Measuring the social UN SDGs

We should all be familiar with the sustainable development goals (“SDGs”) published by the UN.

There are 17 of them in total, and they cover all aspects of societal and economic activity.

Outside the rarified world of specialists, most people might imagine that:

• the SDGs principally focus on climate change – especially given the annual COP summits and the continued global focus on carbon emissions and net zero

• measuring performance analytically against the "social" UN SDGs would be difficult

But neither of these viewpoints is right.

Do the UN SDGs recognise the “social” dimension?

Yes.

Of the 17 sustainable development goals set by the UN, 10 of them are supported by social measures – perhaps more than the number of SDGs that focus on climate.

Of course, the goals are all inter-linked – but improving the social dimension of economic activity is absolutely at the heart of the UN SDG model.

These goals go to the heart of how society provides employment to workers in its economy.

Measuring the UN social SDGs as a practical matter

The ILO (the International Labour Organisation, an arm of the UN) has published a wide-ranging set of standards to support the delivery of the SDGs.

We prefer to use an easier-to-digest set of measures that has been published by the Ethical Trading Initiative in the form of their “base codes”.

Each of these base codes relates meaningfully to labour conditions that workers might experience in their daily lives:

Labour rights are a subset of human rights, and it is important to note that the ETI base codes only focus on workers and not the population at large.

These two limitations need to be borne in mind.

At the same time, both labour rights and workers are key elements in improving the performance across the SDGs as a whole - so this is a valid starting point, especially if we are looking for measures that are relevant to business and which can be used by business and its leverage to drive improvements.

The nine ETI base codes are not “theoretical”

No system is perfect. We can quibble that there is no base code to address "governance" - but the base codes translate a complex topic into easy-to-use measures that can be applied to a workplace and to the workers within it.

The next step is to measure the business against the base codes to assess its social performance.

Measuring performance against base codes

Measuring a business against the base codes is a way to assess its social performance algorithmically – and this can be done using a combination of tools:

• Self-assessment questionnaires that suppliers complete to evidence their understanding of what they should be doing.

• Periodic "social" audits of suppliers to assess whether their practice matches what they have signed up to.

• Worker voice: validation by obtaining feedback directly from workers.

Use the different tools in combination

Each of the different due diligence tools has its strengths and weakenesses.

• SAQs by themelves are weak, but can be strengthened if suppliers provide evidence to support their responses.

  
  

• Social audits are good at dealing with observable issues (eg: whether the number of fire exits is sufficient) but are weak in the social dimensions and can be manipulated by suppliers.

  
  

• Worker feedback or worker voice is strong on the social dimensions provided workers can be confident their answers are anonymous and that their feedback will be acted upon.

Worker voice - but continuous

The strongest model to use is continuous worker voice. This means a system like Ask The Workers that covers all-the-workers, all-the-time.

• There is no interruption to daily working for suppliers

• Continuous operation means coaching and other artificial response patterns can be detected.

• Workers are truly anonymous (no names, emails, phone numbers) and can answer at any time, including when they are not at work

Mapping worker voice to the base codes

Whilst there are many questions that can be asked across a wide variety of topics, we have found it quite straightforward to map different questions (and worker responses) back to the base codes and to calculate a score for each base code.

In the Ask The Workers system, 10 is good and 1 is bad.

So worker feedback can be used to measure algorithmically how workplaces treat their workers and also to compare compliance levels across workplaces.

Average base code scores and more

There are dangers with using averages because they can hide vulnerabilities in the worker population (eg: a small disadvantaged cohort may not be noticeable) but rolling up the answers to individual questions enables an average score to be calculated for each an average score for each base code s which can be tracked over time.

Continuous worker voice platforms can go much deeper whilst still safeguarding anonymity - slicing and dicing the data to reveal smaller demographic segments of workers defined by gender, age range, nationality etc. and highlighting where their treatment differs from the average.

Actioning the social SDGs

Here is the way forward then.

With practical systems like the ETI base codes available and the ability to map feedback from workers against them algorithmically, supported by cohort analysis where needed - we can reach a simple, clear and high-level understanding of what is going on at a supplier and whether it is putting its commitments into practice.

The S of ESG is more than just "workers" - the UN sustainable development goals go across the entire social spectrum and bring in human rights as well as labour rights. This limitation of the approach needs to be borne in mind - but, from a business perspective, how the labour rights of workers are observed captures and drives a significant portion of the scope.

Achieving a "just transition"

A just transition is one where climate goals (eg: net zero) are achieved within a socially-responsible framework that recognises the importance of protecting and even enhanced human and labour rights whilst the process continues.

This means ensuring that the projects aimed at dealing with the "E" of ESG should explicitly include steps to measure the "S" of ESG to protect the rights of workers that are involved.

Continue the discussion

Let us know what you think about this topic.

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