The number of CSR-related job roles advertised this year has increased by 74% since last year, and by 54% when compared to 2019 (pre-pandemic). In fact, May 2021 was the second-busiest CSR recruitment drive on record.

The findings come from a new report from global recruiter Robert Walters – ESG: Mindset over Must – which analyses key labour trends related to the heighted focus on the environment, social affairs, and corporate governance.

INDUSTRIES RAPIDLY HIRING

Consumer Goods & Services continues to be the industry leading the way on recruitment of sustainability experts – accounting for 23% of all CSR-professional vacancies this year, a fall from 20% in 2020 and 25% in 2019.

Chris Poole, Managing Director of Robert Walters UK comments:

“Right now, businesses are under more scrutiny than ever. Processes, suppliers, materials, and policies often have more of an impact on consumer actions than a finished product. As governments strive to achieve environmental targets, and the choice widens for customers on socially-conscious products and services – ESG will increasingly become more critical for survival, and not just for investment.”

Other industries which have maintained their recruitment drive in this area include Real Easte & Construction, Professional Services, Technology, Media & Telecoms (TMT) and Financial Services – which represents 19%, 13%, 11% and 8% of CSR-vacancies this year respectively.

Perhaps what is most surprising to see is that the Energy & Utilities sector advertised 9% of all CSR-related jobs, followed by 5% from the Public Sector and 2% from Healthcare.

However it is important to note that whilst CSR recruitment may be less representative in such sectors, hiring for this role has increased from near 0% within Public Sector and Energy & Utilities.

Within Healthcare, hiring for CSR-specialists skyrocketed by 100% between 2019 to 2020, indicating that the majority of their hiring spree took place during the pandemic.

Daniel Connors, Associate Director of Robert Walters UK adds:

“The impact of global warming has hit a number of industries hard this year – including financial services and insurance – where the damage caused by recent hurricanes, wildfires, and floods, presents risk factors for location of offices and even towards potential investors.”

A DRIVE TO CHANGE

In a move that signals more conversations are being had about sustainability in the boardroom, senior or top-level hires have increased from 7% in 2019 to represent 28% of all CSR-related hires in 2021.

Last week at COP26, 60 of the FTSE100 companies signed up to a pledge to stop their contribution to climate change by 2050. In addition, nearly half of the FTSE100 already link executive pay and bonus structures to environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures – with this expected to rise in the coming years.

Craig Howells – Principal Consultant at Robert Walters states:

“Some thought that in a global crisis, ESG targets would be the first to go. However, many companies strengthened their commitment to ESG during the pandemic. The suggestion also that people would care more about jobs and rocketing government debt over, for example, more socially conscious behaviour, appears misplaced.”