Labor Management: Risks/Labor
Labor management aims at creating harmony within organizations, maintain productivity, and improve efficiency (Piper, 2009). Evaluation of risks in labor management is a process necessary for building a pro-active health and safety management system. Risk assessment is essential as it leads to improved health and safety performance, reviewing of the present codes of practice, rules, and standards, development of outcome based education and training philosophy and effectiveness in the present management systems. The main objective of a risk evaluation in labor management is to enable organizations address foreseeable essential health and safety risks.
Labor related risks are the value of the variation in an optimal result and the actualized outcome (Piper, 2009). Labor is a central element in supply chains while labor risks have been mostly overlooked in many organizations (Lewry, 2015). Businesses and brands can manage their exposure to labor risk by first understanding the exposure, applying workable controls and adjusting regional implementation to the controls. In understanding the exposure, organizations ought to evaluate the investment or project being exposed to in terms of the regional and international labor regulations and the compatibility of the present internal policies. Understanding the exposure demands identification of the personalities behind the creation of the exposure by mapping the supply chain to recognize the stakeholders and their interests (Lewry, 2015). This recognition demands application of the targeted diligence on partners and suppliers in making of informed risk management decisions.
Labor risk is controlled by building effective controls that aims on preventing labor risks from the foundation contrary to managing their symptoms. Effectual control framework is developed within the organizational values and commitment to the fair treatment of the labor force. Development of the labor welfare and communication of all stakeholders is another major element in effective control. These developments are strengthened by mechanisms for implementing standards such as contract terms, training, and awareness and results of the non-compliance. It is moreover essential to have a monitoring regime to ensure that the labor standards are adhered to. Initial proofs ought to be collected at source to ensure that the standards and legal obligations are met. Proofs comprise of workers’ interviews, visits to work sites to evaluate conditions and appeal proofs of the policies and processes of collaborators in the supply chain.
To reassure stakeholders and investors, and manage potential reputational risks, organizations are called to remain transparent. Transparency is enhanced by reporting effectiveness of controls and identifying opportunities to improve (McCrea, 2014). Reporting demands management to define the frequency and communication strategies through reporting of internal and external needs. Reporting further demands identification of risk scenarios from labor risks and rehearses crisis communications response. In the event of divesting projects, it is essential to discharge labor risk responsibly to reduce risk impact (McCrea, 2014). At this point, risks are always present and thus organizations need to manage controls and seek assurance from the suppliers and contractors, especially in instances of non-compliance. This approach is mostly advised to curb unprecedented reputational impact. During such events, workers need to apply lessons learnt for understanding exposure on prevailing projects. For that reason, managing exposure to labor risks is a good business sense since it minimizes businesses disruptions, benefits the reputations of businesses and offer competitive advantage. Stakeholders and shareholders are besides assured of the control of the supply chain within the organizations.
Question
What are some of the problems realized in mitigating and managing risks in the contingent labor?
References
Lewry, J. (2015). Labor risk – understanding your supply chain. New York University, Abu
Dhabi.
Piper, C. (2009). Real labor-management teamwork: An idea whose time is due. Ivey Business
Journal.
McCrea, B. (2014). Improving Labor Management: 6 steps to effective labor standards. Logistics
Management.
http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/improving_labor_management_6_steps_to_effective_labor_standards