Does a Green Company Mean a Satisfied Company?

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:38:33 +0000

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a list of the Top 50 companies who purchase the most green power today in the U.S. as part of the Green Power Partnership. These green power purchases help reduce the environmental impacts of electricity use and support the development of new renewable generation capacity nationwide.

But what we wanted to find out is if there is any correlation between a green company and a satisfied workforce. We looked at how these top rated environmentally-friendly companies are rated by their employees. The table below lists the top 12 companies (with 20 or more company reviews) and their corresponding company and CEO approval ratings based on employee feedback.

While there is a wide range of findings when looking at how these companies rate according to employees, what’s interesting to note is the fact that only four of these top 12 green companies (Intel, PepsiCo, Whole Foods and Cisco) have CEOs whose approval ratings are above 50%. Among the EPA’s list the US Air Force and Whole Foods receive the highest company ratings, 4.0 and 3.8 respectively.

Another observation we caught is the newcomer to the EPA ‘s list, Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has made some significant strides throughout the past year to become more active with their environmental efforts and are now ranked at number 15. However we did note that despite the eco-conscious efforts made by the company, Wal-Mart’s CEO has a modest 34% approval rating and the company receives a neutral 3.4 rating.

Glassdoor Report: Top Companies using Green Power*
Rank		Company Rating	CEO Rating
1	Intel	3.5	63%
2	Pepsi Co	3.5	71%
3	Kohl’s Department Store	2.9	44%
4	Dell	3.0	46%
5	Whole Foods	3.8	66%
6	Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc	2.7	35%
7	Johnson & Johnson	3.3	41%
8	US Air Force	4.0	43%
9	Cisco	3.5	75%
12	HSBC	2.9	33%
15	Walmart	2.9	34%
16	Kimberly Clark	2.9	17%

*with 20 or more reviews

From the employee perspective, being green doesn’t always seem to make up for some of the issues employees express in regards to senior management. See what some employees of these companies suggest to help improve their satisfaction at the workplace:

Listen to your employees. Encourage suggestions. Train, train, train. Do not expect the impossible of your team leaders and associates when they do not know what is expected of them. Too many really fine workers leave in frustration and tears because they are treated badly and pushed beyond normal endurance.- Department Specialist, Kohl’s Department Store

Appreciate and value your employees much more than you do today. . Frustration toward executives and fear off layoffs are dramatically impacting productivity.- Project Manager, Dell

Listen to your employees in the field and on the front lines. They know more than you think.- Sales Representative, Johnson & Johnson

Does a Green Company Mean a Satisfied Company? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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Does a Green Company Mean a Satisfied Company?