Sustainable HRM, Training for Employability and Organizational Outcomes: the Employers’ Perspective

Abstract

The present study builds a bridge between sustainable HRM and employability streams of literatures to investigate the relationship between sustainability-oriented HR actions and organizational outcomes. More specifically, the paper explores the effect of training for employability on employer-employee relationship and employee retention, and considers competitive intensity as a potential moderator in these relationships. The analyses draw on the fourth European Company Survey (ECS 2019) with a sample of 21,869 firms with more than 10 employees. Results show that training for employability contributes in improving the employer-employee relationship and competitive intensity positively shapes this relationship. Contextually, training for employability reduces the overall employee retention capacity of the firms. Thus, while the study provide support for the potential win-win nature of employability support, especially for companies that operate in competitive markets and uncertain environment, it also brings out the existence of some paradoxical sustainability tensions which should be managed by the employers.