Cost of recruitment and sustainability

Maria Maisuradze
Oct 13
4 min read

Recruitment, retention and the hidden cost of not doing sustainability

Sustainability is a team sport and a talent strategy. Over the years, I have watched brilliant sustainability programs stall, not because the ideas were poor, but because the sustainability lead tried to run the play alone. Meanwhile, Human Resources (HR), Finance, Risk, IT, and Legal stayed in a separate locker room. For instance, HR departments are rarely incorporating sustainability-related impacts on recruitment as a material factor to monitor, and therefore potentially miss out on a full picture. Such silos can be costly: not only mentally costly for the sustainability leader that is pushing these projects up the hill, but can also hurt recruitment, weaken retention, and quietly eat at employers’ reputation.

Luckily, evidence of business cases for HR is emerging and sustainability leaders can get ahead by teaming up with their visionary HR leaders to help them reach their common goals: attracting and retaining the best talent.

What jobseekers increasingly care about (beyond salary)

Money still matters. But it is no longer the sole lever. Two shifts changed the calculus for candidates: the pandemic’s hard nudge toward flexible work and rethinking of priorities, and a rising public expectation that employers act credibly on environmental and social issues.

Many jobseekers now prioritize flexibility as a non-negotiable element of a role, and firms that ignore that preference face engagement and retention risks.

At the same time, sustainability and climate questions are appearing in interviews, candidates are increasingly inquiring what the organization is doing about these issues.

In short, employer values and behaviour are part of the employer brand, and that brand affects the talent pipeline.

Inaction is not only a reputational problem, it is a talent problem

A recent study, conducted by Wren Montgomery from Ivey Business School, measured how jobseekers respond to corporate environmental communication. They have classified behaviour and perception impacts of greenwashing into 5 buckets, as seen in the Figure 1 of the Montgomery research paper (the link is included in sources in case if you wish to dive deeper into the study).

This research shows that when companies make unsubstantiated or misleading environmental claims (known as greenwashing), jobseekers react skeptically. Exposure to greenwashing raises organizational cynicism and reduces willingness to engage. The result: harm to recruitment and onboarding.

While it is really hard to assign a dollar sign to the cost on recruitment, the study does demonstrate a real behavioural cost: words without credible action can repel the talent you hope to attract.

The takeaway is simple sustainability inaction can backfire internally but may not be as visible.

Why HR should care (and why sustainability leaders should court HR)

HR owns attraction, onboarding, engagement, and exit analytics; all these areas where small shifts compound into substantial financial impacts. Meanwhile, sustainability teams typically own strategy, targets, project delivery and external reporting. When those two functions operate in lockstep:

Recruitment messaging becomes authentic (and verifiable).
Onboarding reinforces real practices rather than slogans.
Retention strategies can link purpose to career pathways.
Exit interviews and engagement surveys surface actionable signals for both teams.

All this to say that HR is a great partner to convert sustainability credibility into talent advantage. And sustainability teams convert HR’s people data into evidence to guide investment and demonstrate the business case for sustainability actions.

The ROI question: what we know and what we don’t

Executives often ask for “the number”: how much will sustainability help recruitment, or how much does greenwashing cost? The truth is: granular, cross-industry dollar figures are rare, if available. Many costs are indirect and hard to quantify… damaged trust, higher screening time, weaker employer brand, etc., and they compound over hiring cycles.

That said, when you examine these invisible, hard-to-quantify costs of not advancing on sustainability actions, the cost of sustainability projects may actually be represent an investment.

In the past few years, through my work, we have focused a lot on financial advisors. As clients are increasingly aware of sustainable investing options, they ask questions to their advisor. What is the cost of your financial advisor appearing ignorant or, even worse, providing wrong information about sustainable investing? Financial institutions’ success is built on trust and as increasingly knowledgeable client uncovers this unpreparedness, it will certainly affect trust and credibility. What is a dollar value of one client losing trust in their advisor? What are financial impacts of this distrust for an entire financial institution? I hope there will be a research paper on this as well, as I would be certainly interested to read it.

Corporate sustainability work is not charity; it is a risk-and-talent management lever. I simply wish risk and HR teams were more passionate about it. It would certainly make sustainability leaders’ job simpler.

Practical ask to sustainability leaders

If you are struggling to get a business case, become friends with HR. Share interview feedback, ask for testimonial stories from recruits who cited the company’s purpose as a driver. HR can surface the human data; you can translate it into a strategic narrative backed by concrete results.

Sustainability will never be a single person’s job. It is woven into policy, procurement, product, and people. When Sustainability and HR move together - honestly, measurably, and with small wins that add up - companies not only win in the market, but also in the talent wars that will shape their future.

Next steps:

Plan a coffee or lunch with your HR executive, activate empathy superpower, understand their goals and priorities and finally open their eyes by getting them excited about how authentic and credible sustainability corporate actions can help them achieve their goals.