Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is arguably the most significant challenge facing the workplace of the 21^st century. Whilst many acknowledge and understand this, little is understood or discussed about the changes required to make sustainability a central aspect of work and the workplace. For example, how is the workforce engaged in sustainability changes, what type of voice mechanism will be developed to communicate information and change, how will training and development in the field of sustainability be undertaken and by whom? These are just some of the issues and examples which highlight the increasing importance of sustainable Human Resource Management (HRM) and sustainable Employee Relations (ER). These key areas of workplace management have the potential to facilitate organisational development of principles, policies, and practices for the challenges of workplace sustainability in the 21^st century.

Kramar (2014) has argued that sustainable HRM, signifies a new approach to managing people, by identifying broader purposes for HRM, through its recognition of the complexities of workplace dynamics. To this we would add the role of employee relations through concepts such as voice and a role for external bodies such as trade unions. The scope of this special issue therefore is to explore the role of HRM and ER policies and practices, identifying best practice as well as the rhetoric in the implementation of sustainable work practices. Both empirical and theorectical papers are welcome.  Topic areas of potential relevance to this special issue include but are not limited to:

• Sustainable HRM and/or ER practices

• Sustainable HRM and/or ER strategy

• Relationships between Sustainable HRM and ER

• The impact of COVID-19 on sustainable work practices and/or sustainable HRM and ER

• The quality of sustainable work patterns and practices

• Impact of sustainable HRM/and or ER on organisation and/or employee performance

• Sustainable work and/or sustainable jobs in the 21^st century

• Sustainability and employee voice

• The future of sustainable HRM and ER

This special issue will add to the emerging field of sustainable HRM and ER as well as our knowledge of work arrangements for the development of effective sustainable workplace principles and policies. These findings will contribute to the implementation and assessment of effective sustainable work practices, to serve as a basis of future research into sustainable HRM.

Prof. Dr. Peter Holland
Dr. Renee Paulet
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.