GREEN HRM: STUDY ON GREEN HR PRACTICES, ITS AWARENESS AND

IMPLEMENTATION IN TITAN COMPANY LTD. IN COIMBATORE.

J.UMALATHA: Ph.D. Full Time Research Scholar, PG & Research Department of Commerce,Sri
Vijay Vidyalaya College of Arts &Science Nallampalli. Dharmapuri.Tamilnadu.
Abstract
Green Human Resource management is a new emerging concept in today’s scenario. The report has been
prepared on the topic Green HRM: Study on Green Hr Practices, Its Awarenessand Implementation in Titan
Company Ltd. Coimbatore.The main objective of the study is to study the amount of awareness among Titan
Company Ltd. Coimbatore with regard to the Green HR Practices.The study was done on a sample of 73
employees and 2 HR managers having age between 21 to 50 years in Titan Company Ltd. Coimbatore. The
process adopted for the study involved Physical Interaction and Questionnaires. Growing concern for global
environment and the development of international standards for environmental Management has created a
need for business to adopt environmental strategies and programmes Organizations today have become more
conscious about the growing importance of Integration of environmental Management and Human Resource
Management. We are entering a green economy and so the impact of our daily activities on environment and
our desire to go green has expanded from just individuals to organizations. Organizations today believe that
employees must be inspired, empowered and environmentally aware of greening in order to carry out green
management initiatives. This paper is an effort to helps researcher to identify whether organizations today
are aware about this concept of green human resource management and if the organizations are aware what
different initiatives and efforts they take to make their HR practices and environment green.
Key Words:- Green HRM, Environment Management, Green Economy, green Management initiative,
Environmental strategies.
1. Introduction
All organizations have impact on the environment through their operations product and services and through
frequent interaction with shareholders, employees, customers and suppliers. Organizations today are
becoming more aware about the environmental sustainability Organizations has stated integrating
Environmental Management and Human Resource Management – GREEN HRM practices. Green HR is the
use of HRM policies to promote the sustainable use of resources within business organizations and, more
generally, promotes the cause of environmental sustainability. Green initiatives within HRM form part of
wider programmes of corporate social responsibility.
The need for a proactive approach to environmental management across the world and the adoption of
environment management systems by the corporate sector is increasing Literature has given importance to
adoption of environmental practices as a key objective of organizational functioning making it important to
identify with the support of human resource management practices. The main environmental focus of many
businesses is placed on reducing waste and optimizing resource. Human Resource Management has also
started taking initiatives. Many companies are adopting green HR practices which help in reducing carbon
footprint through less printing of paper, video conferencing and interviews, etc. The HR Professional today
is also helping the companies to adopt strategies to green their business through online sharing of
training/self-learning materials, by Encouraging employees to turn off their computer monitor when they are
away from their desk, it also encourages its employees to keep minimum lighting during non- working hours
and more usage of LED is also encouraged by the organizations, Green HR is one which involves two
essential elements: environmentally friendly HR practices and the preservation of knowledge capital. Green
HRM policies and practices also help to safeguard and enhance worker health and well-being.
Importance of HRM in Environmental Management
Lado and Wilson (1994) defined the HRM system as “a set of distinct but interrelated activities, functions,
and process that are directed at attracting, developing, and maintaining (or disposing of) a firm’s human
resources.” HR practices are generally implemented with the strategic systems that are in line with the
culture and business strategy (Boselie, 2001).
In order to implement an effective corporate green management system it is important to promote a great
deal of technical and management skills among all employees of the organization (Daily et al., 2012;
Unnikrishnan and Hedge 2007)
Objective of Research
 To study the Green HR initiatives taken by TITAN COMPANY LTD. COIMBATORE.
 To study the amount of awareness among Titan Company Ltd.Coimbatorewith regard to the Green
HR Practices.
Research Problem
The need to adopt different environment friendly practices has become a major concern today.
Departments which are directly involved with the outside world are not only responsible to bring in green
practices but also all support functions are equally responsible to keep their organizations environment
green. This paper tries to focus on the awareness and implementation of green HR practices in Titan
Company Ltd. Coimbatore.
Scope of the Study
This paper acts as a guideline for identification and implementation of Green HR strategies inTitan
Company Ltd. Coimbatore.
Research Methodology
Based on the objective, the data was collected with the help of questionnaire. The questionnaire was
designed wherein respondents could answer in terms of the extent to which different Green HR practices
were adopted by organization.
The questionnaire was divided in to two major segments-
1) Which helped the researcher to identify the extent of awareness of the concept of Green HR in the Titan
Company Ltd. Coimbatore.
2) To help the researcher to understand the level of its implementation in Titan Company Ltd. Coimbatore.
Toidentify this questionnaire was further dived in to four major parameters which helped researcher to
identify in which all areas it has been implemented. The four key parameters were-
 Recruitment
 Training and Appraisal
 Record Keeping
 Routine activities
Sample size- The study was done on a sample of 73 employees and 2 HR managers out of 275employees
having age between 21 to 50 years in Titan Company Ltd. Coimbatore.Data is analysed using Ms- Excel.
Data Analysis and Interpretations -
Graph 5.1

The above graph indicates the extent to which the Green HR practices are adopted by Titan Company
Ltd. Coimbatore. Maximum of them said that they do follow the green hr practices in each and every
function followed by few saying that they follow green hr practices to some extent.
Graph 5.2

When ask about the level from which Green HR practices are adopted in their organization,
maximum of the respondents said that it is followed from middle level management while other said it is
followed at all levels followed by employee level and top level management.
Graph 5.3

Titan Company Ltd.Coimbatore does not have formal policies for implementing green HR practices in their
organization followed by few who have formal policies to some extent. Titan Company Ltd. has formal
policies for practicing green HRM in their organizations.
Graph 5.4

Titan Company Ltd. does have encouragement policy for their employees who follow or implement any
green practice in the organization. This gives encouragement to other employees to do so.
Further data was collected on the extent to which the organizations implement Green HR practices on
four different segments-
Recruitment 5.5
0-20% 21-40% 41-60% 61-80% 81-100%
Q1 0 2 2 8 6
Q2 3 4 6 8 0
Q3 0 2 12 2 2
Q4 2 2 10 2 2
TOTAL 5 10 30 20 10
Percentage (%) 6.67 13.33 40.00 26.67 13.33
The above table helps the researcher to understand the extent to which industries adopt green recruitment
practices like conducting interviews and joining formalities online, carrying out paperless work during the
recruitment process. The interpretations drawn from the above table makes it clear that still today only to a certain
extent companies apply green practices, in their recruitment process, by not conducting interviews and joining
formalities completely online and not getting rid of paperless work during recruitment.

Training and Appraisal 5.6

0-20% 21-40% 41-60% 61-80% 81-100%
 Q1 4 6 7 4 0
Q2 2 6 5 5 6
Q3 0 4 3 3 2
sQ4 5 8 3 0 2
Total 11 24 18 12 10
Percentage (%) 14.67 32.00 24.00 16.00 13.33
The above table helps the researcher to analyse the extent to which the companies adopt green practices
during Training and performance appraisal. The respondents were asked whether the training programme,
training material and appraisal system are done online and also the extent to which paperless work is carried
out during these processes.The interpretations drawn from the above table were, less than 60 percent of the training
and appraisal activities are carried out online. Companies still are not able to adopt paperless practices in both the
areas.
Record Keeping 5.7
0-20% 21-40% 41-60% 61-80% 81-100%
Q1 2 3 4 12 5
Q2 0 2 3 8 4
Q3 0 4 5 9 1
Q4 1 2 2 6 3
Total 3 11 14 34 13
Percentage(%) 4 14.67 18.67 45.33 17.33
From the above Table, researcher has tried to identify about the general record keeping activities carried out
by the organizations. The respondents were asked about whether they maintain electronic files, is there an
online leave application and electronic salary slip generation in the organizations.
The interpretations that were drawn by the researcher were that, maximum of the company carries out their
record keeping activities electronically.

Routine activities 5.8

0-20% 21-40% 41-60% 61-80% 81-100%
Q1 2 6 5 2 3
Q2 4 2 5 2 3
Q3 2 4 3 4 2
Q4 2 2 5 6 2
Q5 5 1 10 4 2
Q6 4 2 9 4 1
 Q7 3 7 3 4 2
Q8 4 9 2 6 2
Total 26 33 42 32 17
Percentage (%) 17.33 22.00 28.00 21.33 11.33
Table 5.8 shows the results of routine activities undertaken by organizations to help keep their environment
green. When asked organizations about different practices viz- video conferencing, telecommuting and flexi
timing, eco- friendly bags/ material, use of PCR and rain water harvesting etc. the interpretations drawn
from the results were, Titan company Ltd.in Coimbatore gives importance to certain activities to keep their
environment green like- compositing food waste and encouraging employees to use eco-friendly bags and
eco- friendly material. Also car sharing/ company transport and rain water harvesting is encouraged to
certain extent followed by practices like tele-commuting, flexi timing and video conferencing.

When asked organizations about, whether do they undertake any training on green practices to be adopted by
the employees in their day- to day activities of the company said that they do undertake and encourage
employees to adopt and implement green practices and help make their organizations environment green.

Even though company has encouragement policies for adopting green practices, maximum of the companies
do not reward their employees who use eco- friendly materials in the organizations.
Conclusion
The emerging concept of green human resource management carries a great importance for both
organizations and employees with the help of this paper, researcher has tried to focus on the awareness and
implementation of green HR practices in Titan Company Ltd. Coimbatore.
Organizations today in Coimbatore are well versed about the green HR concept that has been put forward to
help them to keep the environment green but still few companies are not able to put it in to practices in
different functional areas of Human resource Management. This paper has also helped the researcher to
identify the areas like training and development, performance appraisal system and some routine activities
where non implementation of this concept of Green HRM takes place.
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