SUSTAINABLE HRM: ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES TO ATTRACT EMPLOYEES IN THE WAR FOR TALENT

In a changing and increasingly complex labor market, affected by growing expectations in terms of sustainability, an aging and fragmented workforce and a worrying scarcity of skilled employees, Sustainable HRM has emerged as an approach to managing people inside firms. Through the adoption of Sustainable HRM practices organizations are in fact able to not simply comply with stakeholders expectations, but possibly exploit them as a strategic tool to gain competitiveness in face of changing markets. It therefore becomes relevant to analyze which practices in particular can influence attractiveness of employers and serve as a competitive advantage in talents’ attraction, from a Sustainable HRM point of view. Accordingly, the scope of this thesis is to conduct a survey, with the guide of what literature indicates as the most relevant activities relating to Sustainable HRM that firms apply, to analyze what are the preferences of individuals pertaining to these matters. So as to identify which are the factors that can characterize an employer as appealing for the labor market. The methodology consists in creating a framework of reference of practices drawing these from literature. Further selecting then among these practices to develop a survey to study the preferences of individuals among different dimensions of sustainability, specifically comparing social and environmental practices, different bundles (the attraction, maintenance or development ones) and different characteristics of values of individuals. Ultimately building up our understanding on what may affect such preferences and inquire whether Sustainable HRM can ultimately represent a tool for talents’ attraction by corporations.