A global food sourcing and production company with suppliers operating in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore all with many migrant workers, sought to conduct a global worker survey to pinpoint areas for action and improve worker engagement, particularly amongst migrants.
Initial Challenges:
The company wanted to better understand the needs of migrant workers. Despite a large number of migrant workers, the company received no reports from migrant workers on the grievance mechanism the company had established. Migrant workers are often at higher risk for forced labor and exploitation and the lack of feedback from the workers was concerning. The company wanted to ensure migrant workers were being treated with respect, being paid fairly and felt safe at work.
The company had conducted surveys before but failed to drive value from them because the surveys lacked standardization across geographies and languages and had no follow up action guidelines.
Workers in these facilities faced literacy challenges. While, the workers all had primary schooling, it was clear the workers would struggle to fully understand complex survey questions.A small proportion of workers either did not have phones or did not use the internet on their phones.
Solution Implemented:
Labor Solutions worked with the company to update worker survey questions to meet the needs of the workers. The questionnaire was shortened and focused on experiences—like “On a scale from 1-5 do you feel safe at work."
The surveys were translated by worker right experts into Khmer, Thai, Burmese and Malay to ensure all workers and migrant workers were able to access the survey and understand the questions.
Implemented WOVO Unlimited Surveys at all facilities to deploy the global survey but also to allow the facilities to deploy their own surveys.
Channels: QR codes + Onsite Deployment. Many workers used their own phones to take the survey, but some needed additional support, so onsite deployment was provided.
Survey Results: Nearly 60% of workers responded to the survey, far more than is necessary for a statistically relevant sample size.
The survey results were mixed. All facilities received high scores on basic-compliance topics like correct pay and payslip, receipt of health and safety training and ability to take leave when they wanted.
But most workers, 85%, reported that they didn’t feel like they had a choice if they worked overtime, and that they didn’t feel like management made changes based on worker feedback.
Impact
Better Supplier- Buyer Communication
The survey sparked conversations between the buyer and its suppliers and managers and workers. Themes were discussed that had never been discussed before, because no one knew the right question to ask.
For example, the buyer thought they had been clear about the company’s expectations for migrant workers, but through these conversations discovered that in fact they had not, and more clarity was needed. As a result, the buyer updated their purchase contract template to reflect these requirements and provided trainings to the suppliers about these expectations.
The buyer also decided to conduct a gap analysis to better understand where additional policy and management support was needed.
Often at Labor Solutions, we find that buyer-supplier communication is core to many “non-compliance” issues. If the supplier had known the requirement or understood it, they would have happily implemented it. As a result, often after a first survey, lots of changes are quickly made by suppliers who are eager to keep their client relationships.
Better Target Setting + Incentives
A key finding was that workers did not feel like they had a choice to work overtime. But there was a clear distinction between lower-level workers and higher-level workers. Workers who identified themselves as line leaders or higher felt that they did have a choice to workover time, while those who identified themselves as line workers overwhelmingly reported they did not have a choice to work overtime.
This suggested that there may be a troubling dynamic between goal setting and its transfer to line leaders and workers. When more questions were asked, it was found that line leaders were positively incentivized to hit targets, but line workers were negatively incentivized. If a line leader exceeded their targets they received bonuses, if a worker missed their target, they did not make their full wage.
The buyer helped the suppliers address and change the target setting and incentive structure to ensure both parties were positively incentivized. This process is still in progress, as realigning expectations and targets takes time, but thus far results have been positive.
Better Employer- Worker Communication + Upskilling Worker Committees
The results also highlighted the need to include workers more in decisions, particularly around grievance remediation. While, each facility had a worker committee, the worker committees were under resourced and under trained. They did not know how to effectively use their positions to advocate for change. Additional training was provided to the worker committee and the management team.
Worker Surveys Helped to Uncover Key Challenges
The buyer had been conducting audits for over a decade and had never uncovered the issues highlighted by the survey. The suppliers were also pleased with the outcomes they had more clarity and targeted support from their client and engagement from their workers.
Both parties say they’ll continue to conduct worker surveys annually.
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