Sustainable purchasing manager, energy-climate project manager, CSR consultant, ESG (environment, social and governance) analyst… professions that aim to improve the social and environmental impact of a company are recruiting with a vengeance.

How to explain it? In particular through the increased awareness of the climate emergency, explains Caroline Renoux, co-founder of Birdeo, a recruitment firm specializing in jobs with a positive impact. “There is an increase in English and more generally European regulatory pressure, pressure from investment funds and banks, but also from consumers, employees and younger generations, as well as from large groups towards ETIs and SMEs. »

According to this recruiter, it is in 2021 that the CSR job market has moved into another dimension with a demand that has increased sharply. Today, jobs are created in all types of sectors (agrifood, consulting, banking, real estate, luxury, etc.) and companies. The significant fundraising of 2021-2022 has notably enabled start-ups to enter the dance. The most popular expertise? Carbon measurement, circular economy and extra-financial reporting.

Skills shortage

“There is a skills shortage. Demand is growing faster than training is taking place”, also observes Frédéric Benay, managing director at the recruitment firm Michael Page. To the point of creating a tension on wages. Caroline Renoux commonly sees a 20% increase for those who are already working in impact when they change jobs.

The most sought-after profiles are those with at least a few years of experience. But these are rare, since these trades are recent. Two options are available to companies: offering continuous training programs in-house for their employees who wish to pursue these new professions or turning to young graduates who, admittedly, do not yet have experience, but have acquired skills within their curriculum (often specializing in environmental or social subjects at the end of training).

Increased requirement of candidates

The market tightens all the more as the level of requirement of these trained candidates increases. “The share of CSR investments in relation to all the investments of the company that covets them serves as a compass for them. And if this percentage is too small, they deduce that the position is not aligned with the speech of the company”observes Jean-Philippe Teboul, Associate Director of Orientation Durable, a recruitment firm specializing in the social and solidarity economy.

The hunt for greenwashing can also lead some to decline a position in a CSR department to prefer a “classic” position but in a company where this approach has infused all departments, which has a global vision more aligned with their values. (a company with a mission, for example).