Surfacing Hidden Labor Risks through Worker Voice in the Seafood Industry with the WELL Survey
- Labor Solutions
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
A Labor Solutions Case Study
As expectations around human rights due diligence rise, seafood companies need tools that move beyond compliance and deliver real insight into worker experience.
This case study demonstrates that the WELL Survey is effective in the seafood industry, capturing credible worker voice at scale and translating it into actionable labor insights. The pilot revealed seafood-specific risks, exposed inequities within workplaces, and generated clear priorities for action—showing how worker-centered measurement can strengthen due diligence in complex supply chains.
Pilot Objective
Testing Whether Worker Voice Delivers Actionable Insight in Seafood Operations
The WELL Survey was piloted in the seafood industry to assess whether a worker-centered, cross-sector tool could effectively capture worker voice and generate actionable labor insights in a complex supply chain context.
The primary objective of the pilot was to assess whether the WELL Survey could, in the seafood industry:
Accurately reflect workers’ lived experiences
Surface labor and wellbeing risks specific to seafood operations
Reveal differences across gender, job type, and work location
Produce insights that are relevant and actionable for seafood companies
Findings
The WELL Survey is Effective at Uncovering Risks in the Seafood Industry
The WELL Survey Works in the Seafood Context
The pilot confirmed that the WELL Survey is effective when applied in the seafood industry. Specifically, it demonstrated that the tool can:
Engage seafood workers meaningfully, generating credible and differentiated responses
Capture authentic worker voice across roles, genders, and work environments. The variation in results across worker groups confirms that the survey is sensitive to the realities of seafood workplaces, rather than producing uniform or superficial findings.
Identify labor and wellbeing risks specific to seafood operations
Reveal inequities within seafood workplaces that are often obscured in aggregate data
Support informed decision-making and continuous improvement through actionable insights
Seafood-Specific Risks Were Clearly Identified
The pilot surfaced risk patterns that are particularly relevant to the seafood industry, including:
Worker fatigue and exhaustion linked to production demands
Harassment and psychological safety concerns, especially among women
Unequal access to opportunity and voice across job types
These risks appeared even where traditional compliance indicators performed relatively well.
Disaggregation Added Critical Value in Seafood Operations
By disaggregating results, the pilot highlighted how worker experience differs significantly within seafood workplaces, particularly between:
Production and non-production roles
Supervisory and non-supervisory workers
Women and men
These differences are especially relevant in seafood supply chains, where hierarchy and job segregation are common.
Results Were Actionable for Seafood Companies
The pilot generated clear, sector-relevant priorities for improvement, including:
Strengthening harassment prevention mechanisms
Addressing workload and fatigue management
Improving worker participation in decision-making
Closing gender-based gaps in opportunity and voice
The findings were specific enough to inform corrective actions within seafood operations.
Next Steps
Scaling Within the Seafood Industry
Based on the pilot results, the WELL Survey will now be rolled out at scale within the seafood industry. Scaling will enable:
Consistent benchmarking across seafood operations
Identification of systemic, sector-wide risks
Tracking of improvement over time
Stronger integration of worker voice into seafood-specific due diligence
Why This Matters
Strengthening Seafood Supply Chains Through Worker Voice
The pilot confirms that worker-centered tools, when validated in the seafood industry, can generate reliable insights and support stronger, evidence-based due diligence across complex seafood supply chains.
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