How the first Ragan Research Award winner uses ESG as a tool for employee engagement

ESG is often seen as a tool for communicating with investors and customers. But increasingly, it’s also a tool for building strong relationships with employees.

Jeonghyun Janice Lee, the winner of the first Ragan Research Award, given in conjunction with the Institute for Public Relations, seeks to better understand how ESG influences employees, and how they go about telling these stories on social media.

“Almost every company should have in mind ESG topics,” Lee told PR Daily in an interview.

A former PR pro turned doctoral candidate

Originally from Seoul, South Korea, Lee spent nearly 10 years working in both PR agencies and in-house functions in roles including PR manager and online marketing communications manager.

It was during this time that her interest in ESG was piqued as she worked as a representative on an employee engagement committee.

“I had a kind of a failure at this experience to get outcomes from the committee,” Lee recalled. “That marked me that oh, this ESG topic could be brought into PR, employee engagement would be a great idea to research.”