16 September | 12:45-13:45 ICT

Redesigning Recruitment Markets: Creating an ethical recruitment marketplace to embed human rights practices into global supply chains

Organized by:

Woolworths Group
The Consumer Goods Forum

Background

This session proposed by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), the global CEO-led business network of retailers and manufacturers, will explore a collaborative, market-based approach that seeks to systematically align ethical recruitment with market dynamics. The session will discuss efforts and learnings to date on a new initiative - the Ethical Recruitment Marketplace - which seeks to drive progress at scale through an interconnected ecosystem (or Marketplace) of tools and levers designed to consider the end-to-end “1000 mile” recruitment journey.

Forced labour is a complex issue, perpetuated by unethical recruitment across supply chains, often at multiple points in the recruitment journey, which is often beyond direct control of individual companies or their suppliers.

The Ethical Recruitment Marketplace, an initiative spearheaded by Australian-based Woolworths Group, aims to unite efforts and create an end-to-end platform addressing forced labour in global supply chains, starting with a focus on Asia Pacific. The goal is to develop a virtuous cycle where ethical recruitment is driven by supply-and-demand principles and actively promoted, setting a new norm for the entire migrant recruitment journey. Critically, the Marketplace seeks to directly undermine this economic model that perpetuates debt bondage by tackling the economic drivers that make unethical recruitment profitable.

During the session, speakers from the CGF, business leaders, policymakers and human rights experts will examine the lack of significant progress despite best intentions and efforts due to the persistent gaps in ethical recruitment, including that efforts traditionally focus on one part of a complex puzzle. The speakers will explore how a market-driven recruitment approach could offer a practical, scalable solution to these challenges, particularly within the complex, multi-tiered value chains of the FMCG sector. The discussion will focus on how aligning ethical recruitment with market dynamics can drive lasting impact for workers and businesses alike.

The session will include a focus on the practical next steps CGF members are taking to drive the creation of the Ethical Recruitment Marketplace, starting in Asia Pacific. These include the foundational pillars of action being: mutual recognition; ethical certification pathways; training and capacity building; and advocacy.

With the CGF’s ability to bring together some of the largest FMCG companies, manufacturers and partnering organisations, the session will be uniquely positioned to bring different stakeholders to push sector-wide collaboration to drive ethical recruitment, not just because it is the right thing to do, but it is good for business too.

Key Objectives

This session aims to share details of the Ethical Recruitment Marketplace as a practical, action-oriented, and market-based approach to addressing economic root causes and drivers of exploitative recruitment. The session will outline the rationale of the Marketplace, its unique and innovative features, its market-driven approach to tackling systemic and root causes of exploitative recruitment, and how all actors in the recruitment process – from governments, employers, labour providers, and workers, can be meaningfully engaged to drive changes in the recruitment market for migrant workers.

Expected Outcomes

The session will contribute to:

building practical next steps for the ethical recruitment marketplace by socialising the Marketplace concept among key stakeholder, and inviting feedback and collaboration from stakeholders, and
making ethical recruitment more accessible and the norm by creating momentum around the marketplace and promoting market-based solutions to addressing root causes of exploitative recruitment.

Guiding Questions

Through a dynamic panel discussion, participants will explore:

What are the existing market-based drivers of exploitative recruitment practices and barriers preventing ethical recruitment from becoming a financially sustainable and profitable norm in the recruitment industry?
What have been the limitations of existing approaches to promoting ethical recruitment in supply chains?
How does the Ethical Recruitment Marketplace seek to take a new, and innovative approach to addressing root causes of exploitative recruitment through a market-based approach?
How can diverse actors within the labour supply chain, from workers, labour providers, suppliers, brands, and employers, engage with the Marketplace to change market dynamics in favour of ethical recruitment?

Format

The session will be conducted as a moderated in-person panel discussion. Participants are invited to contribute questions during the session and half of the panel time will be reserved for open discussion, feedback, and engagement with participants.

Session Partners