The importance of ESG across Financial Services

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is fast becoming a strategic priority for organisations across the world, as investors increasingly use this as a way to measure whether or not a business is worth investing in.

Despite this, there are many people within organisations that do not have an understanding of ESG and its impact on business performance.

We carried out research amongst professionals working with the Financial Services sector between December 2021 and January 2022, and here’s what we found.

Importance of ESG

Only 53% of participants said that ESG was ‘extremely important’ or ‘very important’ to their organisation. When looking at the breakdown of ESG factors, 44% believed that environmental factors were the most important category for their organisation, and 10% said that no ESG factors were important for their organisation.

Understanding ESG

Our research showed that there was still a lack of understanding of ESG. Just over half (51%) felt they understood what ESG is, and 71% felt that ‘some’ of the people in their organisation had a ‘good’ understanding of ESG factors.

ESG has been shown to not only impact the decisions of investors on companies, but also employee morale/retention, and customer loyalty. 52% of participants thought that shareholders pay attention to ESG, and 64% believed that employees want to work for businesses that have good ESG practices.

Awareness of ESG

We believe it’s crucial to build awareness of ESG through training across organisations. We asked participants whether they would like to see their organisation run an ESG training course, with 63% saying yes. 42% agreed that a training course would be useful for all staff within their organisation.

When asked which activities does their organisation do to help them understand the level of ESG awareness amongst their staff, 46% said that their organisation doesn’t measure ESG awareness amongst staff.

Investment in ESG training

63% of professionals said they thought that business that invest in ESG skills and training will see an improvement in business performance. Similarly, 62% stated they would want to be trained by training providers that have good ESG practices.

Your strategic talent partner

At BPP we pride ourselves on understanding the needs of your business and finding solutions that plug that all-important skills gap.

We offer a wide range of ESG courses from awareness courses to professional qualifications, which are recognised by global bodies such as CFA. Each course is designed to build your organisations’ understanding of ESG and the ways in which it can positively impact the future of your business.

Speak to us today to find out more about how we can support your HR goals in 2022.