Global Clothing Retailer Uses Crowdsourcing To Increase Supply Chain Transparency
by Dinah Wisenberg Brin
Crowdsourcing meets corporate social responsibility in U.K.-based retailer Marks & Spencer’s plan to survey 22,500 workers in 30 factories in its clothing supply chain.
M&S, which has stores around the globe, announced last month a one-year deal with nonprofit social enterprise technology venture Good World Solutions to communicate with factory workers in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh via mobile phones four times a year.
Supply chain laborers listening to questions in local languages, including Hindi and Sinhalese, will be able to respond anonymously via touch-tone keypads using Labor Link technology that returns results directly to the retailer, according to the announcement. They’ll be prompted to answer questions about working conditions, job satisfaction and training.
Under its Plan A program, which has the goal of making the company “the world’s most sustainable major retailer” by 2015, M&S tested the technology with 13 Indian and Sri Lankan suppliers by surveying more than 2,000 workers in connection with financial literacy, health and nutrition training efforts.
“This is an innovative breakthrough for us and moves workplace communication into the digital era. It’s not about checking up on our suppliers, it’s about making sure we’re doing the right things for the workers in our supply chain and giving them a voice,” said Fiona Sadler, head of ethical sourcing at Marks & Spencer.
“We don’t directly employ workers in the factories, but they make Marks & Spencer products, take part in Marks & Spencer training programs and have a stake in our brand. It’s important to know whether we’re getting things right. The real-time data Labor Link can deliver for us will be invaluable in shaping our policies and programs,” she said.
Heather Franzese, director of Good World Solutions, added: “As the first U.K. company to give workers a voice through mobile technology, M&S is really taking a leadership position. There are 4.5 billion mobile subscriptions in the developing world. This is a truly disruptive innovation in ethical trade – enabling workers and buyers to connect directly.”
The current issue of MHI Solutions magazine includes a supply-chain crowdsourcing article that cites a for-profit U.S. startup, LaborVoices Inc., that similarly aims to make supply chains transparent for corporate brands while giving global workers a voice by gathering real-time data via mobile phones.
Walmart in May said it was working with LaborVoices to get in touch with workers at 279 Bangladesh supply-chain factories.
