Risk & Compliance / Luis Cabrera / Máximo Martín /
Reflecting sustainability criteria in pay is key to achieving ESG goals
An increasing number of companies are taking sustainability criteria into consideration not only in executive and director pay, but also in the pay of their staff as a whole, in order to better achieve their ESG goals. We addressed this dynamic in the Garrigues Sustainable dialogs.
“Companies that make the effort to consider sustainability criteria create an employer brand that gives them a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining talent,” noted Eduardo Gómez de Salazar, partner in Garrigues’ Human Capital Services (HCS) department. To delve into the subject, in the Garrigues Sustainable dialogs we have been able to draw on the experience of a company – Acciona Energía – which has been doing this for years because sustainability forms part of its DNA.
How does it do it? Ana Benita, head of Organization, Talent and Wellbeing at Acciona Energía, explained that a significant portion of all employees’ variable pay (12.5% in 2023) is linked to achieving the group’s sustainability targets. In other words, matters such as the goal of having women hold a certain percentage of management positions not only concerns executives, but the entire staff.