Ask The Workers - less work
Updated: Sep 2
This is the second post (of two) that cover how continuous worker voice is less work than it appears for stretched labour rights due diligence teams.
The first post sets out savings that are inherent in the approach itself: Continuous Worker voice - less work.
This second post looks at specific additional savings that come from the unique way that Ask The Workers has implemented continuous worker voice.
Summary
Continuous worker voice delivers cost savings in 5 main ways - set out in more detail in the first post on this topic.
Continuous worker voice:
allows retailers and brands (we call them "Sponsors") to have a more passive role;
supports a reduction in scope and frequency of social audits;
enables the workers to police their labour rights themselves;
avoids the start-stop of surveys; and
avoids conflicts of interests via the Ask The Workers "collect-once, share-many-times" licensing model.
In this second post, we focus on the specific savings that come from the way in which Ask The Workers is built and implemented.
Worker welfare, not data collection
Changing the focus from data collection to worker welfare is more than just a technology question. It is about how technology is implemented.
This is the point that most changes the workload, and it is the easiest to miss.
A social audit exists to produce a finding. A survey exists to produce a dataset. This is a "point-in-time" event - a one off. It is not easy to convert this into a dialogue with workers.
Ask The Workers is built to foster an active dialogue between workers and their workplace, with Sponsors listening in.
Workers are able to provide feedback (ie: responses to questions) every day. Worker responses reveal where issues may exist, but then also go on to show whether workers are satisfied with any changes or improvements in conditions that may follow. That means it is in the workplace's interest to provide remedies that are endorsed by workers; this naturally fosters a dialogue and encourages workplaces to co-design changes with workers so that both parties are satisfied.
This is the model that we use:
Check out this short post: worker voice theory and practice.
Ask The Workers requires implementations of continuous worker voice to include monthly feedback cycles to workers. Monthly feedback ensures workers remain engaged and ensures there is dialogue. That feedback cycle, crucially, needs to come from the workplace (or employer if different) and not from the Sponsor.
Ask The Workers shares real-time data with the workplace (or employer) at the same time as that data is shared with the Sponsor.
We cannot force workplaces to talk to their workers but Sponsors can use their leverage to insist that feedback to workers is provided. In our experience, if workers do not hear back from their workplaces (or employers), then participation will drop and this becomes quickly obvious in the data.
Once that feedback cycle is established, workplaces become oriented naturally towards a worker welfare model supported by Sponsor leverage where required. This becomes a system that is never going to be perfect, but one where findings are more likely to be addressed by workplaces without Sponsors having to drive and require evidence for every initiative that is taken.
This implementation model is the key reason why Ask The Workers can be less work for Sponsors.
Reports at any time, across all suppliers
Continuous worker voice data is live - it is all the workers, all the time.
There is no reporting event, so there is no process to extract, collate, reconcile, format, compile and publish. Dashboards are live real-time and reports are available on a consistent basis across all suppliers at the push of a button.
Whilst worker voice data is only one input into a modern slavery statement, it can be one of the most onerous elements to compile and it provides "hard evidence" from stakeholders themselves to support the effectiveness of policy implementation and Sponsor efforts.
The dashboard (and our AI system pulling data out of it) become the report.
What used to be a significant collation exercise becomes a push of a button.
No disruption to workplaces
Audit days and surveys can be expensive for a factory: production is disrupted, management is pulled off the floor, and documents are assembled for inspection.
Continuous worker voice imposes almost nothing on the site as workers are encouraged and typically provide feedback when they are not at their workstations and in their own private time. This leads to higher authenticity in responses as workers are not supervised and can be confident that their participation and responses are secret.
It is 10 questions and one minute each time for each individual worker, not 30, 50 or 100 questions and a big commitment - yet coverage is complete.
This is achieved because of the way the Ask The Workers app is designed - and is key to ensuring continuous worker voice is practical and effective. The total number of questions at a workplace can be very large (100, 200+) but each worker only sees 10 questions randomly pulled for them alone from the panel. So all the questions get seen every day multiple times across the workplace and most workers will see all the questions over, say, a month.
And workers can use the app anytime and from anywhere, and they don't need training or supervision becauset the app is so simple.
Ask The Workers achieves the best outcome:
Each individual takes only a minute to provide feedback each time
But all the questions are answered many many times every day
Collect once, share many times
Ask The Workers has a unique legal and commercial model that enables:
workplaces to share feedback from workers with any of their customers ;
Sponsors to have unique sets of questions that they might workers to answer, where feedback to these specific questions is not shared with others;
without compromising on commercial terms or having one Sponsor subsidise another;
without compromising on the integrity of the process; and
without ending up with multiple apps on each worker phone.
Most Sponsors are rightly sensitive about the commercial context of their labour rights due diligence process, even creating a competitive advantage through the specific methodologies that they might use. Contact us to understand more about this topic and how we can help individual Sponsors to operate unique labour rights due diligence models, whilst also helping workplaces to manage the impact on their workers and themselves of potentially many parallel and slightly different demands for feedback.
Sharing data is simple; any number of Sponsors are able to see worker feedback from any workplace that is added into their dashboards; workers do not end up with multiple versions of the app on their phones
Notwithstanding the ability to support individual Sponsor requirements - there are also no conflicts of interest:
Workpaces do not pay for Ask The Workers (it is free for them); and
The cost to each Sponsor is uniformly-managed under our licensing model; the first Sponsor and the tenth Sponsor viewing the feedback are all treated fairly and consistently.
Data is real time but monitoring need not be
Sponsors and workplaces decide individually on how they use our platform. Dashboards provide real-time data, and so are always up to date - there is no report to run.
Sponsor dashboards are global. That means there is only one dashboard to review (initially) which has all workplaces in it. From there, drill-downs enable individual workplaces to be reviewed, but there's no need to review workplaces which the global dashboard has already cleared.
Many Sponsors review the global dashboard monthly. Not weekly, not daily — the signal is continuous, but attention doesn't need to be.
Once dialogue is established with workers through monthly workplace feedback, Sponsors can often move to the background, discussing findings with a workplace only when an issue persists.
Adjust questions when needed. The Ask The Workers question pack model is simple and flexible.
That's it. The workload can resolve to a monthly review and an exception-based conversation supported a programme that runs itself the rest of the time.
Delivering what regulators are looking for
Continuous worker voice is also, in substance, what the regulatory watchwords are asking for:
an open channel for dialogue with workers, running all the time, and evidence of engagement that is there whenever it is needed.
As we all know, business faces cost pressures and labour rights due diligence teams are running at full stretch. Yet we need to deliver more.
Ask The Workers and continuous worker voice is how to deliver what is now needed.
Ask The Workers - less work
Continuous worker voice sounds like more work because "continuous" sounds like more.
What's continuous is the listening. The work is less.
Everything above comes from running continuously rather than in cycles.
Many of the savings are delivered because continuous worker voice is simply more efficient and more effective than surveys and other ways to gain feedback from workers. See our first post in this two-post series for why that is: Continuous Worker Voice - less work.
Find out more and ask us for call?
Contact us at info@es3g.com or book a call directly here.
