BUILDING WORKER FIRST SUPPLY CHAINS: STAND BACK FOR...

BUILDING WORKER FIRST SUPPLY CHAINS: STAND BACK FOR

LIFT-OFF

WHY?

Scaling up initiatives to promote decent work is vital to improving labour rights and lifting millions of

workers out of poverty. So far, the pace of change has been incremental and out of step with the

social, environmental and technological mega-trends sweeping our world. Technology offers an

opportunity to reach workers across global supply chains and make a real and lasting difference – at

scale.

WHAT WE DISCUSSED

We explored how we can harness technological innovation to reach more workers in an impactful

way, and considered the barriers we had faced to date. In particular, we critiqued three potential

tools with the potential to help scale up efforts to amplify workers’ voices. These included a web-

based supplier rating system developed by EcoVadis, worker engagement software from Ulula and a

cloud-based platform from Knowlabel connecting brands and retailers with real-time insights from

the workers making their products.

Speakers

Sylvain Guyoton, Senior Vice-President for Research, EcoVadis

Marianne Hughes, Founder and CEO, Knowlabel

Antoine Heuty, Founder and CEO, Ulula

Worker ambassador

Xia Yinzhi

Factory ambassador

Mohammad Matin, Assistant General Manager, Natural Denim

Moderator: Rosey Hurst, Founder and Director, Impactt

TOP TAKEAWAYS

1. While technology has clear potential to achieve exponential growth in reaching the millions

of workers in global supply chains, we must remember that technology itself is neither good,

nor bad, but neither is it neutral. In particular, technology can be used to exercise control

over workers, or to harvest information without delivering benefits to workers. Keeping

workers at the centre of the agenda is central to achieving success.

Antoine Heuty: “Workers will stop answering if they see nothing is being done to address their concerns.”

2. The EcoVadis platform has been very effective in achieving scale - providing 150 lead firms

with social and environmental performance data on 25,000 suppliers employing 20 million

workers, , but workers are not directly engaged in the model.

Sylvain Guyoton: “We’re like a medical testing company – we’ve developed a measurement

tool that gives you a sample to make informed decisions and talk to patients to see if there is

a problem and address it.”

“If we rely only on audits, there’s a big risk that they could be wrong. They shouldn’t be the

only mechanism used, but one among many.”

3. Ulula is experimenting with reaching ‘the last mile’ (i.e. workers) through partnerships with

trade unions and NGOs. This approach is in its infancy, but has the potential to reach

millions of workers, so that their views can become more central to decision-making.

Antoine Heuty: “The number one thing that could go wrong is a breach of privacy that could put workers in harm. If that happens it could set back the whole industry.”

“There’s a risk we could replace supplier audit fatigue with worker survey fatigue.”

“The reality is, [our solution] is often paid for by brands rather than unions. It will be more impactful when it’s used by multiple stakeholders.”

4. Knowlabel has a strong business case at site level, and stands to unlock significant

productivity gains through wearable technology. Importantly, it could deliver key information

to workers on topics such as pay, contracts and health and safety. However, the balance

between the benefits to business and workers needs to be carefully managed to ensure that

gains are shared.

Marianne Hughes: “Transparency doesn’t mean what the consumer can see, but equality – what can the worker see as well?”

“Norms don’t solve problems for workers – workers care about human impact.”

How business can take action

1. Stay up to date with the latest technological solutions designed to connect global supply

chains and empower workers to raise their concerns.

2. Collaborate with key stakeholders – suppliers, unions and labour rights NGOs – to

understand how #workerfirst technology can be used to best effect in your supply chain.

3. Share your feedback on the #workerfirst technologies you use with the providers,

considering how well their solutions meet your and workers’ needs, in order to encourage

continuous improvement and increase the benefits for workers.

4. Exchange best practice across your industry and beyond.

HOW IMPACTT CAN HELP

We can help you determine which #workerfirst technologies might best suit your particular

challenges, connect you with relevant technology providers and advise you on how to leverage their

solution to best effect among your suppliers and their workers.

Importantly, we can analyse the workers’ responses and advise on practical strategies that you and

your supplier can adopt to address their concerns and raise labour standards.

For more information, visit www.impacttlimited.com, contact us by email at

info@impacttlimited.com or call us on 0207 242 6777.

Private&Confiden/alSeptember19:MaRSInvestorPresenta/on

ScalingUpResponsibleSupplyChainManagementthroughWorkerEngagementTechnology

ImpacF2017|antoine@ulula.com|ulula.com

Private&Confiden/alSeptember19:MaRSInvestorPresenta/on

Worker Engagement

Technology 101

Establish program scope (# facilities, content, channels) with all stakeholders

numbers 262-272 383-383 747-484

Toll free 1800-787

Workers receive or initiate a call or message to participate anonymously and free of charge

Employers and/or partners provide workers’ phone numbers

Awareness & worker recruitment campaign (posters, leaflets…).

Optional: workers receive a reward (ex. mobile credit) for their participation.

Organizations receive real time intelligence and close the loop with workers to foster change

Real/meintelligence&feedbackdrivesimpact

CRM(Salesforce,Enablon)

Continuous Worker & Community Engagement

Innova/vePartnershipModels(tradeunions,NGOs,governments)

2-wayWorkerEngagementSystem(SMS,voice,messenger,web)

BusinessProcess&SystemIntegra/on(e.g.API)

ScalingupResponsibleSupplyChainManagement

Businessintelligenceand

otherdata

Blockchaindata

WorkerEngagementSystemIntegra/on

•  2-way engagement (health & safety, wellbeing) •  Engage workers and communities beyond workplace •  Automation & integration with Azure

5

SPOTONINDIA:Tex/leandgarmentinNewDelhi&TamilNadu

•  PartnerwithlocalNGOsinlocalsupplychainhotspots•  NGOsoutreachanduseofdataforadvocacy•  AccesstoworkerengagementplaZorm•  Next:palmoil,rubber,gold

EngageWorkers’Representa/ves&Unions

•  Supportmembersday-to-day•  StrengthenAccountabilitybetweenworkersandrepresenta/ves

•  Ac/onabledataforcollec/vebargaining

WorkerEngagementThroughTechnologyPrinciples

Visit: www.westprinciples.org

So\ware+Analy/csforRESPONSIBLESUPPLYCHAINS

ImpacF2017|antoine@ulula.com|ulula.com

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

Impactt’s 20th Anniversary Conference Building Worker First Supply Chains Conference

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

About EcoVadis

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

CSR Issues Under Review

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

EcoVadis CSR Rating Model

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public 5

Platform: Supply chain CSR dashboard & tools

Collaborative corrective action tools

360 Watch

Portfolio statistics and comparison

Supplier onboarding progress

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

Big Data…

Workers Voice through

Mobiles

NGO 2.0

Open Gov

US EPA US OSHA ChemTrac

Blockchain Drones Robotic

Telepresence Disruptive

Technologies

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

Still a lot of room for improvement

7

Document classification: EcoVadis® Public

THANK YOU Merci

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