Stephan Fischer, Anja Schmitz & Kirke Knepel

This paper describes in a case study how sustainable organisations currently select sustainability-oriented applicants. The personnel selection process should be further professionalized, especially with regard to operationalizing sustainability for personnel selection purposes and to choosing adequate personnel selection methods. Based on an integrated concept of sustainability, relevant findings from the areas of sustainable HRM and personnel selection show that the selection of sustainability-oriented applicants needs to be integrated into a strategic HRM system. A hierarchical competency model should serve as the basis of this strategic HRM system. Sustainability should be operationalized in the form of a central organizational value on the model’s highest level. On the model’s sublevels, further competencies should be specified that are needed in the different organizational units to achieve sustainable behavior. A multi-step process should be used to select sustainability-oriented applicants. In the first step, the applicants’ sustainability orientation should be directly measured with a value inventory. In a next step, the applicants’ sustainable behavior should be assessed through the use of simulations. This can be accomplished by the use of scenarios which have to meet a set of five prerequisites.