In December 2022, Better Work Nicaragua held its first half-day seminar for human resources managers in the garment sector. Using a highly participatory methodology, the seminar divided participants into two small groups to facilitate the exchange of experiences and lead them through the analysis of case studies. Thirteen human resources managers, ten women and three men, from thirteen different factories attended the training as part of the programme’s efforts to build capacity on human resource management systems as well as address key workplace issues such as working time, including excessive overtime, as well as contracts and contractors requirements, temporary workers, double payroll and verbal abuse, among others.

Alexander Wilson, a Human Resources Manager who participated in the seminar reflected that “our knowledge has been strengthened as well as the identification, analysis and solution of day-to-day problems, where the weaknesses in our management systems can be easily identified”. Wilson added that they learned about the more salient compliance violations, including those that are publicly reported on Better Work’s Transparency Portal through exercises in the seminar.

The seminar reviewed important aspects of effective Human Resources management, based on Better Work’s compliance assessment tool (CAT) as well as the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Fundamentals Conventions and national labour laws. Gisell Garcia, another Human Resource Manager who attended the seminar, observed that it “was an essential and necessary experience, since I learned about things that one does not always handle, such as the minimum age required by the Nicaragua Ministry of Labor, and the international labour standards of the ILO.”

Following the training, Better Work Nicaragua will continue to support human resources managers in its partner factories to review and enhance their management systems. The Better Work Nicaragua team plans to follow up directly on the learning acquired in this seminar with tailored approaches factory by factory through advisory services. This will entail supporting human resource managers as they  review their factory’s compliance with publicly reported issues and developing focused improvement plans through social dialogue by  participating in the Performance Improvement Consultative Committee (PICC).