ESG was meant to guide responsible business — but in the workplace, it’s become a checkbox exercise. It’s time to ditch the fluff and measure what actually drives human and environmental impact.
- ESG frameworks are too complex and abstract, making it hard for businesses to adopt meaningful workplace strategies that improve human outcomes.
- Current ESG metrics often focus on surface actions, missing deeper impacts on employee engagement, community vitality, and workplace resilience.
- Transitioning to human-centered impact metrics ties workplace strategies directly to measurable human and environmental outcomes for real, lasting change.
As someone deeply committed to sustainability, I want to champion frameworks like ESG— shorthand for the Environmental, Social, and Governance structures used to evaluate the sustainability and ethical impact of a company’s operations. But the pragmatist in me recognizes a troubling reality: ESG implementation has become too complex and abstract for most businesses to embrace wholeheartedly.
The Economist didn’t mince words when they called ESG “an unholy mess that needs to be ruthlessly streamlined,” highlighting its conflicting goals, misaligned incentives, and inconsistent measurement systems.
For workplace leaders navigating the future of work, this creates a particular challenge: how can we translate important environmental, social, and governance principles into meaningful workplace strategies that actually improve human outcomes?
Why ESG Falls Short in Workplace Transformation
Current ESG approaches often leave workplace leaders checking boxes without measuring what truly matters. A company might achieve a perfect ESG score by installing energy-efficient lighting and publishing a diversity statement, while their employees remain disengaged, their communities underserved, and their long-term resilience questionable.
Recent data shows this disconnect is widening. Investor confidence in ESG is actually declining, with consideration of ESG factors dropping from 65% in 2021 to 53% in 2023 in the U.K., while nearly 75% of institutional investors doubt companies’ ability to meet ESG commitments. Less than half of surveyed executives believe their own companies perform well on ESG metrics.
According to the Harvard Business Review, “ESG investing isn’t designed to save the planet” — and neither is ESG-driven workplace strategy if it’s divorced from measurable human impact. The problem isn’t with the underlying values of sustainability and responsibility, but with how we translate them into action.
The future of work demands a more pragmatic approach: one that moves beyond abstract ESG checkboxes to concrete metrics of human experience and impact.
From ESG to Human-Centered Impact Metrics
Leaders need guidance to make wiser, more future-ready decisions in a world that’s moving too fast. ESG was intended to be exactly this kind of decision-making framework — but its implementation has often undermined its purpose. The multiple rating agencies using different criteria have created inconsistent scores that make comparison nearly impossible. What we need isn’t abandonment of sustainability goals, but a more effective implementation.
This means replacing vague ESG criteria with Human-Centered Impact Metrics — measurements that directly connect workplace strategies to both human and environmental outcomes.
Here are three metrics workplace leaders can implement immediately:
1. Workplace Resilience Index
Instead of generic “governance” metrics, measure how effectively your workplace adapts to disruption. Track how quickly your team can pivot during unexpected challenges, how well your spaces accommodate diverse needs, and how your workplace policies support rather than hinder adaptation.
2. Human-Technology Balance Score
Rather than abstract technology adoption targets, measure how technology augments human capabilities versus replaces them. Evaluate whether your digital tools enhance collaboration, creativity, and wellbeing or create friction, isolation, and stress.
3. Community Impact Measurement
Move beyond philanthropic dollars to measure your workplace’s concrete contributions to community vitality. This includes local hiring, neighborhood engagement, and the accessibility of your spaces to diverse populations.
These metrics align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while providing more actionable frameworks for workplace leaders than traditional ESG criteria. When I facilitated a panel at COP25 exploring AI applications in fighting climate change, the most effective initiatives were those that measured human outcomes alongside environmental impacts.
Implementing Human-Centered Metrics in Your Workplace
To shift from abstract ESG frameworks to human-centered impact metrics:
Audit your current measurements
Which existing workplace metrics directly connect to human outcomes? Which are merely performative? A major technology company I worked with discovered that their impressive sustainability dashboard had no correlation with employee engagement or community perception.
Define impact collectively
Involve stakeholders in determining what “meaningful impact” looks like for your organization. This requires moving beyond executive pronouncements to genuine dialogue with employees, customers, and communities.
Measure stories alongside data
Quantitative metrics matter, but so do qualitative experiences. Develop systems that capture not just numbers but narratives about how your workplace strategies affect real people.
Build feedback loops
Human-centered metrics aren’t static; they evolve as needs change. Create mechanisms for continuous refinement based on emerging impacts and changing conditions.
As procurement and workplace leaders implement these approaches, they’ll find themselves better positioned not just for ESG compliance, but for genuine adaptation and resilience — qualities essential for thriving in the future of work.
Leading with Human Values
In my book “What Matters Next,” I argue that forward-thinking leaders must make decisions that are “not something that’s going to go faster than what our understanding allows us to be responsible for and not be too slow, not drag our heels on something that we know has some urgency.”
The transition from abstract ESG frameworks to human-centered impact metrics represents exactly this kind of balanced approach — one that acknowledges the urgency of sustainability while grounding it in measurable human outcomes.
The effectiveness of ESG depends heavily on genuine commitment and transparency rather than superficial compliance. The future of work isn’t just about technological transformation or environmental sustainability in isolation. It’s about creating workplaces where human flourishing and planetary health reinforce rather than oppose each other. And that starts with measuring what actually matters to people.
Article originally posted on Allwork.space.
