HRM Practices in Sustainability Reports of the World’s Most Sustainable Corporations

Abstract

This study investigates the bundles of sustainable human resource management (HRM) practices the most sustainable companies report having, the goals of those bundles, and how HR-related goals are measured. Drawing on ability–motivation–opportunity (AMO) and sustainable HRM theory, we predict that bundles of HRM practices are more important than single HRM practices in sustainable HRM. The sustainability reports of the most sustainable companies (N=40) indicate that the bundles of sustainable HRM practices target health and well-being, employee development, employee engagement, and diversity and inclusion. All the main goals include multiple different metrics, which aim for sustainability in HRM. Our findings also show that sustainability reporting regarding HRM is relatively homogeneous. The findings offer important contributions to research on the sustainable reporting practices of the world’s largest companies by focusing more deeply on HRM aspects in reporting and HRM bundles targeting sustainable goals.