Abstract: An HR cockpit for sustainable HRM. A strategic mapping methodology to develop a
sustainable HRM in an organization.
Alex Vanderstraeten, Ghent University, Department of HRM and Organizational Behavior.
These days, a new approach is emerging in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM). Where
strategic HRM has been the main approach for the last decades, nowadays more and more scholars are
connecting sustainability to HRM (e.g. Boudreau & Ramstad, 2005, Ehnert, 2009, 2012, 2014, Jackson,
Renwick, Jabbour, Muller-Camen, 2011, Mariappanadar, 2003). There are many different
conceptualizations for sustainable HRM, but most scholars agree on defining it as an extension of
strategic HRM (Kramar, 2014; Ehnert, 2009). Thereby they agree that sustainable HRM has a broader
focus on the organization’s performances than only accounting for the financial success of the
organization. In fact sustainable HRM incorporates the triple bottom line, namely people, planet and
profit (Elkington, 1994) and tries to balance these three different aspects. Even though literature (Ehnert,
2009, De Prins, 2014) provides different models about sustainable HRM, we face a lack of practical
tools to explore and exploit sustainable HRM in an organization.
To develop a practical tool for monitoring sustainable HRM in an organization, an extended literature
review was conducted, complemented with qualitative data (i.e. explorative interviews with
practitioners, trade unions and a test panel) to define the field of sustainable HRM. The development of
the tool started with a literature review in several different domains such as strategic HRM, sustainable
HRM, HR scorecards and strategy mapping. The tool is based upon the idea of scorecards and measuring
progress in realizing an HRM strategy.
Deriving from the literature review, two concepts were used as basic principles during the development
of the tool. First, the idea of the HR value chain where an input, throughput and output model is
presented as a strategic approach to sustainable HRM (den Hartog, Boselie & Paauwe2004;
Vanderstraeten, 2010). Secondly, to increase the applicability of the model, strategic mapping, starting
with Kaplan & Norton (2004) and further developed in the field of HRM by Becker (2001) and Huselid
(2005), is used as a guideline for implementing sustainable HRM.
Simultaneously with the literature review, a survey and several explorative interviews were conducted.
The purpose of the survey and interviews was to make sure that the tool is useful in daily practice. In
the survey we were interested in the definition that organizations use for sustainability HRM and the
presence of sustainable HRM within the organization. Of the 177 organizations from the social profit
and public sector that answered the questionnaire 29,4% reported having a formal policy of sustainable
HRM. The explorative interviews were held with ten practitioners and the three trade unions in Belgium.
Through interviews information about sustainable HRM, the importance of measurements, the
importance of having a tool and how such a tool should look like was collected. After the literature
review, survey and interviews, a first draft of the tool was developed. We used the Delphi methodology
to gain consensus among practitioners about the components and definitions that were used in the first
draft of the tool (Linstone & Turoff, 1975). Ten organizations participated in this part of the
development. To further test the practical usefulness and correctness of the tool seven organizations
were willing to test it even more in detail and started implementing it. This resulted in a tool with 12
different components. (see appendix 1). The resulting tool can be used to guide social profit and public
organizations in the development of a sustainable HRM or to support the evaluation of their current
sustainable HRM. For each of the different components (12) in the tool, validated questionnaires and
measures are available so that organizations can collect data and measure their progress towards a
sustainable HRM. Because of the importance of sustainability in organizations and the support that a
sustainable HRM can provide in transitioning towards such an organization it is important to encourage
more organizations towards sustainable HR. The developed tool provides social profit and public
organizations with a tool that can guide them towards sustainable HRM. In addition more organizations
can make the shift towards a sustainable organization based on a scientifically validated and evidence
based HRM practice. Future research should reexamine the implementations that were made, their
effectiveness and extend the implementation of the tool to different organizations in social profit and
public organizations, and even profit organizations.
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APPENDIX 1 (Dutch version, English version still in process)