Labor Solutions launched a free German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act Guide - a step-by-step walkthrough of the Act with detailed guidance + practical solutions; including what baseline steps you need to take to comply with human rights compliance by Jan 1, 2023 . Request your free copy of the guide today and learn more about the Act below: Photo of the German Bundestag courtesy of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre What is the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act: In June 2021 the German Government passed new ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) legislation called the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence in Supply Chains – commonly referred to as the “Supply Chain Act.” This Act requires large companies to impose social and environmental due diligence standards on their supply chains. Specifically, it requires companies to monitor their own and those of their direct suppliers and take action if violations are identified. The law comes into effect on January 1st, 2023, with an expansion in 2024. Who the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act Applies to: By January 2023: Partnerships and corporations with headquarters, principal place of business, administrative headquarters, registered office or a domestic branch in Germany and employ more than 3,000 employees across the entire group From 2024 the Supply Chain Act will also apply to; Companies who meet the above requirements and have over 1,000 employees Note that the total number of employees includes: Employees of both parent and group companies; Temporary workers employed for over six months and; workers posted abroad Why You Should Start Complying Now: Fines of up to €800,000 can be imposed on companies that violate their due diligence and reporting obligations – that’s up to 2% of average annual global turnover for companies with an average annual global turnover of over €400 million Companies who do not comply also be excluded from winning public contracts in Germany for up to three years Civil liability maybe imposed and damages may have to be paid to victims of human rights violations. In addition to legal requirements, updating human rights due diligence helps companies meet consumer, investor, employee and other stakeholder demands. A global report from HSBC found that 86% of businesses expect their sales to grow over this year through a stronger focus on sustainability, making compliance a potential benefit for companies’ bottom line What Your Company Must Do Next: Getting your business ready to comply with the German Supply Chain Act includes: Risk assessment and analysis Policy statement drafting Setting up a complaints procedure Applying preventative + remedial measures Documenting and reporting on everything How Labor Solutions Can Help: Implementing the law in practice won't be easy, particularly for those with complex supply chains. We’ve spent the last decade working with multi-national companies to design sustainable and scalable human rights programs throughout complex supply chains. Our team of experts and our technology tools are equipped to guide and support you wherever you may be in your journey. To help companies meet these specific challenges Labor Solutions has designed a Human Rights Due Diligence program that focuses on helping companies: Assess risks through ongoing, regular analysis Identify adverse impacts through proactive + reactive complaints collection Prevent human rights violations in your business + supply chain Remediate violations to an end Get started today by requesting your free copy of the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act Guide here . About Labor Solutions Labor Solutions, an impact-focused business, leverages technology to connect , engage and educate workers to build resilient supply chains. Over a million and a half workers in 25 countries have access to Labor Solutions’ worker engagement platform, WOVO . Workers can respond to worker surveys, report grievances and access eLearning modules on rights and responsibilities. Please reach out to our team to learn more: info@laborsolutions.tech.

Photo Courtesy of Good Business Lab Prioritizing the wellbeing of employees is the first step to any successful business. Prioritizing the wellbeing of workers is not just a good - or ethical - thing to do, but because it makes business sense. A happier, healthier workforce is a more productive workforce. A productive workforce is more likely to attend, perform their best work, and add more value to an organization. Unfortunately, investing in the well-being of workers isn’t so simple. Address the issues that come up when businesses fail to consider worker wellbeing and discuss why listening to workers is important in the business world in the “How to Create a Good Business” course. University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business Professor Achyuta Adhvaryu, Ph.D., co-founder of research nonprofit, Good Business Lab, will guide you through the course, and share how research-based interventions can affect worker and business outcomes. Leaders from academia, research, business, and workers themselves (including Labor Solutions' CEO Elena Fanjul-Debnam speaking about our work with Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd, The Children's Place, and Good Business Lab) share their perspectives coupled with academic research to help you design a worker wellbeing intervention of your own. Get started at https://myumi.ch/XV5Zq. Preview the course here : Labor Solutions, an impact-focused business, leverages technology to connect, engage and educate workers to build resilient supply chains. Over a million and a half workers in 25 countries have access to Labor Solutions’ worker engagement platform, WOVO. Workers can respond to worker surveys, report grievances and access eLearning modules on rights and responsibilities. Please reach out to our team to learn more: info@laborsolutions.tech.

Leading industry experts ILO's Better Work + Labor Solutions designed + developed Rights and Responsibilities at the Workplace eLearning Course, piloting in Indonesia and Bangladesh. Workers’ productivity, happiness, safety and working conditions at the workplace go hand in hand. It is important for workers to understand their rights for them to be able to advocate for their rights. Advocacy and protection start with education. Labor Solutions supported Better Work to design and develop worker facing eLearning lessons on Rights and Responsibilities at the Workplace. The course materials’ overall approach are based on the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, relevant ILO Conventions as well as the existing materials from the Empower at Work module(s). The course consists of five lessons each designed to take a worker approximately 15 minutes or less to complete. Content and information are accompanied by engaging interactions and fun, gamified exercises. Lessons follow an inclusive design approach, with intuitive navigations, descriptive visuals, and localized audio narrations. To help workers better understand their rights in the context of national laws, lessons will also include the relevant laws for each focus area in Indonesia and Bangladesh. Courses will be delivered directly to workers through the WOVO mobile app and the WOVO online web-portal. “We are constantly working to increase the content available to workers to ensure they are successful at work and at home. We are so excited to work with Better Work to be able to add such high-quality content,” said Elena Fanjul-Debnam, Labor Solutions’ CEO. “The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we learn, it has been a huge shift from the traditional way of training and opened our pathways to explore other platforms as e-learning, digital training, blended learning models etc. At BW we try to scale our reach and impact and as these digital trainings can be delivered with both low cost and low disturbance to the factory day to day work and contributes to a life-long learning journey of adult with higher retention rates, we believe it is the way forward”, said Minna Maaskola, Senior Technical Specialist, Training & Capacity Building, BETTERWORK. The Rights and Responsibilities course will cover: Working conditions Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Freedom of association and collective bargaining Forced labour, child labour and minimum age Discrimination and elimination of violence at work Better Work – a collaboration between the United Nation’s International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group – is a comprehensive programme bringing together all levels of the garment industry to improve working conditions and respect of labour rights for workers and boost the competitiveness of apparel businesses. As a result of their participation with Better Work, factories have steadily improved compliance with ILO core labour standards and national legislation covering compensation, contracts, occupational safety and health and working time. This has significantly improved working conditions and, at the same time enhanced factories’ productivity and profitability. About Labor Solutions Labor Solutions, an impact-focused business, leverages technology to connect, engage and educate workers to build resilient supply chains. Over a million and a half workers in 25 countries have access to Labor Solutions’ worker engagement platform, WOVO. Workers can respond to worker surveys, report grievances and access eLearning modules on rights and responsibilities. The course design and development will be completed in Q2 2022 to be piloted in Indonesia and Bangladesh. Please reach out to Labor Solutions’ Senior Vice President Bijie Li if you are interested to support the pilot in your facilities.

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.”