Chief chat with Mikael Bäckström

Mikael Bäckström may have taken an unlikely route to HR, but his north star has always been service. The chief people and sustainability officer at assistive technology company Tobii Dynavox started his career in the Swedish military, with plans to focus on bookkeeping, when he realized his knack for managing military volunteers and found his way into learning and development. He recently spoke with HR Brew about his role and the intersection of sustainability and HR.

How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in HR? Heading up people and sustainability means that I work on and help create the strategies around how we as a function…can support the business growth. It has to do with building support and structure to get the best out of teams and people, [and] how to ensure everyone knows where we are headed, build the leadership that the company needs, set up structures for how to reward and compensate people…grow people, [and] build our social and environmental responsibility in our work.

The flip side of that is that my teams and I also need to address when things aren’t working and support improvements. It is an important part of my job to make sure that we live up to our commitments and communicate clearly on all of our sustainability areas—including strong business ethics, a fair, diverse, and inclusive workplace, and a low impact on the environment.

You have a unique combination of roles. How does sustainability function within HR? From an environmental standpoint, it’s not as far-fetched as one might think, because…a company [is] supposed to decrease CO2 emissions.

From an HR standpoint, we are usually the learning and development part of an organization, and it’s about getting people to understand their own footprint and the footprint they make in their work role, and how to contribute to a better and greener planet.

How are employees part of the sustainability journey? That’s our ambition for next year—to find employees that are working in roles that can affect sustainability. They need training and they need to set their own targets. It’s never good [when] targets just come from above…Training those with an impact is the first part, then the second part is [teaching that] everybody can have a smaller impact in our everyday life [and] general knowledge about sustainability and self-leadership.

What role has environmentalism played in your own life? Swedish society has been good at environmental aspects…We’re forced by law to sort our garbage, for instance, and sort out the plastics. That has been a natural part of our way of living…So, that’s been part of my DNA.

How can HR leaders who haven’t previously had this at the forefront of their mind start thinking and learning about sustainability? Most important is learning about and prioritizing the key sustainability areas for your company. Most of us only think [about the] environment when we hear the word “sustainability,” but it’s also about the social responsibilities as well as governing the business. 

I recommend learning about the UN’s 2030 agenda [and] the related 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and figure out how your company can make a difference within these areas. Also, learn more about ESG, and consider how HR can support the company’s contribution. We sometimes forget that we are one of the few departments that have a holistic view, while other departments mainly focus on their work and only see dependencies with other departments. How can you work together with the organization to create awareness, build bridges, understand where the company can have a real impact and how to contribute to building both a sustainable business as well as a sustainable world? Train the organization, set objectives together, and start your journey.

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.