In today’s business landscape, it is essential for all employees to understand human rights topics to a certain extent. Human rights training is not only a legal requirement under several corporate sustainability due diligence laws, but it also positively affects employee engagement, company culture and reputation. Beyond these, educating employees (and suppliers) on human rights is fundamental for effectively managing human rights risks within an organization.
While many people in an organization may be familiar with the concept of human rights, understanding human rights in a business context and conducting human rights due diligence are often unfamiliar territories for many corporate professionals. Yet, human rights due diligence requires fostering a baseline understanding of human rights issues across the entire organization because every employee interacts with human rights in their role – as a rights holder, a duty bearer or both.
Not every team or individual in your company needs to be an expert on human rights. However, ensuring responsible and sustainable business practices requires some level of involvement and ownership from every employee.
So, how do companies build the appropriate level of awareness of human rights across their workforce and suppliers?
Most companies adopt a diversified approach to human rights training, offering both basic and advanced sessions delivered in various formats. Training programs are tailored to the needs and roles of different teams involved in the company’s sustainability due diligence process.
- General human rights training for all employees
Typically, all employees undergo general business and human rights training, often delivered through standardized e-learning courses. These courses cover fundamental human rights concepts in both general and business-specific contexts, clarifying employees’ roles as both rightsholders and, in many cases, duty-bearers concerning stakeholders.
- Focused human rights training for salient risks
Additionally, companies may opt for customized training sessions tailored to their specific industry, sourcing destinations, or product categories. These tailored sessions often include practical examples and exercises relevant to the company’s operations, further reinforcing employees’ understanding of human rights principles and their implications.
- Role-specific training for key functions
Furthermore, companies introduce function-specific, customized training sessions for employees in roles such as procurement or human resources. These sessions delve into advanced human rights issues pertinent to their functions, enhancing their ability to effectively manage human rights risks within their respective areas of responsibility. Generally, companies request in-person group workshops or a series of virtual sessions to equip their key functions with the necessary human rights knowledge.
- Supplier training
Many companies extend human rights training to their direct suppliers, ensuring they understand and adhere to the company’s Supplier Code of Conduct and the human rights standards they are expected to meet. These training programs typically consist of introductory sessions for all suppliers, followed by deep-dive sessions for those suppliers identified as high-risk. The training is often delivered through pre-recorded video courses or e-learning modules. If intended for a smaller group of suppliers, such as those from a specific sourcing destination or those that are categorized as high-risk, companies also request virtual live sessions and risk-specific training. When supplier training is planned and conducted in a collaborative way, fostering a two-way exchange rather than imposing a mandate, it becomes an opportunity for companies to gain better insights into their suppliers’ realities and address their main human rights challenges. As such, supplier training enhances the reliability of supply chain data, fosters meaningful supplier engagement and strengthens risk management.
The benefits of corporate human rights training are manifold. Human rights training:
- cultivates a sense of understanding and ownership of human rights among employees,
- provides a platform for exchange and collaboration with peers, suppliers and business partners,
- empowers employees to identify and report human rights risks effectively in their roles at the organization,
- strengthens the company’s human rights risk management framework including by providing the data for its sustainability reporting – a legal requirement that is increasingly on top of corporate agendas, and
- enhances the organization’s ability to prevent and address human rights violations proactively.
Building human rights capacity in your employees and suppliers is an ongoing effort. Training on human rights topics should be:
- conducted at regular intervals,
- repeat previous learnings and building on them,
- delivered in a simple and relatable way, connecting the audience’s roles and everyday realities to the topic,
- reinforced by frequent communication from people leaders, emphasizing the importance of human rights for the organization, and
- supplemented by improvements in corporate processes that increasingly incorporate respect for human rights.
Furthermore, the quality and effectiveness of training should be assessed to ensure they are meaningful measures that strengthen the human rights awareness and capacity in the organization.
At CORE, we specialize in developing and delivering awareness, knowledge and skill-building training, coaching sessions and cultural transformation programs. These solutions embody the requirements of the German Supply Chain Act and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive in relation to building human rights capacity among your employees and suppliers. Through our training programs, we empower employees and suppliers with the essential knowledge and mindset needed to effectively address environmental and human rights risks and impacts.
If you’re looking to develop a roadmap for human rights capacity building or have a specific human rights training in mind, I’d love to chat: serra@peopleatcore.com.
Serra for the CORE team
Read the other articles in the “3 Tips for CSDDD Success” series below:
