Sustainable HR Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends HR Managers, HR Business Partners and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-HM-112

Before you join: Participants should have practical familiarity with core HR activities such as recruitment, performance management, employee relations, learning, reward or workforce reporting.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Sustainable HR management turns environmental, social and governance commitments into workforce policies, management routines and measurable results. HR teams are increasingly expected to address fair work, inclusion, wellbeing, human rights, green skills, responsible recruitment and credible workforce reporting. The challenge is to meet these expectations without treating sustainability as a communications project or a separate initiative owned only by a sustainability team. HR must connect material people risks and opportunities to jobs, skills, reward, employee voice, supplier practices and leadership decisions.

This course equips participants to design and manage HR practices that support social responsibility, environmental objectives and long-term workforce resilience. Participants examine the Triple Bottom Line, UN Sustainable Development Goals, human-rights due diligence, sustainable workforce planning, green HRM, pay equity, psychosocial risk management and human-capital disclosure. They learn to identify material workforce issues, assess risks, set accountable objectives, select meaningful indicators and communicate progress to leaders, employees and external stakeholders. The course also addresses difficult trade-offs, including workforce transition, redundancy planning, contractor standards, data limitations and the risk of unsupported sustainability claims.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, policy design work, reporting simulations and individual application planning. Cases reflect issues faced by banks, public bodies, manufacturers, NGOs, infrastructure firms and multinational employers. Participants leave with a practical Sustainable HR Action Plan, a human-rights due-diligence checklist, a workforce sustainability scorecard and reusable templates for policy, governance and reporting decisions. The five-day programme is delivered in the classroom in more than 50 cities or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day. Participants who complete the course receive a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess material workforce sustainability issues using stakeholder mapping and materiality assessment
  • Conduct human-rights due diligence across employment, recruitment and labour-hire arrangements
  • Design sustainable workforce plans using scenario planning, skills taxonomies and transition principles
  • Build inclusive job, reward and talent practices using equity and accessibility methods
  • Apply Green HRM methods to recruitment, learning, performance management and employee behaviour
  • Establish psychosocial risk controls and wellbeing governance using ISO 45003 guidance
  • Measure workforce sustainability performance through ISO 30414 indicators and data-quality controls
  • Produce a phased Sustainable HR Action Plan with owners, measures and review dates

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Ability to lead credible sustainable HR initiatives rather than isolated employee campaigns
  • Practical method for linking green skills and workforce transition to HR planning
  • Greater confidence discussing human rights, fair work and wellbeing with senior leaders
  • Reusable approach for analysing pay equity, inclusion and workforce sustainability data
  • Stronger capability to contribute evidence for ESG and human-capital reporting

For your organisation

  • Clearer ownership of workforce sustainability commitments across HR and line management
  • Earlier identification of human-rights, labour-practice and psychosocial risks
  • Better preparation for green skills requirements, redeployment and workforce transition
  • More credible workforce disclosures supported by defined metrics and data controls
  • Stronger employee trust through fairer, safer and more inclusive people practices

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify material workforce sustainability issues and assign HR responsibilities.

  • Triple Bottom Line links people practices to social and environmental value
  • Materiality assessment identifies workforce issues significant to stakeholders and business strategy
  • UN Sustainable Development Goals mapped to HR accountabilities and targets
  • Stakeholder mapping distinguishes employees, unions, communities, investors, customers and suppliers
  • Sustainability governance assigns board, executive, HR and line-management responsibilities
  • Business-case logic connects retention, risk, productivity, reputation and resource efficiency

Participants can apply human-rights due diligence to employment and recruitment practices.

  • UN Guiding Principles structure human-rights due diligence within employment relationships
  • ISO 26000 labour-practices guidance informs policy and management-system design
  • Human-rights impact assessment identifies salient risks, affected groups and controls
  • Grievance mechanisms meet effectiveness criteria: legitimacy, accessibility, predictability and remedy
  • Modern slavery indicators examined across recruitment, labour hire and supply chains
  • Fair recruitment controls prevent fee charging, document retention and coercion
  • Remediation protocols address harm, investigation, corrective action and stakeholder communication

Participants can create workforce plans for changing skills, jobs and operating models.

  • Scenario planning tests workforce demand under decarbonisation, automation and demographic change
  • Skills taxonomy identifies green skills, adjacent capabilities and critical role gaps
  • Build-buy-borrow-bot workforce strategies compared against cost, risk and time
  • Succession risk matrices identify vulnerable roles and knowledge-transfer priorities
  • Just transition principles guide reskilling, redeployment, consultation and fair exits
  • Workforce plans combine headcount, skills, diversity and location assumptions

Participants can improve job quality through accessible design, fair pay and safe work arrangements.

  • Job analysis separates essential tasks, exposure risks and sustainable-work design requirements
  • Universal design principles improve accessibility, flexibility and reasonable-adjustment decisions
  • Workload assessment identifies psychosocial hazards using demand-control-support indicators
  • Ergonomic risk controls reduce injury exposure in office, field and remote work
  • Flexible-work charters specify eligibility, performance expectations, equipment and wellbeing safeguards
  • Living-wage benchmarks inform pay-floor decisions and geographic wage reviews

Participants can strengthen equity, inclusion and employee voice using evidence-based HR methods.

  • Intersectional data analysis detects representation and progression disparities across workforce groups
  • Pay-equity audits compare like work using adjusted and unadjusted pay gaps
  • Structured selection methods reduce bias through scoring rubrics and panel calibration
  • Inclusive leadership behaviours strengthen psychological safety, voice and belonging
  • Employee resource groups receive charters, sponsorship boundaries and outcome measures
  • Reasonable-adjustment workflows protect confidentiality while meeting disability inclusion obligations

Participants can embed environmental objectives into core people-management practices.

  • Green HRM aligns recruitment, learning, rewards and performance with environmental goals
  • Environmental competency frameworks define observable behaviours for role families
  • Behavioural science applies EAST principles to low-carbon workplace choices
  • Performance objectives use SMART measures linked to energy, waste and travel
  • Recognition schemes reward verified contributions without encouraging greenwashing claims
  • Change communications address employee concerns, resistance patterns and credible evidence

Participants can establish practical controls for psychosocial risk and workforce wellbeing.

  • ISO 45003 guidance structures psychosocial risk management and wellbeing governance
  • Psychosocial risk registers assess workload, control, conflict, change and isolation
  • Wellbeing strategies distinguish prevention, early intervention and recovery support
  • Absence data analysis separates health trends, operational drivers and reporting artefacts
  • Mental-health first-aid boundaries clarify referral, confidentiality and manager responsibilities
  • Critical-incident protocols coordinate support, communications, absence management and learning

Participants can select, govern and report workforce sustainability indicators credibly.

  • ISO 30414 metrics define workforce reporting indicators, boundaries and data ownership
  • GRI 401, 403 and 405 disclosures connect employment, safety and diversity data
  • Human-capital dashboards combine leading indicators, outcomes, targets and narrative context
  • Data-quality controls test completeness, consistency, timeliness and demographic comparability
  • Materiality-based KPIs avoid vanity metrics and unsupported sustainability claims
  • Board reports explain trends, trade-offs, assurance limits and management actions

Participants can strengthen labour standards across suppliers, contractors and labour-hire providers.

  • Supplier codes specify labour standards, audit rights, remediation and escalation
  • Social-audit limitations assessed through worker voice, sampling and follow-up evidence
  • Responsible procurement integrates labour criteria into tender scoring and contracts
  • Labour-hire due diligence verifies licensing, wages, working time and recruitment fees
  • Contractor onboarding aligns safety, conduct, grievance and reporting requirements
  • Corrective-action plans prioritise root causes, owners, deadlines and verification

Participants can produce a phased plan for implementing sustainable HR priorities.

  • HR sustainability strategy translates material issues into objectives, owners and milestones
  • RACI matrices clarify decision rights across HR, sustainability, legal and operations
  • Policy architecture aligns code of conduct, people policies and supplier expectations
  • Budget cases quantify implementation costs, avoided losses and measurable benefits
  • Change roadmaps sequence pilots, consultation, communications, training and scale-up decisions
  • Personal application plans define ninety-day actions, sponsors, measures and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Sustainable HR Action Plan template
  2. Human-rights due-diligence checklist
  3. Workforce sustainability materiality matrix
  4. Green skills workforce planning model
  5. Psychosocial risk register template
  6. Human-capital reporting scorecard

Who should attend

  • HR Managers — responsible for translating sustainability commitments into people policies and priorities
  • HR Business Partners — advising leaders on workforce transition, inclusion and employee relations
  • Sustainability Managers — coordinating social commitments with HR ownership and workforce data
  • Talent and Learning Managers — building green skills, succession pathways and sustainable careers
  • Reward and DEI Specialists — improving fair pay, representation and inclusive employment practices
  • ESG Reporting and Risk Professionals — strengthening workforce disclosures, controls and evidence

Skills and tools covered

Sustainable workforce planningHuman rights due diligenceGreen HRM designPay equity analysisPsychosocial risk managementHuman capital reporting

Tools and standards

ISO 30414 Human Capital Reporting, ISO 26000 Social Responsibility, ISO 45003 Psychological Health and Safety at Work, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce standards, methods and decision criteria, followed by applied case work from regulated, public, industrial and service organisations. Participants analyse workforce risks, compare policy options, interpret sample HR data and develop responses to realistic sustainability scenarios. Group exercises address materiality, green skills, fair recruitment, psychosocial risks and reporting indicators. Simulations test how HR teams explain trade-offs to executives and employee representatives. Individual application planning converts course methods into actions suited to each participant's organisation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with core HR activities such as recruitment, performance management, employee relations, learning, reward or workforce reporting. Experience working with HR policies, workforce data or business stakeholders is useful because the course uses realistic organisational decisions and reporting scenarios. A prior sustainability qualification is not required. Participants do not need specialist environmental knowledge, legal training, ESG reporting experience or advanced statistical skills. The course explains the relevant sustainability, human-rights and reporting concepts before applying them to HR decisions.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand core HR processes such as recruitment, learning, employee relations, reward or workforce reporting. No prior sustainability qualification, ESG reporting experience or environmental technical knowledge is required.

Bring a current people policy, workforce challenge or sustainability commitment that you want to examine. A laptop is useful for reviewing templates and developing your application plan, but it is not mandatory.

The course is designed for HR managers, business partners, sustainability professionals, DEI specialists, talent leaders and reporting professionals. It is particularly useful for people asked to turn ESG or responsible-business commitments into HR action.

This course concentrates on the workforce and the specific decisions owned or influenced by HR. It addresses jobs, skills, recruitment, reward, inclusion, wellbeing, employee voice, labour standards and workforce reporting rather than environmental management or finance-led ESG analysis.

Participants can use the templates to assess material people issues, review recruitment or labour-hire controls, define green skills priorities and improve workforce metrics. The final application plan identifies actions, owners, evidence and review dates for use after the course.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The five days move from sustainability foundations and human rights through workforce planning, Green HRM, wellbeing, reporting, supply-chain standards and implementation planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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