounts — Many local transportation authorities offer programs to let companies get discounted fares for employees, often with tax incentives for the employer.
Tags: environment, green technology, morale, policy
May 21st, 2008 at 12:23 pm
TURN OFF your office PC’s at night. Not only does that add to your IT security, but it will work better the next morning, starting from a fresh boot. Just do it.
May 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
…that’s a stretch…retention?
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
NEVER TURN OFF your office PCs at night !
I don’t know who told you that, but it does NOTHING for your security.
Actually, it makes matters worse.
In the middle of the night, your PC gets Anti-virus updates, Windows updates (security holes) and more depending on the company IT plan.
If you really think that some hacker would get into your PC at night, he could do that during the daytime while you’re logged in … and you’d never know he was there.
~ Senior Computer Specialist
June 10th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Hey Mark - I think the person promoting turning your computer off at night is Green Minded. If you work an 8 hour day what is having your computer on for another 16 hours do for electricity consumption? It’s a waste PERIOD! They also mentioned security aspects and I think their point was, if it’s off nobody’s touching it. For you to say it does “NOTHING” is clearly wrong…try hacking into or doing anything to a PC that’s off! As a “Senior Computer Specialist” I would assume you to be a bit more understanding of those that may or may not understand the intricacies of IT. Perhaps you need to grow a bit in your understanding of perspective.
Furthermore, Windows Updates and Anti Virus Updates can easily be done during the day, in fact, many Anti Virus programs are set to check for updates hourly BY DEFAULT so you’re a bit mistaken when you allude to those things only happening at night. I would be willing to bet that in most IT shops not much happens at night on a workstation since most legwork is done on servers these days.
*** I would recommend to every company that’s green minded to shut their PC’s off at night, it’s clearly the greener choice and I’ve also experienced PC’s lasting much longer because there is less wear and tear on the hardware although I know some who debate that they’re mistaken. ***
If you truly want to be green from a work station perspecitve you should get thin client workstations which consume %75 less power than a PC. Check with your IT department about “Thin Client Computing” and how it could help your organization be greener.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
While I agree with Raf about updates being pushed during the day, most of our users do not tolerate the slow downs associated with the many processes we have scheduled to run in the middle of the night (defrag, virus scans, etc…)
I know theses things can be set to run only when the computer is idle, but it is much easier to run these after the workstations are free. If there is a desire to be more green, you could always schedule a shutdown after the nightly processing is done, that way you get the benefit of the machine being updated quickly, and cutting back on the use of electricity.
Some of the workstations we have need to stay on though, we set a backup window and associate machines to it, we do not know when the backup will occur exactly because there are many variables. All the machines associated with a particular schedule will complete within the window though.
Thin computing is a great option as well. It is greener than a workstation, cuts back on licensing, maintenance, and deployment costs. Wyse makes some wonderful thin and embedded computing solutions.