MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Why Making Good on Green Promises Can Be a Win for Retailers

Evolving labor expectations have forced retailers to reassess long-held beliefs about employee values and contemplate their cultures.1 Along with a fair wage, employees seek employers whose values are consistent with their own. Providing a clear purpose, offering flexibility, and making authentic commitments to diversity and sustainability are important means of engaging a growing part of the workforce. For instance, 40% of employees across industry sectors said they would consider leaving their job if they couldn’t trust their employer to fulfill its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments, and a quarter (26%) said they would consider switching jobs to work for a more sustainable company.2 This reflects employees’ growing demands of their employers, particularly around openness and authenticity.

Given that there were 1.1 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. retail market as of April 2022, cultivating an attractive work culture is no longer a “nice to have.”3 When it comes to sustainability, embedding it into the DNA of organizational culture is not just the right thing to do for the planet — it can also be a key component in employee attraction, retention, and satisfaction.

About the Author

Rodney R. Sides is the global leader of Deloitte Insights, is vice chairman of Deloitte LLP, and leads the company’s retail, wholesale, and distribution practice in the United States. Sides has more than 30 years of experience assisting retailers with their strategies to improve operational efficiency and increase profitability. His experience spans store operations, supply chain, procurement, back-office operations, and IT. Lupine Skelly is the research leader for the retail, wholesale, and distribution sector within Deloitte Services LP’s Consumer Industry Center. Skelly has more than 15 years of consumer market research experience uncovering actionable insights around emerging trends across the retail industry.