ESG: the worker voice app
ESG (environmental, social and governance) is not a new concept, the definition has been in use for many years. It is a fundamental part of the social contract between business and society and usually managed as part of "CSR" or Corporate Social Responsibility.
The worker voice app is a core component in the delivery of ESG compliance.
And ESG is reaching a higher and higher profile across the world - see this McKinsey article for more insights: here.
Worker voice data: collecting it
A good way to understand how a workplace treats its workers is simply to ask them. A simple way to do that is to use a mobile app.
The main challenges faced in using mobile apps to collect data from workers are:
How to make it interesting for workers to give you their opinions
Creating a simple app that workers can use intuitively
Collecting the right data
Managing and reducing "bias"
Being low cost
Each of these four issues could be the subject of a PhD thesis in its right. The key point is that most apps that collected worker voice data do so in the context of some other activity - eg: training, grievance mechansims, management communication, HR systems and so on. Inevitably these systems are not ideal.
ES3G's worker voice system is designed only to collect data. It collects the right data, it does it very simply, and therefore it is low cost, scalable and workers have incentives built-in.
Worker voice data - using it
Worker voice data, by itself, is not very useful. There is a lot of noise from:
Workers who do not understand the app
Lazy responders or "straight-liners" who simply swipe through the app to get it done without answering the questions
Workers who are answering artificially because of management pressure of other circumstances (eg: disaffection)
Raw worker voice data needs to be processed statistically to remove this noise and to make it "authentic".
Authenticity means that the results pulled from the worker voice data are representative of the workers' views. ES3G handles this process automatically and this is why our results are presented as a "social score" - a result we process and pull out of the data that is fully standardised, can be be compared across geographies, industries, products and cultures.
This means that we finally have a system which allows us to understand who is doing well and who is lagging behind - all measured by the opinion of the workers themselves.
Measure it, manage it, improve it.
Find out more
We are passionate about worker voice data and how it can be used to create a simple, scalable and low cost way to monitor human rights due diligence in global supply chains.
Sign up for a free trial (up to 20 workplaces) or sign up your own workplace: www.es3g.com.
Talk to us to find out more: ceo@es3g.com