Image Courtesy: GBL
Good Business Lab (GBL) recently hosted a panel discussion on the need to enable the voice of the worker and the transformative capacity technology possesses to stem the tide of communication asymmetries.
GBL is an international not-for-profit labour innovation organisation that employs rigorous research methods to find a common ground between worker well-being and business interests.
The discussion, hosted in Bengaluru, witnessed experts at the cutting edge of both the theory and practice of remediating worker grievances.
Chitra Ramdas, General Manager Organisational Development, Shahi Exports set the tenor of the discussion with an astute note on the shifting consciousness in the public sphere on issues concerning workers’ voice. “Since 2016, there has been a shift. We have seen this play out amongst workers and public discourse. We’ve seen that if workers are provided with a grievance redressal system, it has positive impacts on their satisfaction and firms also manage to retain their workers.”
She went on to stress how anonymity was critical to developing a worker voice tool, and the necessity of training all the relevant staff when such ambitious programmes are being piloted. As she noted, ‘job satisfaction, productivity, and retention are all interlinked’; aided by technology that is context-specific and designed to cater to the needs of its users.
Tejas Sampat, Senior Director, Corporate Responsibility (SA) and Sustainability, PVH also echoed Chitra Ramdas’ reflection on the shifting consciousness within the textile industry from the perspective of influential brands which are taking stock of the changing conditions and nature of discourse around labour.
He argued that brands are looking far beyond fulfilling basic compliance requirements, offering P.A.C.E as an illuminating example of a programme that looks beyond vocational skills alone, taking into account health, legal literacy, communication and other soft skills necessary for a modern worker’s growth in a competitive labour market.
Varun Jagannath, Associate Director, Field Operations, GBL brought an instructive historical perspective to the issue, arguing that production and productivity have been the key source of friction between capital and labour since the onset of industrialisation. He was quick to add that productivity could be achieved through other means than the cookie-cutter solution of longer working hours.
Suhasini Singh, Regional Coordinator, South Asia and Indonesia, Fairwear Foundation elaborated on how transformative programmes were being reified over the past decade, with businesses following a trajectory of intent (the cognisance of mounting worker grievances), action (implementing programs and designing solutions around such grievances), and impact (measuring and being accountable for the aforementioned programmes).
Pankhuri Shah, Manager, Social Compact, Dasra shared how Indian businesses are also looking to emulate their Western counterparts when it comes to progressive policies around the voice of workers. She opined while businesses were very well versed with secondary factors of production such as the raw materials employed, product quality, inter alia, when the conversation shifts to one of the primary factors of production, labour specifically in this instance, most businesses are caught at a disadvantage discussing worker well-being policies.
The panel was adroitly moderated by Eshika Gombar, Manager of Partnerships at GBL.
