sustainable development

In the past years, people as a human resource has developed as a major factor of business success. But, access to highly qualified employees and managers is not secure because certain qualifications and committments have become absolutely scarce. Maintaining durable access to this resource therefore becomes a new strategic task and requires business organizations to adapt a Sustainable Human Resource Management (Sustainable HRM) which is systematically concerned with long-term HR measures human resource maintenance and reproduction. In this article, we explore how companies can counter proactively a potential shortage of highly-qualified employees and managers by implementing family-friendly HR practices and measures.

In changing environments organisations are faced not only with economical and technological aspects but also with ecological and social ones (Corporate Social Responsibility). This involves a rethinking, especially in production systems, because both the resource usage and the contact with employees, suppliers and stakeholders must be reconsidered. Sensemaking can help to direct the organisation to a common aim and leads to a better understanding of the needed shift in the mental structures of management and employees.