Multinational enterprises (MNEs) and Large National Enterprises (LNEs) around the world buy and sell goods through increasingly complex supply chains. In fact, over 125,000,000 people (equivalent to the entire population of Mexico) work in the supply chains of the top 50 global companies (1) alone.

Global supply chains can offer people in developing countries—particularly women, young people, and migrant workers—opportunities to enter the labour market, and under ideal circumstances, these jobs provide fair wages and good working conditions which help sustain or raise the living standards of workers and their families. Unfortunately, global pressures on prices, delivery times, and intense competition between suppliers can place downward pressure on wages, working conditions, and respect for the fundamental rights of workers. This is why the ILO is focusing on ways to ensure that global supply chains contribute to sustainable development, inclusive economic growth and decent work for all. SCORE Training is recognised to have a role to play in this effort.

The SCORE Solution

Large companies are increasingly conscious that supplier auditing alone will not bring about the improvements they want and need to see in their supply chains. As a result, they are now seeking training for suppliers that leads to a sustained upgrade in workplace practices and: 1) improves working conditions while increasing competitiveness; and 2) is specialized enough to cater to specific sectors, yet scalable enough to have a global reach. Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) is an ILO global programme that improves productivity and working conditions in SMEs. The key intervention is SCORE Training, which combines practical classroom training with in-factory consulting. The SCORE programme works directly with SMEs to provide a clear, consistent training programme based on international labour standards and adapted for each sector and country. Since 2012, through work with over 1000 SMEs and collaborations with a range of MNE and large buyers, SCORE Training has had demonstrated success in delivering the sustained upgrading of supplier practices that MNE and buyers are looking for.

SCORE and COOP – our first major company collaboration

In March 2012, the SCORE Programme began a partnership pilot with Swiss retailer COOP, which operates 800 supermarkets and megastores throughout Switzerland plus a variety of other manufacturing companies and non-food retailers. The COOP pilot trained a group of Shanghai suppliers to improve their productivity, product quality, and business practices while ensuring cleaner production and compliance with international labour standards.

In the baseline review, SCORE trainers found supplier factories suffered from low productivity, high levels of staff turnover, storage space problems, and a lack of occupational health and safety procedures. The impact of the SCORE Training on COOP’s supplier factories was measured through before-and-after comparison of a series of indicators including cost savings, defect rates, energy consumption, and waste produced.

Pilot results

By the end of the pilot, factories were able to reduce raw material waste, open new warehouses, and reduce worker absenteeism by improving worker-management communication. One factory, Hangzhou Hailiang Furniture Co., saved approximately $30,000 USD each month by terminating leases of no longer-needed storage space. Sitram Shanghai Co. implemented new human resource policy including an employee suggestion system, a job qualifications matrix, an improved staff handbook and an annual training plan.
Workers and managers were surveyed on the changes they noticed:
- 90% of respondents reported that internal communication had improved significantly.
- 92% indicated that relations between management and workers were improving and trust and mutual respect was strengthened.
- 87% of workers indicated their working efficiency had significantly increased

After the successful COOP pilot, the SCORE programme collaborated with the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), a business membership organisation with more than 1,000 large member companies. BSCI recommended SCORE Training to their members, for suppliers in China and shared training costs.

Shop floors before (above) and after SCORE Training (below)

Moving forward

Since the COOP partnership DELETE PILOT, many other MNEs have benefited from using SCORE Training as an integrated element of their CSR and supply chain upgrading and compliance approaches. These include, Metro Group, Pentland, The Gap, Inditex and Yayasan Dharma Bhakti Astra (YDBA). Across companies and sectors, similar positive results have been seen, key elements of which are captured below.



*Results as at December 2016, collected from the SCORE programme's global monitoring and evaluation database


The SCORE programme is now working with many other global and large national companies who are using SCORE Training to encourage compliance with national and international labour standards and with contractual/sectoral obligations, ensure the cooperation, safety and wellbeing of their staff, minimise environmental impact, create a culture of continuous improvement and thereby maximise supplier performance. By partnering with the SCORE programme, they are propelling change throughout their supply chain and improving working conditions for hundreds of thousands around the world in the process.

1. ITUC, 2016. Inside the Supply Chains of 50 Top Companies: Frontlines report 2016. Available at: http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/pdffrontlines_scandal_en-2.pdf