The promotion of gender equality and inclusion, along with our specialized training modules and ability to establish effective worker-management dialogue mechanisms, has supported the change processes that contribute to improved productivity. Having female representatives on factory level bipartite committees and training female supervisors, for instance, have both proved extremely successful, leading to an over 20 per cent increase in their production lines.
Through its training programmes, spanning modules on communication, negotiation and supervisory skills, industrial relations, occupational safety and health and harassment prevention, the programme has brought about change across the factory floor and supply chain. Better Work also offers training courses to its partner brands, recognising their crucial role in improving working conditions and enhancing worker wellbeing, which also boosts competitiveness in the industry, including through the Better Work Academy.
After enrolling in Better Work, factories in Bangladesh have grown at a significantly higher pace when compared to factories outside the programme, both in terms of export revenues and volumes, which are 50 percent higher than in non-Better Work firms.
Training female supervisors through Better Work’s Supervisory Skills Training across seven country programmes boosted productivity by up to 22% in the lines they supervise. In Bangladesh, efficiency for lines supervised by women trained through the Gender Equality and Returns (GEAR) initiative and Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) programme increased by five per cent.
In Cambodia, efficiency rates between 2016-2019 grew by up to 50 per cent in affiliated factories in comparison to those who were not, with local firms simultaneously meeting their production targets and increasing their planned production. In Viet Nam, workers in Better Work factories reached production targets on average nearly 90 minutes faster after five years of engagement with the programme.
Better Work will more explicitly target management practices on productivity, including by establishing baselines and collecting data to evaluate the impact of our enterprise-level interventions. Depending on the specific needs of the operational context, we will also support enterprises in implementing innovative programmes (i.e. the SCORE and GEAR initiative) to better address productivity challenges.
Better Work will work through national partners to provide productivity services directly to manufacturers as well as support national institutions to create an enabling policy environment for productivity growth. The programme will also support constituents to improve the business environment in the garment sector by leveraging proven approaches such as the ILO’s Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work programme.
Better Work will collaborate with the ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities in developing services for employer organizations to improve enterprise productivity as well as with the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities to strengthen the role of trade unions in supporting productivity in the garment sector.
Better Work five-year strategy (2022-27) embraces innovation around a set of strategic priorities to adapt to the needs of the garment and footwear industry around the world.