Sustainable human resource management: six defining characteristics

Abstract

Sustainable human resource management (HRM) has been evolving for more than 15 years. It builds on strategic HRM (SHRM). Sustainable HRM is built around broad organisational goals in a number of areas, not just ‘business’ goals. Central to this approach is the link between HRM and sustainability. Sustainable HRM seeks to achieve positive economic, social, human and environmental outcomes simultaneously, in the short term and the long term. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development established Sustainable Development Goals. These provide strategies, goals, activities and management practices which human resource practitioners can apply to further sustainability outcomes. This link with sustainability has contributed to studies in areas very different to SHRM and required consideration of additional theories for insights into Sustainable HRM. This article identifies six characteristics of Sustainable HRM which explain the divergence with SHRM. These characteristics are contradictory outcomes, concern with capability development, the need to recognise potential and actual positive and negative outcomes, attention to the development and implementation of HRM activities, the explicit statement of values informing Sustainable HRM and the design of metrics to promote sustainability.