Benchmarking Best Practices in Solar Energy Sector: Scope of Green Human Resource Management

Abstract

In recent times, with climate change creating a massive impact on the environment and the sustenance of life on earth, the emergence of green energy companies has become a significant industrial development. The traditional view of solar energy firms, from an economical perspective, has undergone a sea change over the past few decades and is gradually giving way to a sustainable development-focused, competency-based and strategic view. The best practices with environmental and social concerns have gained great significance in the renewable energy sector, during recent times by many countries in the pursuit of sustainable development goals. These include the development of new environmental initiatives and roles with significant management ramifications. This necessitates high levels of technical and managerial competencies, for personnel working in corporate green HR. In general, the term “Green HR” refers to human resources practices that are friendly to the environment and help preserve a company’s limited supply of natural resources. Environmental considerations in human resource management (HRM) are notably few, in the existing studies on solar energy. Green HRM is still a work in progress when it comes to developing green HRM practices including literature, processes, and models, as well as measuring their influence on overall company performance. Stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds are increasing the pressure on businesses to adopt green HR practices and initiatives as part of their overall business goals. A review of existing Green HRM practices and the strategic use and examining the scope of these practices in various HR activities among the best practices of the solar energy sector, are the general goals of this study for which literature review methodology has been adopted. It is hoped that this work would trigger the interest of researchers interested in learning more about incorporating green human resource management as a best practice in the solar energy sector.