HR WG Meeting #20 Go back »
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Time2006-09-07 | 09:00
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Venue:HR WG Meeting #20
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Address:Nanjing. 2F Lakeview Xuanwu Hotel - 193 Zhongyang Road
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Fee:Members: 40 RMB |
Non Members: 100 RMB
Participants: Company Name Member
Accor China Anne Isabelle Sam X
AXA - Minmetals James Zhang X
Deloitte Stephen Green X
Deloitte Tony Cotterell X
Dresdner Bank Sally Guan X
European Chamber Ana Teixeira
European Chamber Berenice Voets
European Chamber Maurizio Andreano
HireRight Consulting Helen Xu X
Lufthansa Martina Groenegres X
MRI Jessica Zheng X
Roche Tian Weiwei X
SCIP Swire SITA Waste Services Co., Ltd. Frederic Grivel X
SKF Investment Connie Cheng X
Taiping Life Helena Xu X
Taiping Life Stephen Sun X
Agenda:
1. Strategic Processes and Sustainable Development (25 minutes)
Presentation by William Anderson Head of Social & Environmental Affairs, Adidas
2. Social responsibility – our visions, tools and projects implementation in China (25 minutes)
Presentation by Mark Ladham Managing Director – Retail, B&Q China
3. Roundtable discussion (30 minutes)
4. Chamber’s update
- 2nd HR Conference
- Position Paper 2006/07 launch and follow up
Discussion:
1 – The meeting started with the presentation of William Anderson on “Strategic Processes and Sustainable Development” based on his experience at Adidas’ company. William explained how the company cares about its supply chain which includes in Asia 500 suppliers and a workforce of 390,000 people. Adidas social environmental affairs (SEA) efforts started very early with the fight against child labour and modernization of the backward environment in SOEs. At the same time the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) developed a model code of ethical conduct for the production of all sporting goods. Adidas which has a regional approach to this issue directly reports to the board. Within their risk management countries of origins as well as human and animals rights issues are carefully analyzed. Adidas is moving away from simply policing to support self-enforcement in order to achieve sustainable targets on manufacturing processes and safeguard of workers rights. Helping to monitor this Adidas developed five key performance indicators (KPI) to measure their management commitment and responsiveness: management systems, worker (management communications), compliance performance, transparency in communications & reporting, SOE – compliance – training. The company has a multi channel approach of communicating its SEA efforts with the media, government, stakeholders’ and consumers.
Further Adidas is member of the Fair Labour Association which involves NGOs and colleges looks after transparency and public disclosure. It is an external organization that checks the labour work of Adidas, if everything in according to law and if no right is being denied.
For Mr. William Anderson presentation, please click here.
2 – The second presentation was given by Mark Ladham of B&Q China. Retail companies have a special role to fulfil due to their vast network of chain stores throughout the country. According to the speaker SR has two components a social component reflecting the community and the supply chain as well as an environmental component involving energy, product stewardship and sustainable operation. Out of this B&Q identified twelve key areas important to guarantee social responsibility. An internet based compliance an assessment questionnaire for suppliers was developed and KPI should help to monitor the progress. Thereby self-auditing is a crucial component. Being conscious of where the company stands in fulfilling own policies and where it wants to go are important for Kingfisher.
Product stewardship is an effective tool to explain to the customers that environmental and social issues are properly managed. This means energy saving and non toxic products derive from trustworthy and faultless sources. Suppliers’ performance is another important anchor in the supply chain. Here Kingfisher is interested in building active partnerships and help to develop suppliers were the right mindset and values are seen. The audit result in these cases is put aside and discussions held with the supplier in order to investigate the potential and strategy how to improve. Of course in cases were working conditions and the code of conduct are disregarded Kingfisher is not interested to work together. The same emphasis is put on regular workshops for vendors.
Of major concern for the home improvement industry is the sourcing of timber and the problem of illegal deforestation. In case of China this is particularly true as most of the wood originates illegally from Papua New Guinea. Kingfisher is working on a full visible supply chain and launched a timber sourcing plan which brought China’s first legal timber floor to their retail stores.
Another important part of Kingfisher’s SR activities is conducted directly in the communities of the retails stores with particular focus on education and activities.
For Mr. Mark Landham presentation please click here
3 – Roundtable discussion
- If the code of conduct applies also to the suppliers how is this being controlled? In general information requested from suppliers and audits conducted are very detailed. This is one way how to assure compliance with company policies. Further a lot of resources are put into education and training such as workshops for vendors. Disseminating information and working together helps to identify difficulties are and ultimately to control. Then there are other ways e.g. buyers in many cases are only responsible for negotiating prices and quantities. However, they are at the vendors sites and should go beyond this and also have a look inside the factory and warehouses, ask for progress made and understand what targets the company has set for the coming year. Of course another solution is also to have more auditors and fewer providers.
- What happens if suppliers do not comply? Adidas, in this case Mr. William Anderson, has the power to terminate contracts.
- How much do companies cooperate with the government? In general companies do keep a low profile on this and rather invest resources in suppliers and communities. Were appropriate e.g. capacity building for health and safety inspections the industry is helping the government agencies a lot.
4 – The Chamber’s Business Manager, Maurizio Andreano, presented briefly this years’ key recommendations of the Position Paper 2006/7 and informed members about the next steps. On the occasion of the honorary dinner for Minister Bo Xilai (MOFCOM) on Monday, 4th Sept. in Beijing the paper was handed over to the minister. The schedule for the launch of the 2006/07 Position Paper is as follows:
September 5th: Official launch in Beijing with a press conference from 5-7pm.
Throughout September: Distribution of hard / soft copies to all chamber members
September 12th: EU-China Business Summit 2006 (Helsinki)
The Summit is organised by the Confederation of Finnish Industries in cooperation with the MOFCOM, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), European Commission, UNICE, EU-China Business Association and the European Chamber of Commerce in China. The over-arching theme for the Summit is “Boosting Innovations – The New era of the EU-China Economic Cooperation”. The rapid development of EU-China trade and investment relations provides opportunities and challenges on every front. The Business Summit brings together Chinese and European business leaders and politicians to discuss the key business issues.
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China will be participating with a strong delegation and is pleased to take the opportunity of this event to launch its Position Paper 2006/7 in Europe.
September 14th – 15th: Brussels Circuit
Presentation of the Position Paper to the key European decision and policy makers such as DG Trade and DG Ent. A delegation from the European Chamber, including the Chamber President and various Chairpersons will participate in the high level meetings. In addition to the various briefings the Chamber, in association with UNICE, will on the 14th organise its annual Status of EU Business in China Conference, which is open to the public.
September 20th: Press conference in Shanghai to promote the Position Paper locally.
October – January: Promotion of the Position Paper to relevant Chinese ministries and business communities. The delegations to the ministries will be lead by the Chamber’s president Serge Janssens de Varebeke and Chairpersons of the WGs.
There was also a presentation regarding the up-coming 2nd HR Conference schedule for November 15th. The concept for this year’s full day conference will be two panel discussions in the morning and a 90 min “speed dating” session in the afternoon. Members already suggested topics the panels should focus on: leadership, retention and career development. Since it is directly linked to the HR Working Group activities a quick survey will be distributed with the minutes among members to collect more opinions and inform about sponsorship opportunities.
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