Why grievance management - if handled right - can be an opportunity for more success in the factory

Sonja, what's new at Sustify?

We have developed a new course as a basis for grievance management. Originally we developed all the trainings for Asia, then some brands said they would find the trainings also good for their productions in the Global North. We call this course "Human Rights & Complaint Management" here, but it is more difficult to work with this term in China, for example. So for Asia, we call it "Worker Engagement & Reporting Grievances." The focus is on anti-discrimination. It turned out to be a really good course. Everything with practical examples and LkSG compliant. (Editor's note: LkSG is the German abbreviation for Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz and refers to The Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains). According to the LkSG, human rights must be trained in the company's own factories and at the suppliers. With suppliers, it is more difficult to enforce. They prefer to do occupational health and safety, as soon as it has to do with workers' rights, many get scared. At least, that's our experience with suppliers and manufacturers, especially in China.

What is the biggest concern of suppliers/manufacturers?

One is the fear of losing workers' time. Often one hour of training at 15 minutes per week is already too much. Then it's, "Oh, can they really not work that long then?" And we're only talking about 1 hour of training a year. Then there's the fear of more transparency. Thanks to digitization and our special learning algorithm, you can't cheat. The workers sit individually in front of the tablet, everything is anonymously documented. We have developed a special form of eLearning that is more application-based and also fun. This shows what a big investment of time and effort individual training is. When you talk about health protection in the first step and then also about communication and anti-discrimination, the fear is of course: What will happen to our workers now? Are they all going to go on strike? Do they want more wage? What demands might they make?

Who usually pays for the cost of the trainings?

The costs don't have to be paid by the factory itself, that's paid by the brands. But that also shows that even one hour of training without additional costs is too much. However, there are incentives. Productivity goes up, quality goes up, employee motivation goes up. But of course it is not easy to bring about a system change overnight. 

What training courses does Sustify currently offer?

We currently have three courses in the area of social standards. Fire safety, occupational health and safety, and human rights, each for Tier 0 - n. Actually, the human rights course would be important especially in Asia, but it is difficult to convince the factories. Individual trainings are usually not conducted, i.e. not for the entire workforce. Mostly only management or people in special functions are trained, "normal" workers don't get anything. Or to put it more drastically: You close the factory for a day, call everyone outside, and someone yells something into a megaphone. That's the training. It's more like an event where you get out for a day. Or in capacity building programs, sometimes a group of 20-30 people are trained. That's certainly good, but in a factory with 2,000 employees, that's just a drop in the bucket. This can be presented well to the outside world, and no one asks at the end what percentage of the staff has actually been trained.

The LkSG demands that human rights must also be trained in Tier 1, what is your take on this?

In China, for example, I find it a difficult topic. I notice that a lot of customers say that we have to do something now in terms of risk management and that we have to introduce grievance management. It's happened to me a few times that I've been in talks with textile companies about carrying out trainings. The sustainability manager was convinced, he convinced the managing director, who convinced the next person, and then at some point the agency or the factory said, no, we don't want that. And then the question arises, what do you do now?

You have to understand that the topic of "trainings" is new. And through the framework of the LkSG, it is getting even more attention as a preventive or remedial measure - even if there are still reservations in Asia, because it is not yet fully appreciated that trained workers also increase productivity. I'm always in favor of transparency and that's why I talk about it so openly.

What makes Sustify different from other e-learning providers?

Our solution is designed specifically for the Global South. Visual, interactive and inclusive. There is also a voice-over for each text for illiterate learners. Everything with a personal login, because when training is done in groups, it often doesn't last long. In addition, we have developed a learning algorithm so that learning content adapts to the user or his results. Cheating is not possible. In addition, there is a defined "learning time" of 15 minutes, so that it is possible to plan exactly how long a worker needs for the training.

Why is individual learning the better solution in this context?

If you want something to be memorized, it has to happen individually. Of course, you can sit down in front of a tablet in a group and the workers watch a video, but if you ask what they remember afterwards, it's often not much. We've tried it ourselves with user testing. Our experience shows that, for example, videos with real people are too distracting. Workers have told us that they are interested in what skin color the people in the videos have, how dark they are, what exactly they are wearing. That's why we don't make many videos and when we do, we make animations. But in the end, it's better that some kind of training happens than if there's nothing at all.

How does such individual training work?

We work on the principle of distributed repetition. That means four sessions of 15 minutes a week or six sessions. It depends on the content. For example, our trainer in Bangladesh goes into the factory with tablets. The trainer clarifies with the factory coordinators who is to be trained on what topics. After that,  the trainer designs a schedule in cooperation with the factory. If it's a small factory up to 200 people, it's easier because you can do a batch, but if it's a factory with 2,000 workers, then it takes a year to get everyone through training because we divide the workers up over the months. Everyone gets QR codes. They print those out and stick them on their batches. Everyone can log in for the training. All results are listed in the database. Upon request, anyone can receive a certificate as well as the factory.

This means traceability is given for each individual through the QR code?

Yes, but it's all anonymous. We have the results, we have the monitoring, we see exactly how many workers have logged in per week.

So what are the most convincing arguments to conduct trainings?

It's about explaining that trained workers mean more productivity and higher quality. And the access to the European market will be better because the workers are demonstrably trained. This kind of training meets German and European requirements.

You talked about a system change in grievance management, can you explain this?

What we are doing is aimed at a system change. Away from auditing and towards empowerment. Employees who are encouraged to think for themselves and look for own solutions. Even asking critical questions. And that is honestly not desired. It doesn't fit the current system. But there are also positive examples. One worker we interviewed told us that she finally understood why all the workers go out together once a month. The fire safety training. One other said that she now finally understands the words "Exit" on the green sign. 

In market research, there are qualitative and quantitative approaches. I have the feeling that it's all about measuring impact and that the qualitative approach is being forgotten as a result.

Do you notice that a change in thinking is happening?

Yes, there are definitely pioneers, among brands and factories. It is understood that audits are an indicator, but not enough. Covid has shown that resilience also comes from cooperation. In other words, don't just travel to countries to inspect, but talk to each other. Joint training measures lend themselves to this, and a digital approach can also help countries with their general digitalization. I am happy about brands as well as factories that understand that empowerment of workers is not a risk, but an opportunity for more success - on all levels, for people, for nature, and also financially.

Sonja Westphal holds a master's degree in environmental management and has experienced the challenges and opportunities of global outsourcing first-hand as a communications and sustainability consultant in factories in China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia.

As founder of Sustify, she has developed training software for workers in the supply chain to increase compliance with social and environmental standards. She is also a certified auditor for the SA8000 social standard.