Empirical Research uses RavenPack Job Analytics to measure ESG profiles

Can you explain the methodology you used to identify ESG-related job ads with Jobs Analytics? What aspects of the data can uniquely contribute to a better understanding of a company's overall ESG profile?

We started out by brainstorming a big list of ESG-related words and phrases (e.g., “sustainable”, “environment”, “diversity”, etc.) and then ran a first pass where we went back through the archive of job ads and pulled all the ads that had those words or phrases. Then, we hand-checked random, stratified samples where we read through the ads from various sectors, time periods, states of the economy. That allowed us to fine-tune the search list. For example, “diversity” was too general because almost every ad has generic language about being an equal opportunity employer, so that was returning too many ads. We iterated through that process a number of times until we were happy that the search list was capturing real ESG-related job ads.

The ultimate goal was to use the share of ESG job ads (i.e., the number of ESG-related roles a firm advertises for divided by the total number of roles they advertised for) as a measure of ESG penetration that goes beyond greenwashing. Hiring has a higher hurdle than simply saying the right thing, because it costs money. We wanted to use ESG jobs as a proxy for firms putting their money where their mouths are.

The research suggests a potential correlation between ESG-related hiring and stock performance in certain sectors. Can you elaborate on this relationship and its implications for investors seeking to assess a company's ESG profile? How does ESG hiring data contribute to evaluating a company's long-term sustainability?

It’s still early days in ESG but we did find some suggestive evidence that firms from extractive industries (e.g., energy, materials) that have a higher ESG share of job ads have outperformed. One plausible reason for that is that ESG-focused investors have realized that it’s somewhat naïve to simply ignore the extractive industries; the reality is we’ll still need fossil fuels for a long time as a bridge to (hopefully) a pure-renewables energy sector. So looking for the companies that are making substantive progress in these sectors makes sense. We see sustainability-focused hiring as a leading indicator of a firm pivoting towards a more environmentally (or socially) sustainable profile. If you don’t have the talent it’s hard to do much other than talk.

The study highlights that traditionally "dirty" sectors are actively advertising ESG-related jobs. How does this challenge the perception of these sectors and their potential for ESG progress? What insights can be gained from analyzing ESG-related hiring in these industries?

I think it challenges the somewhat lazy notion that we can just ignore these companies. If we want to make real progress in addressing the enormous challenge of climate change it makes sense to be rigorously focused on the low-hanging fruit, which usually means improving the dirtiest processes first. Some of the firms that are routinely excluded from ESG portfolios are in fact making real, substantive progress in hiring legitimate ESG-focused expertise. That will translate down the road into real progress.

The report provides a list of stocks with high ESG job penetration but low ownership by ESG funds. What does this discrepancy signify, and how might it impact our understanding of a company's ESG progress? What factors could explain why ESG investors may overlook companies with strong ground-level ESG efforts?

Adding to what I said above, I think First Generation ESG investing was a bit naïve in that it simply ignored sectors that were inconvenient from an ESG perspective. Next Generation ESG investing requires a lot more nuance. That’s even more true now because of the political climate, which makes it untenable to exclude entire sectors of the economy from investment dollars.

Looking ahead, what do you envision as the future trends or developments in using ESG-related job ads as a metric for understanding a company's ESG profile? How might this data evolve to provide deeper insights into a company's sustainability efforts?

I’d like to ultimately establish if there’s a link between ESG hiring and another metric that we track: green patents. For example, does lots of hiring of, say, solar engineers lead to more patents in those technologies down the road. Are there certain types of ESG jobs that are leading indicators of better ESG outcomes – and better stock price performance – down the road?