A bridge between two worlds

The image is almost festive: the men are wearing dark suits, while the women have put on colourful saris. Some people seem a little stiff and uncomfortable, while others are relaxed and unperturbed by everything as they make their way through the air-conditioned lobby of the Sarina Hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh. There could scarcely be a wider gulf between the day-to-day work and lives of the people who are rubbing shoulders here. Some are factory workers, many of whom have never set foot inside a conference hotel. The others are the bosses and managers, people who are familiar with this world. The bridge that has brought these people together here is the WE Workshop.

The WE project – the two letters stand for Worldwide Enhancement of Social Quality – was initiated by Tchibo in September 2007. The company worked together with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Germany’s organisation for international cooperation, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on developing the programme. The project’s aim: to improve working conditions in plants and factories across Asia with the use of innovative strategies. The pilot phase started in Bangladesh and Thailand with ten production sites in each country, and with twenty companies from China’s Hangzhou and Shenzhen regions. Since then, Tchibo has expanded the programme, and now ten more companies from Bangladesh and thirty more in China are involved. Sebastian Siegele is responsible for developing the concept behind the programme and for coordinating its implementation in the participating markets. Mr. Siegele heads the Berlin-based consultancy Sustainability Agents. For years he has been assisting suppliers in Asia and Eastern Europe with the implementation of the social responsibility requirements expected from them.

“WE’s approach is as unusual as it is effective,” says 46-year-old Siegele. “Instead of imposing social standards unilaterally and from above, the projects’ initiators engage in dialogue. We bring managers and employees together at the same table and help them cooperate to find solutions so that they can work better together in their day-to-day environments.” Set working hours, living wages, health and safety provisions and elimination of discrimination are just some of the issues on which, as is the case in today's workshop for WE raises awareness. The six-member delegations representing ten Bangladeshi textile plants. Today’s event is part of a more extensive process that lasts two years and which comprises several training courses in the context of workshops and visits to plants.

Crossing hierarchies to raise awareness on issues in factories

“Identifying problems” is the first lesson on the day’s agenda. Employees and managers are divided into two different rooms, to ensure that everyone feels safe and is able to speak freely and without inhibitions. Local WE coaches recruited and trained specially for the task lead the participants through the exercise. First, they hand out cards in both rooms. Then they request the participants to write the problem that they consider the most pressing at the workplace on the cards.

A hush falls over the room containing the employees. Many of them lower their heads and stare at the paper in front of them. An exercise that most German employees would find easy is a task over which Bangladeshi workers hesitate. The two countries’ work cultures are not the same; communication on an equal level is rare; questioning, never mind criticising, decisions made by managers is unthinkable for workers. As a result, trainer and human rights activist Marshia Ahmed Talukder reminds the participants again that the people behind the points on the “problem cards” can remain anonymous. She emphasises: “Today, everyone has the same right to express their views and be listened to. Make it easy on yourselves, just write down a few key words or draw a sketch.” Some participants whisper among themselves, then the first of them reach for their pens.

Two views on the same challenge

The ice is now broken. After all the cards have been collected, some of the workers start to talk about their concerns – for example, it is often unclear who they should turn to within the company if they want to take a day off. Jesmin, 26 years old and employed in sewing, reports: “Once, when one of my children was sick and I had to go home quickly, I didn’t know what else I could do apart from just leaving without clocking out. Then, out of fear, I didn’t go back to work again until I had no more money. As a punishment, I got less money in the weeks after that, my attendance bonus was cut. This happens to a lot of my colleagues at my company.”

When the two groups join up again and the colourful cards of the employees and managers are pinned up to the metaphors boards, one thing quickly becomes clear: the difference does not lie in the challenges the two groups face, but in their perspectives on them. For the managers, the problem that Jesmin had previously described is one of “unauthorised absence”. Ainun, a manger at a textile plant, says, “At my company, about 15% of the workforce fails to come to work on any particular day.” This means that what at first sight seems to be an organisational problem that is easy to resolve in fact leads to delays in production, causes financial losses for the factory and makes the employees unhappy. In other words, the result is a situation where there are only losers.

Sebastian Siegele summarises the results of the card exercise: “Put simply, the employees’ viewpoint is that the working conditions are bad and that the company is not interested in their wellbeing. The managers see the issue as one of a lack of responsibility, loyalty and productivity among the employees.” The way WE offers out of this intractable situation is dialogue. Only when managers and employees communicate with one another in an open manner can they also forge a partnership to search for solutions, says Siegele. He continues: “As a rule, both sides know what the problem is and they usually know possible solutions as well.”

Role-plays reveal how severe the results of discrimination can be

“What is discrimination?” – the Power Walk is meant to deliver a striking answer to this question. This exercise is a combination of a role-play and a race. All participants are assigned a particular role and have to line up next to each other at the starting line. Here, a company director might be transformed, for example, into a working single mother, while a sewing machine operator could represent a young single man.

The coaches now ask questions like “Do you believe that you will be promoted if you work well?”. Anyone who answers yes to the question moves forward on step, while the people who answer no stay put. At the end of the exercise, some participants, such as the “single man”, have covered a lot of ground. Others, such as the “single mother”, never managed to leave the starting line. Now a question is put to the spectators,who were not aware of these roles: “Why do some people get left behind while others make progress?” People grasp the issue quickly: it has to have something to do with individuals’ backgrounds and personal situations, because the questions only addressed issues relating to performance and qualification. When the roles of the participants are revealed, many have become more aware of what discrimination is – and how severe an impact it can have on the people affected.

Improvements, step by step

By the time the afternoon arrives, the workshop’s participants have completed several hours of intensive exercises. They have discussed a lot and argued, but they have also laughed. The last task of the day is for every company team to draw up a plan of action. This document contains concrete suggestions for improvements developed by employees and managers working together. Timetables are also set for the individual implementation stages. For example, one of the teams agrees to cut weekly working hours by five hours in the future but leave pay unchanged. Sebastian Siegele says, “Of course, even with this reduction in hours, the staff still have to work a lot more than German factory workers, for example. But it is a start.”

Sumi, a 23-year-old who sews products for a Tchibo supplier, is also happy: “For the first time, I had the feeling that my boss really listened to my concerns. And I am proud of what I can achieve here for my colleagues at the plant.”