The forgotten “S” in ESG: social sustainability as a strategic lever

Moderator Jan Laurijssen (SD Worx) opened the roundtable with a provocative statement: “Across sectors, most time and effort still goes to the ‘E’. The ‘S’ remains underexposed. Is HR engaged enough, and is it more than a compliance exercise? In many companies, personnel costs represent 40 to 70 percent of total spending. It’s strange that HR isn’t always at the ESG table.”

Data from the SD Worx HR & Payroll Pulse 2025 confirms this perception. Only 50 percent of Belgian employers say sustainability is explicitly embedded in their HR strategy. Even among large organizations (2,500+ employees), that number remains low.

For Karl Vrancken, Chief Sustainability Officer at Indaver, language plays a key role: “In HR, the term ‘sustainability’ is often narrowed down to ‘sustainable employability. That reduces the discussion to workforce employability and ignores issues like gender balance, inclusion, or mobility. It sounds sustainable, but the scope is too limited.”

Lesley Hellebuyck, Head of Internal Control & Compliance at SD Worx, recognized the same pattern: “We already had many initiatives around well-being, learning, and compliance. It was only through the ESG framework that we realized these were actually sustainability initiatives.”

At TriFinance, HR or “Care,” as the organization calls it, plays an active role. “In our philosophy, people come first,” says Gaëlle De Baeck, International Sustainability Lead. “Care has a seat at the table and keeps this firmly on the agenda. They provide the data but also help determine which priorities the organization should set, ranging from diversity and inclusion to salary guidelines."

According to Lorenzo Andolfi, HR Researcher at SD Worx, only six in ten HR leaders at large Belgian organizations currently commit to sustainable HR. “That’s limited. HR often does more than is recognized, but many initiatives run under different labels, making them hard to classify externally as ESG-related.”

According to Filip Ceulemans, Client Partner at TriFinance, ESG priorities often depend on the nature of the business. “In production environments, HR is obviously important, but the environmental side tends to dominate. Yet both show that the ‘S’ has many faces: safety, inclusion, retention, culture, structure.”

At Exmar, the 'E' is key, but the 'S' is equally tangible. “With more than 1,000 seafarers and 200 office employees, safety isn’t abstract, it’s a daily reality,” says Hanne Werquin, Head of ESG & Compliance. “But the worlds of ship and office remain separate, with a dedicated safety department for the fleet and HR for the office. Building that bridge is our biggest challenge.”

“Safety is definitely an area where we want to excel. One challenge, however, is that HR operates at group level, while the seafarers fall under a separate entity, Exmar Ship Management, which has its own HSEQ department. So yes, HR is at the table, but it remains a constant effort to develop initiatives together, communicate effectively, stay aligned, and to broaden the focus beyond safety alone.”

Werquin adds that cross-departmental involvement could also be stronger. “As I’m currently the single point of contact for ESG across the group, it sometimes tends to be viewed as primarily my domain rather than a shared area of responsibility.”

All participants agreed that the “S” in ESG covers a broad spectrum, from job security and social dialogue to learning, gender equality, work-life balance, and inclusive policies.

At Plopsa, employee wellbeing and safety are top priorities. “We work with many temporary and student workers, and our activity fluctuates strongly,” says Daisy Deceuninck, Chief People Officer. “Training has therefore become a structural part of the company.”

She explains how the organization has evolved: “In the past, there was hardly any training. Now we work with structured learning plans and consciously invest in inclusion. We simply need a lot of employees, and they’re not always highly educated. Our largest park is located near De Panne, so we maintain close contacts with local organizations, including some that help us offer opportunities to refugees.”

At Indaver, inclusion is also a top concern, though challenges remain. “Employees with disabilities are still underrepresented in office roles,” says Vrancken.

Bpost focuses on wellbeing through measurable outcomes: “Absenteeism is a key issue for us,” says Gaëlle Bomans, Product Owner Social Sustainability. “Each percentage point of absenteeism costs about €10 million per year. That’s why we’ve set clear targets for absenteeism and retention. Gender diversity in management is another top priority.”

For Jan Laurijssen, ESG is a lever to make workplace issues visible and to move beyond checklists and reporting. “It shows how employees experience decisions. HR often focuses too much on people, and too little on the organization. Hard data shows where the Executive Committee needs to focus. If we can no longer attract people to work for us, that is also your responsibility."

Filip Ceulemans agrees: “The hardest part is embedding ESG in the organization. We have guidelines and reports, but how do you embed them in the organization? Change management and communication are crucial. Sometimes, however, we communicate too much across too many channels. The risk is that the message becomes unclear. It is better to communicate less, but clearly and interactively.”

Kristel Thys, HR Manager at VAB Rijschool, highlights the need for structure: “For some, detailed communications are very interesting; for others, you lose their attention. It’s a matter of balance and the right level of communication, especially for a relatively new topic.” Thys also emphasizes the need for structure: “There are many initiatives under the S, but they are not labeled as such. Without strategic alignment, everything remains ad hoc.”

“The good news,” says Mario Matthys, Expert Practice Lead at TriFinance, “is that ESG is really starting to come to life. It is more than just numbers and reports, and many initiatives exist today that did not before. Sustainability will be shaped far more by market requirements and stakeholder interests (customers, suppliers, banks, tender processes) than by regulation.”

A key question remains: how broadly should ESG be addressed? Do you limit it to your own employees or include the entire value chain?

"At Exmar, the initial focus is on our employees,” says Hanne Werquin. “Supplier engagement is still in its early stages, but it’s on our agenda, especially with a CEO and CFO who actively support it.”

Karl Vrancken adds: “We’re currently revising our code of conduct, which has sparked internal debate about how much information we can reasonably request from suppliers. Customers are also asking for more data, for example, on Scope 1 emissions.”

At Indaver, there are plans to audit suppliers on a sample basis, though the consequences of negative outcomes have not yet been defined. At TriFinance, Gaëlle De Baeck observes that some multinationals already impose very strict requirements: “If suppliers don’t comply, partnerships end. Everyone in the value chain needs to move, whether for branding or strategic reasons.”

“Data collection remains a sensitive issue,” says Jan Laurijssen. “HR’s authority in that area is still relatively low in many companies.”

“Ask three managers for their FTE count and you’ll get three different answers,” says Filip Ceulemans. The comment resonates strongly with the participants.

At VAB, organizational complexity sometimes hinders the rollout of ESG initiatives, says Kristel Thys, HR Manager at VAB Driving School. “We have many different business units. You might be working with one unit to set something up, while another is doing the same thing in a completely different way. There’s still too little alignment. Reporting can help, I think, because people tend to respond more to facts and figures in discussions.”

“We see that variation between business units all the time,” adds Mario Matthys. “Some are more engaged or place greater emphasis on ESG, while others say it’s not important for them. That becomes difficult when you need to report on a consolidated level. The same goes for foreign branches or after an acquisition. Getting all entities aligned often requires a lot of effort.”

At Bpost, harmonizing definitions took months: “If everyone defines ‘retention’ or ‘absenteeism’ differently, you can’t report consistently. We now work with shared targets for 2030.”

The SD Worx HR & Payroll Pulse 2025 confirms this picture: only 38% of Belgian employers report on sustainable HR, and just 36% feel prepared for CSRD requirements. Large organizations score only slightly better, suggesting that translating policy into practice is still in its early stages.

Still, according to Bart Pollentier, Director of the SD Worx Knowledge Center, the report itself is not the main point. “What really matters is progress,” he says. “Progress motivates more than numbers in a spreadsheet. The key is that companies keep moving forward, large or small steps, and use their insights to make tangible improvements.”

For Jan Laurijssen, sustainability in HR must be more than a compliance exercise. Policy without lived experience remains an empty shell. At Exmar, policies were often shared by email, but that approach didn’t really resonate. Plopsa chose a different path, one built on proximity. “I’m among my people,” said Daisy Deceuninck. “Only by listening you can truly understand what matters to them.”

Gaëlle De Baeck, Sustainability Lead at TriFinance, linked this to regulation: “The CSRD requires companies to demonstrate how they engage in dialogue with their workforce. Engagement is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a must.”

The discussion also addressed the scope of HR’s responsibility: how far does it extend across the value chain? At Indaver, the supplier code of conduct is being revised with an eye toward realism. “We don’t want suppliers to drown in questionnaires,” explained Karl Vrancken. “Start with basic questions, then move to audits. Otherwise, we undermine our own call for simplification.”

Kelly Lespinoy, Chief Legal & Compliance Officer at SD Worx, pointed out the downside of an overly strict approach: “Those who fail to comply are simply cut off. That may look consistent, but it can be strategically damaging.” Hanne Werquin of Exmar also highlighted the complexity: “Our shipyards in Asia are crucial, but we have little visibility into working conditions there. It’s still a distant goal to audit them directly, but we know that’s where we need to go.”

The “S” in ESG clearly extends beyond a company’s own employees, yet the boundaries remain diffuse and difficult to define.

All participants agreed that ESG cannot become a box-ticking exercise. As Karl Vrancken of Indaver put it: “It often comes down to small things. Travel guidelines or vegetarian lunches make sustainability tangible.” Jan Laurijssen of SD Worx concluded with a broader view: “Reporting is just the starting point. The real work of improving begins afterward. Employees need to feel that policies affect their daily lives.”

The roundtable made one thing clear: the “S” in ESG is not a single concept but a mosaic of themes: inclusion, learning, safety, well-being, and employability. While Plopsa focuses on training and well-being, Exmar emphasizes safety, and Indaver and VAB wrestle with definitions and data consistency.

Despite HR’s strategic importance and the weight of personnel costs, the function is still too often missing from the ESG debate, turning the social dimension into a compliance checkbox.

But awareness is growing. The “S” can be a powerful lever for future-proofing organizations. As one participant put it: “If we can’t find people willing to work for us in the future, that’s also the responsibility of the executive committee.”

The message is clear: companies that make ESG tangible in their social policies are investing in their own continuity. The conclusion was unanimous: HR can no longer sit on the sidelines. The “S” is not a silent letter. It is the heart of ESG.