Leading industry experts, IOM, and Labor Solutions collaborate to design and develop a 1-hour eLearning to support businesses in Viet Nam enhance and uphold the human rights of migrant workers and address risks of trafficking and forced labor. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the importance of responsible business practices. It is important now more than ever, for businesses to ensure that their operations have a positive impact on people, the planet and prosperity to build back better. IOM Viet Nam and Labor Solutions are collaborating to design and develop an eLearning course on Labor Migration and Responsible Business Practices in Viet Nam. The objective of the course is to support companies to enhance business capacity to uphold the human rights of migrant workers and address risks of human trafficking and forced labor in operations and supply chains. It also shares relevant international standards and applicable legal frameworks. Responsible business practices have increasing implications for Viet Nam, due to the country’s economic growth and the two ratified free trade agreements covering trade, sustainable development, labor and the environment. For this reason, it is important to support businesses and guidance on measures to take in order to adhere to, and comply with international standards on business and human rights. "The recent expansion of transnational production networks of multinational companies to Viet Nam has not only offered business opportunities but also required business in Viet Nam to be proactive in ensuring business ethics, due diligence and social responsibility" said Miah Park, Chief of Mission, IOM Viet Nam. She continued "IOM works with businesses to provide tailored and customized training programs and practical tools to promote sustainable solutions for ethical recruitment and fair labor" "This is an important collaboration for us as many of our clients’ operate from and in Viet Nam. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with IOM in delivering key information and support for our clients, and other businesses in the country, to further advance human rights and labor rights throughout their operations” said Labor Solutions' CEO, Elena Fanjul-Debnam. The interactive and self-paced eLearning course is designed for business managers, compliance officers, human resources staff, and trade union leaders. It will include gamifications, test your knowledge exercises and downloadable action plans. The course will take approximately one hour to complete and will be available for FREE on IOM’s E-Campus at the end of Q4 2021. The course will cover: Introduction to responsible business practices Understanding forced labor and human trafficking Vulnerabilities of different groups of workers, including migrant workers, to forced labor and human trafficking What can business do to identify and address the risks of forced labor and human trafficking? The International Organization for Migration (IOM), as the leading organization for migration in the United Nations, has a global presence with 174 Member States, offices in more than 100 countries and over 70 years of dedicated experience working with governments, civil society and the private sector to promote orderly and well managed migration. IOM has pioneered and successfully tested innovative strategies and tools to support businesses and their suppliers to address the risks of human trafficking and forced labor in operations and supply chains. Under its private sector partnership programme Corporate Responsibility in Eliminating Slavery and Trafficking (CREST) IOM has been working with businesses to effect market change by increasing the demand for and supply of ethical recruitment services in line with international ethical recruitment standards. Labor Solutions, a social enterprise, leverages technology to engage and educate workers throughout supply chains. Over a million workers in 25 countries have access to Labor Solutions’ elearning platform, WOVO. The Labor Solutions team will digitize the content and focus on strategic deployment and implementation to ensure as many workers as possible are able to access the safety elearnings. The course will be piloted with businesses in Viet Nam in November 2021. Please reach out to Ms. Nguyen Thi Bao Chau, Project Assistant at IOM, email: thibnguyen@iom.int if you’d like to take part in the pilot. Together with IOM, Labor Solutions invites you to join this training and share it with your network!

Leading industry experts, Labor Solutions and Kindling, have partnered to design develop and deliver fire safety digital trainings for factory workers. After one factory implement fire safety eLearning and saw an 80% reduction in safety accidents, over three months, the two organizations determined a collaboration was timely and could create significant impactful. While the preliminary findings are exciting, the two organizations are keen to continue the work to ensure longer term, sustainable change. "Our goal is to provide leading fire safety training to as many workers as possible to ensure their safe return home every day," said Labor Solutions' CEO, Elena Fanjul-Debnam. To start the course offering include: Basic Fire Safety for Workers Fire Safety for Managers– Creating a Safe Working Environment Fire Safety in your Everyday Life With additional support the partnership can further maximize reach and expand course offerings, "the more support we get for these programs, the more localized and specific our curriculum development can be. We want to tailor the trainings so workers have the knowledge resources they need to stay safe from fire," said Danielle Antonellis, the Executive Director of Kindling. Kindling, an NGO focused on fire safety improvements for vulnerable communities, especially in Low- and Middle-Income Countries where 95% fire deaths occur, , will provide subject matter expertise to create a learning pathway that supports and educates workers, improving safety outcomes. In some cases, Kindling will also work to provide face to face trainings to support a blended learning model. The NGO's work plan includes providing country specific content based on the unique fire safety issues faced in each locality, in and outside the workplace. Labor Solutions, a social enterprise, leverages technology to engage and educate workers throughout supply chains. Over a million workers in 25 countries have access to Labor Solutions’ elearning platform, WOVO. The Labor Solutions team will digitize the content and focus on strategic deployment and implementation to ensure as many workers as possible are able to access the safety elearnings. Please reach out to Sheila if you are interested in providing support or rolling out courses to your workers or workers within your supply chain.

Recently Labor Solutions had the pleasure of working with IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative, to develop new E-Learning courses and topics.  With a keen interest in gender equality in the workplace – especially in a factory context – IDH shared their institutional knowledge to inform topics such as Gender Awareness, Gender-Based Violence Prevention, and Sexual Harassment Prevention. Take a look at some of the learning objectives of each topic: Gender Awareness Understand what gender means Identify ‘typical’ gender roles and understand why stereotyping can be harmful Learn about gender role implications in the workplace Understand gender equality and its objectives Gender-based Violence Prevention Understand what is gender-based violence (GBV) Identify the typical forms of GBV Learn what you should do if you experience or see violence in the workplace Sexual Harassment Prevention Identify the various types of sexual harassment in the workplace Understand how sexual harassment cases should be managed Understand why sexual harassment should be dealt with as soon as possible Together we also honed several topics within our Basics of Communication and Leading Others courses: Effective Communication, Communication Skills for Collaboration, and Leadership Essentials.  You’ve probably heard of the ‘golden rule’ of communication: speak and listen as you’d like to be spoken and listened to, but have you considered the Platinum Rule: communicate with others in their preferred styles of speaking and listening? With guidance to facilitate or at least contribute to a cohesive workplace rooted in mutual respect, our information and tips within these topics are valuable for all levels of employees, from line workers to managers, and for the overall good of a facility. To get our full catalog of e-learning courses, reach out to LaborSolutions@workplaceoptions.com or your Labor Solutions contact. Hashtag #compliance #humanrights #sustainability #training

A paper by Sherry Wu of UCLA and Elizabeth Paluck of Princeton, demonstrates that actively encouraging employees to speak up about their work process and experience, rather than solely listen to management, boosted productivity by 10% in a Chinese apparel factory, after just six weeks. The productivity boost is equivalent to a $58 USD increase in wages. Once again, it is clear giving workers a voice is foundational to improvements in the workplace and the bottom-line. When workers are heard and engaged, everyone benefits. Read the detailed study here.

Last month, we published an article showing a drastic increase in the utilization of WOVO from February to March. As the pandemic continues, utilization of WOVO continues in increase. In these uncertain and stressful economic times, workers are asking more questions to their management than ever. From February to March, we have seen utilization rates of WOVO increase tremendously across the region: Vietnam – 91% increase in messages sent by workers Indonesia – 50% increase Cambodia – 173% increase China – 129% increase In turn, management also increased outreach to workers: 100% increase in the number of broadcast messages sent globally by managers to workers from February to March 27% increase in the number of newsletters sent globally by managers to workers from February to March Managers using WOVO during the COVID-19 outbreak report that they are happy to have access to a digital technology that allows them to keep in touch with workers even when those workers are staying at home.  For factories laying off or indefinitely furloughing workers, WOVO will be key to getting workers back on the line when government restrictions ease and orders continue. Hear from human resource directors who are using WOVO to build trust and improve moral during COVID. Does your company or workplace have a corporate communications tool in place? A recent McKinsey & Company report on COVID-19 says that adopting a two-way communication system with workers is critical during a crisis. The study says that these systems act as a clear source of truth, provide workers with confidential reporting mechanisms, and help employers have a clearer understanding of what is going from the perspective of workers. Reach out so we can help you set up WOVO – and other tools we developing in response to COVID-19 disruptions – in your facility quickly. We will continue to update this data as the crisis continues. Hashtag #uncategorized

This month over 400,000 new workers gained access to WOVO’s elearning platform, allowing them to take courses on topics ranging from Fire Safety to Pregnancy Support. While WOVO eLearning is available in over 20 countries, this months’ launch included workers in Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Honduras. Of the 400,000 workers, 76% are women. “We are excited to see our eLearning platform expanding to more workers. We’ve spent the last year working hard on improving our user interface, accessibility and building partnerships with great subject matter experts,” says Labor Solutions’ CEO Elena Fanjul-Debnam. With this launch to a new set of workers, the WOVO eLearning platform has been upgraded. New reporting features allow factories which roll out the eLearning platform to earn badges based on the percentage of workers who complete and pass a course, rewarding factories and making it easy to share success with clients. The eLearning content has a new interface and is more interactive. Laso Robo, WOVO’s new learning ambassador, and his friends help usher workers through courses with jokes and light-hearted banter. Workers can also now download content to view later without WIFI. Courses continue to be added to the platform as Labor Solutions works closely with subject matter experts. Digitizing existing curricula and distributing to as many workers as possible is a key goal for the Labor Solutions team. If your or your organization has content relevant to factory workers and are interested in working with Labor Solutions to distributed it widely, please reach out to Sheila Schulze. Founded in 2013, Labor Solutions leverages technology and data to improve the lives of workers. Our tools and services are created using user-centric & inclusive design to engage and connect with the entire value chain of stakeholders. We foster social infrastructures to support sustainable and valuable change in workplaces.

Background Providing meals for 4,000 workers three times a day is complicated, requiring a team to manage preferences, health concerns, consistency and variety. Complaints about the food served at factories is common and often these complaints are brushed off as minor or unimportant. However, there is a clear connection between canteen condition, food quality and worker engagement and productivity. An ILO study argues good nutrition at work is good business, leading to gains in productivity and worker morale, prevention of accidents and premature deaths, and reductions in health-care costs. Worker satisfaction and thus retention is directly related to food served onsite. In a survey conducted by Labor Solutions in 25 factories, eighty percent of workers unsatisfied with the food provided were considering quitting. In the same study, twenty-seven percent of employees said access to healthy food and drink was the number-one way their employer could be supportive. Brands and factories alike should take this issue seriously. This case study takes a closer look a Vietnamese factory that used WOVO to focus on improving their canteen and after 3 months saw a measurable increase in worker satisfaction and productivity. Case Factory management knew workers were unhappy about the food served in the canteen, but lacked the tools to systemically collect feedback and address the issue. So, management saw WOVO as an opportunity to help them solve their ongoing canteen problems. Unsurprisingly, when WOVO launched, a majority of complaints received via WOVO’s Connect Feature, were regarding the food at the canteen. Analysis showed workers dissatisfied with the repetitive, tasteless and small amounts food. Workers also complained that food menus were only published onsite in the canteen, resulting in dangerous crowds and shorter break hours as workers rushed to canteen to decide whether to dine in or order out. The management at this factory, now equipped with WOVO, decided to take the following steps: Proactively reach out to workers using a factory wide survey. Based on the survey results, they got rid of the unpopular dishes and added a few recommended ones. Now this survey is being ran on a quarterly basis. Factory management also decided to start publishing the menus on WOVO using the newsletter feature. This seemingly minor adjustment had a big impact on the workers’ behavior. They no longer rushed to the canteen at lunch time; instead, they checked menus on their phones. This helped reduce over-crowding and allowed to have a more relaxing break. Increased their promotion of WOVO to encourage workers to voice opinions. This helped to reduce the workload of team leaders and HSE staff as they no longer needed to have repetitive conversations or manually record the issues. Workers were also able to give suggestions easily and quickly when issues first emerged helping the management address the issue faster. While, WOVO was a needed a tool to help the factory management communicate and gather feedback, improvements policies and procedures were also necessary to create sustainable change. Here are some of the actions management took: Staff from the administrative and HSE departments, now conduct monthly meetings with the canteen team and randomly check food portions and hygiene onsite to ensure ongoing compliance. If the factory receives multiple complaints about food, they treat the issues as urgent and try to resolve it immediately, before the day ends, including providing additional snacks or milk, when workers complain about a lack of food. The factory expanded the compliance committee to include night-shift workers to ensure consistency no matter the shift. The canteen team also made improvements such as replacing the old utensils, changing the kitchen layout and adding more staff to provide food faster. They also took special notice of the hygiene, taste and diversity of the food. Results Three months after making changes, the impact of their work was clear: The number of reports regarding canteen and food had dropped by 40% compared to the last quarter. Absenteeism due to food-borne illnesses dropped to zero. A 40% increase in the number of daily meals served, an indicator that more workers were choosing to dine in. Workers were more productive, increasing production by more 15%. A 25% increase in worker satisfaction. WOVO's ongoing support and engagement is key to factories ability to make real lasting change and react in the moment worker needs. Proud of what his team had accomplished using WOVO, the Human Resource director said, “we love Connect and Company Post features of WOVO since they have made significant contribution to our workplace communications. Thank you WOVO Team.”

A Case Study: After COVID hit, one brand decided to digitize their trainings in hopes of meeting a 3-year goal of training 25% of workers on gender-based violence and safety.  Read how they were able to increase the number of workers trained, meeting their goal after just 6 months and reduce training time by 60%. In 2019, a small apparel brand set a 3-year goal to have 25% of workers in their 1st tier supply chain trained on safety and gender-based violence by 2023. The brand set a plan to hit this ambitious target, creating face-to-face training modules and hiring additional staff globally to deliver the trainings. Then COVID hit. The brand was no longer able to go onsite to conduct trainings and suppliers were busy trying to protect workers from COVID and changing production efforts to match every changing local regulation. The sustainability team morale was deflated, their efforts to train workers had been derailed. While the brand strongly believed combating COVID and protecting workers from the virus should be a key priority, they also knew increased stress and a shrinking job market would result in an increase in worker vulnerability. They decided their goal to train workers was still critical. The brand heard from one of their suppliers about WOVO eLearning and decided to engage Labor Solutions to digitize their lessons. By digitizing the lessons, the brand and suppliers were able to deliver the trainings to more workers despite COVID. Content Design The Labor Solutions digital learning team used the face-to-face training curricula outlines and created a blended learning model for the brand. They were able to digitize over 80% of the curricula. Working with the brand the team created interactive and entertaining content for workers, ensuring to check for understanding after the presentation of each concept and then to conduct an assessment at the end of the lesson. The team was also able to use a set of culturally ambiguous characters, making translations easier and more affordable. Literacy was a concern for the brand as well, so for some languages, voice overs were added. All courses were saved in both a video format to be shared on screens in factories, but also as an eLearning package to be distributed via WOVO to workers. Program and Reporting Design The Labor Solutions team advised the brand to set targets for the percentage of workers who completed each lesson for each country to ensure that suppliers prioritized distribution. The brand considered challenges each locality, like the prevalence of COVID, when they set targets, and decided to set slightly different targets for each supplier countries. They also decided to set lower targets to make sure the goals were not overwhelming at first. The goals were clear and easy to communicate both internally to brand stakeholders but also to suppliers. After a group call with suppliers and an email, the suppliers were clear on the Brand's expectations. Implementation Labor Solutions sent each supplier a set up package. To get started: Suppliers were given access to their own WOVO worker database to easily upload worker profiles. This allows for courses to be ta rgeted to specific groups of workers, like managers. It also allows for more accurate reporting. If a worker takes the course and then later quits, the workers data will be counted in the Overall Trained Data point but not in the current workforce data point. This allows the supplier to ensure their current workforce is up-to-date on trainings. Suppliers were given promotional materials and a video to distribute to workers to make downloading and registering for the app easy Workers scan the QR code and download the WOVO app. The App automatically filled in the company code, workers only need to add their employee ID number to get started Suppliers set up digital training areas at the factory Suppliers provided WIFI in these areas for workers to download the course to take later or to take the course live Many suppliers provided a few extra devices (computers, phones, tablets etc) for workers without smart phones to use to access the content. Some suppliers provided incentives like free phone credit or entry into a raffle for workers who completed the courses Data + Results After just 6 months the brand had successfully trained 25% of workers at their strategic suppliers. The brand saw this as an instant success and continued to have their digital trainings translated and rolled out to more suppliers. The digital trainings also require 60 percent less worker time than classroom training. What used to be a half a day training was now a twenty-minute digital training + one-hour face-to-face training. The brand plans conduct the face to face component of their blended learning program when COVID subsides. The onsite training is now structured as a practicum, allowing participants apply the content learned in the digital training to real life scenarios. The shorter training allows the brand to train more workers and the suppliers are happier that workers spend less time away from the production line. ----------- Labor Solutions’ products and services support brands and retailers in reducing risks through engagement, access, and improvement. Our plug-and-play tools have been carefully designed to support our clients’ varying needs throughout the entire Worker Engagement Cycle. Our Client Advisory team helps our client’s set-up for success in each facility and country. To learn more about our tools and services click here.

Recently Elena Fanjul-Debnam,  had the honor of speaking with Mark Evans at Omega Compliance. Following their conversations, Mr. Evans published the following article. Mobile phone technology within responsible sourcing programs is becoming increasingly common. From the introduction of the Amader Kotha helpline in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza, to the growth of worker sentiment surveys and standalone worker wellbeing projects at factories, the trend is clear. “It’s exciting and certainly has a future,” says Elena Fanjul-Debnam, Head of Labor Solutions.  “Countries are changing their rules and regulations around cellphone data and, coupled with more service providers entering the market, the price of mobile phone technology is reducing.” With any new technology though, there is always more excitement than practicality. “Brands need to be thoughtful about what they want to achieve,” explains Elena. “You need a lot of sampling, account management and training. You also need to be cognizant of the end user. In this case, it is the worker. We have to think through how we implement worker grievance tools, what we do with the data, how we react to it and how we make changes based on what is said.” Elena prefers the term ‘worker dialogue’ rather than ‘worker voice.’  Worker voice describes a one-way tool, collecting information but, perhaps, not acting upon it, while, worker dialogue, instead, describes a conversation. “We are replying to workers and we’re getting to the bottom of what’s going on,” she explains. “We’re listening and that is where change is going to be made.” While there is some discussion within the industry around the potential for worker dialogue technology to replace responsible sourcing audits, Elena believes the tools are distinct and should remain separate. “Audits attempt to be an objective assessment,” shares Elena. “For example, is minimum wage being paid? A worker may not know that nor, as another example, understand if there is an effective fire alarm system at the factory.” According to Elena, brands should also be aware of the limitations of worker grievance technology as worker helplines. “Many helplines are built on a model which require a factory manager to ask their employees to report to a client whether they are a bad employer,” she shares. “Given this incentive structure, productive engagement is less likely. Also, third party helplines are so removed for workers that it’s also worth considering how vulnerable and aggrieved a worker must feel before using a third-party channel.” Elena believes worker dialogue technology is deployed best at the factory. “The best place for change to happen is where workers can communicate directly with their employees,” she shares. Worker dialogue tools only work where there is the ability to make change. If the factory asks, ‘How do you feel about your wage?’ but has no intention to increase it, it’s best not to ask the question. “It’s about trust,” explains Elena. “You want the workers to trust you and tell you things, but they are only going to confide in you so long as you act upon their feedback, or at least be able to tell them what the resolution was.” “Brands also need to be careful about false negatives,” adds Elena. “One should not assume the absence of feedback means there are no problems.” As an example, Elena explains that she lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, for eight years, and has been in Singapore for two. She has filed more complaints in Singapore than she did in Jakarta, because her experience has been that in Singapore someone will listen, follow-up, then respond. In other words, the lack of complaints she filed in Jakarta does not indicate that there were less issues there. People react to what they anticipate will happen. If a factory manager, in the past, has followed up upon what a worker said, they may be more likely to provide negative feedback again because they believe they will change things. By telling the truth, they are asking for change. From the perspective of the factory, it’s about direct employers engaging their workers and really creating systems which enable that. “From a brand’s perspective, if we look at suppliers and know that they are having direct engagement with workers, we know the risk is decreased,” explains Elena. “I think the most effective place to deploy worker dialogue technology is factory by factory, facility by facility, because that’s the workers’ reality.” This blog was originally published by Omega Compliance. Hashtag #compliance #humanrights #sustainability

While it may not always be possible to include direct employers in the survey process, we encourage brands to do so if possible. Worker Surveys are more meaningful if supplier facilities are part of the process. As the employer, supplier facilities are responsible for providing workers a positive work environment. Follow up to worker surveys is just as important as collecting worker feedback and direct employers are best equipped to do this. When a brand collects worker feedback without the supplier facility engaged, it misses an opportunity to leverage capacity and empower for change. Imagine if you and your co-workers had spent the last three months lodging complaints about the factory sponsored bus, and then your employer launches, what they call an “Employee Engagement Survey” and doesn’t ask about the bus. This oversight would lead you to believe your employer doesn’t care about what you have to say and result in you being less interested in responding to the survey. While better understanding transportation issues may not be your brand's objective for the survey, by not addressing the daily concerns of workers, it is impossible to build the trust necessary to uncover more concerning challenges. When suppliers are engaged in the survey process, the whole process is more efficient and effective: Employer knowledge and experience in the field will help you create the right questions. Suppliers are more willing to support survey deployment, helping to promote the survey among workers and assist with onsite deployment When the right questions are asked, and management promotes a surveys more workers respond and are more likely to be honest with their feedback. Suppliers feel ownership and are more likely to act upon the data from the surveys they own. The Worker Engagement Dashboard (WED) was built with this in mind. With the WED Survey Tools: Brands create surveys and assign to their suppliers. Suppliers can add their own questions or combine questions from two different brands without changing the brand's core questions or the reporting structure. From their dashboard suppliers decide to how to distribute and promote the survey Data is reported back to selected stakeholders in their selected format, allowing for easy comparison of data sets. The WED survey tool underlines Labor Solutions' commitment to creating sustainable long term solutions that lead to capacity building and ownership. --- Founded in 2013, Labor Solutions leverages technology and data to improve the lives of workers. Our tools and services are created using user-centric & inclusive design to engage and connect with the entire value chain of stakeholders. We foster social infrastructures to support sustainable and valuable change in workplaces.