Now that we’ve learned more about how to ensure better environmental responsibility within our supply chain, let’s chat about how to make our business operations better for the people directly impacted be it within your supply chain, the employees you directly employ, and the communities your business engages with. By the end of this section, you should have a better idea on how to answer these questions:
- Where is my product being manufactured and how do they treat their employees?
- How can I create a more inclusive workplace for my employees?
Within your supply chain:
It’s key to find companies that pay and treat their workers properly and with dignity. For those of you with the means, visiting in person is always the best way to observe the environment of employees. However, that can be expensive and time consuming for many of you starting or pivoting your business! Here are some ways you can better understand the treatment of people within your supply chain.
- Localize your supply chain, create relationships with companies closer to you so you can better understand their business operations and how they treat their staff.
- Working and trading directly with local artisan groups around the world or with a retailer that works directly with the artisans on your behalf and pays market value or above for their wares. Examples have been added to the video notes below.
- Look for global accreditations, like Fair Trade Manufacturing. For this you can connect with your country’s fair trade chapter to learn more. We’ve included the link to the International website for further reference.
- Work with third party verification companies to help you determine factories overseas that pay fairly and offer safe working conditions.
For some of you watching this course, you might not be able to employ some of these suggestions. Perhaps you are already working with a number of manufacturing facilities and would like to know if they are treating their workers fairly. We’ve compiled some questions to ask so you can get a better handle on how all of your production facilities treat and value the people producing for you. These questions are a good place to start, yet building a long term relationship with these suppliers is important for building trust, fostering transparency and in some cases, encouraging better practices over time.
Some starting questions include:
- What labour laws and standards does your factory adhere to?
- Do you have policies and documented standards in place outlining the working conditions and protections for your workers?
- Are your workers free to associate, create free and independent unions and partake in collective bargaining?
- What are the demographics of your workforce? How many women are in leadership and management positions?
- Do people travel great distances to work at your location? If they do, is housing provided?
- How many hours a day are employees expected to work? What does an average day for a worker look like?
- How are wages decided upon? Are employees able to participate in negotiations?
A great example of an entrepreneur taking responsibility for their supply chain is Kotn. Kotn is on a mission to change how things are made. Better for the people, better for the planet. In a quote from Kotn, they say “Buying the raw material ourselves lets us do three things: provide our customers with fair prices that reflect the quality instead of the label, provide farmers with better prices and business practices (especially in comparison to fast fashion enterprises), provide transparency into how our partners conduct their business.” They work directly with the cotton farmers and the factories to ensure safe working conditions and fair and equal pay. They have put a name and face to every aspect of their supply chain and by doing so have created a direct impact on the people within their production operations.
Now that you have an idea of how to gain more transparency into how people are treated within your supply chain, let’s discuss how you can foster a safe and inclusive workspace for your very own employees.
Diversity and Inclusion for Employees
Here’s some considerations for your own business:
Have you made a business case/articulated your statement for diversity and belonging in your company?
- Some stats to help build your business case narrative include:
- Companies with more than 30 percent women executives were more likely to outperform companies where this percentage ranged from 10 to 30
- Companies with culturally and ethnically diverse workforces out performed on profitability by up to 36 percent
Develop a diversity and inclusion strategy that outlines how you plan on putting your plan into practice. This can include running a needs analysis and leveraging focus groups.
Audit current practices/processes like hiring, talent development and compensation
Make sure you are compensating those doing this work equitably
Ensure that people from across the organization (job levels, groups, teams, regions, etc.) are responsible for and actually undertaking the work around diversity and belonging. Furthermore, ensure that there is strong leadership messaging, participation and buy-in. Finally, and critically, the responsibility for diversity and belonging work shouldn’t fall exclusively on people from underrepresented groups in your company, but should instead be a shared commitment with people across the business across all dimensions of diversity.
Ok, so you now have a starting point to better understand the treatment of people within your supply chain and tools to improve diversity and inclusion within your own company. Let’s talk about how the growth and sustained presence of your business impacts the loyal customer community you’ve built and the communities you operate within.
Being culturally appropriate:
Cultural sustainability across industries is a growing topic. It’s complex and deserves more time than this course will allow. I will simply outline some high level things to consider and you can find some extra reading material below in the video notes if you are interested in learning more. Designing sustainable products also means recognizing the cultures by which the idea originated from and not selling products that exploit cultures or their practices and products. An example of a culturally inappropriate product could be smudge sticks sold by entrepreneurs from outside of Indigenous communities where these products hold sacred and significant meaning. Without understanding the cultural importance of these items, whether intentional or not, is exploitation. When looking for a product to sell or pivoting your product lines to be more sustainable, please consider the gravity of cultural meaning and what these products are intended to represent. Some cultural designs are even protected by law, so be careful you aren’t opening yourself up to unwanted legal action!
Building an inclusive community:
Whether it’s through the product itself or the way that you publicly show up, you should always strive for more voices, not fewer.
- Are you representing your customers be it through your marketing efforts and branding? When your customers approach your brand, do they feel like they can relate to your content and feel included? If you aren’t showing up in a way that gives people a chance to feel like they are part of the community in your building, think of all the missed opportunities.
- When it comes to understanding your ideal customers, you should know them so well that you even understand the causes that are important to them. Part of building an inclusive community is taking part in the communities that matter most to your customers. Showing up and getting involved can look different for every business, maybe you’re writing supportive content, donating a portion of your sales to these groups or providing solutions to the issues that matter most. Being there for your customer community means being there for the causes they care deeply about.
Whether it’s the people within your supply chain, your employees, your customers or the communities you support and engage with, creating a safe environment for diverse voices to thrive in is a critical aspect of building a sustainable business for generations to come. In building your business, you can make it your mission to make the world better than how you found it be it through positive environmental action or striving for fair and dignified working conditions for everyone.