How sustainable organisations can deliver compelling careers

For our latest virtual roundtable, therefore, we were delighted to welcome Natalie Ward-Smith, Global Careers Lead at Bupa, who explained how their drive to embed sustainability reaches across (and beyond) the organisation and impacts on people’s experiences of working there.

Sustainability at the Heart

As a healthcare company, Bupa has grown strongly and spread internationally since its establishment in 1947. It is driven by the ambition to be the world’s most customer-centric healthcare company by, in its own words, ‘helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world’.

The sustainability stakes were high for everyone involved in healthcare. It has been estimated that, if the healthcare industry was a country, it would be the fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet (Health Care Without Harm, 2019).

With the arrival of a new CEO in 2021, Bupa placed sustainability at the heart of the strategy to help it achieve this ambition. It effectively chose to see the planet as a new ‘patient,’ recognising a close connection between the health of people and the world in which they live.

The Power of Disruption

Bupa saw sustainability as one of six key strategic pillars driving its commercial ambitions. And the challenge to realising its potential lay in how to encourage the disruption of conventional thinking around sustainability and forge a stronger connection with employee values.

Bupa has multiple sustainability initiatives on the go. These include its Healthy Cities programme, which engaged with 80,000 individuals, including employees, customers and community partners, whose combined efforts, succeeded in unlocking £2million in funding for nature regeneration projects in urban areas.

Another key initiative has been the Bupa Foundation, dedicated to making a strong positive impact on local communities globally. Additionally, three volunteering days are given across the world to every Bupa employee, every year.

In all of this, Bupa recognises disruption as key, and wants to be a leader in fostering innovation across the whole business. They have successfully introduced employee challenges to grow skills, build engagement and create breakthrough ideas with impact. Two of these programmes are:

• B Disruptive – an AI centred programme open to everyone, no matter their role or level of AI knowledge. This offers an opportunity to be part of a global 24-hour hackathon to create something transformative for customer health.
• ‘eco-Disruptive’ – a global talent programme, open to every employee to help them accelerate sustainability. The goal has been to find and support scalable startups with innovations in sustainability, with the scheme currently divided into three sustainability challenges: inclusive health, supporting disability and illness prevention.

The Bupa approach to sustainability has had a real impact on the feelings of those working there, as well as providing people with growth and stretch opportunities and a sense of belonging. Bupa has recently recorded its higher ever engagement scores (83%), with the main positive drivers confirmed as being part of meaningful work, a strong connection with values, positive wellbeing, and a recognition of the encouragement to be curious in the pursuit of sustainability.

Our view

Bupa’s approach shows us how a powerful and holistic stance on sustainability can inspire employees, grow skills and drive engagement.  And their actions align with the core beliefs we hold at The Career Innovation Company.

Organisations thrive when they can help people both make the most of their skills and talents – and tap into their purpose and passions. There are at least three sustainability drivers that bring this alive. The first is the impact of putting environmental issues at the heart of your work, particularly on younger employees. The second is the link between sustainability and work and skills – employees look to sustain themselves by remaining relevant and expect their employers in turn to have a sustainable business model. And finally, there’s sustainability in terms of every employee’s career health – avoiding burnout, occupational sickness and being able to thrive at work.