Winning suppliers’ hearts and minds

Next plc's ethical trade team is supplementing a series of awareness-raising conferences for suppliers and buyers with on-going practical advice and support on ethical trading.

ETI members are finding that getting buy-in across their company and their supply base is essential to the effective implementation of their ethical trade strategies.

In 2006-7, Next plc's ethical trade team developed a series of awareness-raising conferences for suppliers across its key sourcing countries. In total, it delivered six conferences to a total of 278 key suppliers in the UK, as well as India, China and Thailand. In addition, over 500 Next buyers and 300 technical and quality staff received similar training.

Each supplier conference was tailored to meet the needs of individual sourcing countries, and included case studies from other suppliers who had changed their attitudes about the need to protect workers' rights.

To convey the gravity of the issues that the company is seeking to tackle, the Next team also developed a hard-hitting awareness-raising film that was shown at each conference.

Pam Batty, head of ethical trade at Next says "We wanted to show our suppliers that ethical trade isn't just about checklists and passing or failing audits - it's about peoples' lives.

"The film portrays just how bad things can get for workers, with real examples of factory fires and workers rights being ignored, and stories from children working in factories. It has been very helpful in building support for our ethical trade strategy - everyone now recognises that they have a part to play in achieving it".

Practical support for change

As well as getting suppliers to understand the importance of treating their workers fairly, Next is also investing in providing practical support and guidance to show them what practical steps they can take to improve conditions. For example, the team has increased its engagement with suppliers, with the aim of helping them improve internal management and human resources systems. It now holds regular meetings with its suppliers, both individually and in groups.

In 2009, Next plans to launch a supplier toolkit. This will provide a step-by-step guide through different Base Code issues, with case studies describing how suppliers have addressed specific problems in their businesses, ranging from worker communication to improving productivity and quality.

Pam says that a single key message is embedded into all Next's communications with suppliers: "work with us on this and we won't walk away".