24 September 2007, Phnom Penh. IFC, the International Labour Organization and some of the world’s leading garment brands announced the launch today of industry-wide training for garment supervisors. Over the next 18-24 months, this four-day program is expected to improve the human relations skills of up to 3,000 middle and shop floor managers and 300 senior managers. The 44 factories involved, out of about 300 existing now, are producers for Adidas, GAP Inc, Levi Strauss & Co., Sears, Wal-mart and the Walt Disney Co., and these brands will share the cost of the training with their producers.
This launch is being staged on the eve of the Buyers’ Forum which is bringing 43 international buyers to Cambodia to meet among themselves and with ILO and IFC representatives all day Tuesday, 25 September and then with government, the Garment Manufacturers’ Association in Cambodia (GMAC), union representatives, NGOs and donors on Wednesday morning. The Forum takes place twice a year, and was set up initially in 2004 to advise Better Factories Cambodia, ILO’s Cambodian garment industry labor monitoring and remediation initiative, and give buyers one voice in talking to stakeholders. The Forum now supports the industry in other ways as well which include promoting Cambodia to other international buyers because of its good record on labor standards, and developing an industry-wide training strategy.
Speaking at the launch today, Trang Nguyen, Head of IFC Advisory Services, IFC Mekong Private Sector Development Facility, stated that the supervisory training which IFC MPDF piloted in 2005 and 2006 with Gap Inc., is intended to address a serious problem in the garment industry – the lack of skilled middle and shop floor managers. “As a 2005 ADB study and others have highlighted, the lack of skilled middle and shop floor managers, and consequent reliance on expatriate managers, is a weakness across the industry. “The Supervisory Skills Training Program is designed to enable supervisors to play a firm, fair and effective role as leaders, and to strike a balance between the interests of the company and those of the staff.”
In an evaluation conducted with 1,800 supervisors, workers and human resources managers a few months after the training pilot ended in 2006, the program showed very good results. Nearly all the supervisors surveyed in the evaluation said the program had helped them to develop new knowledge and skills they could apply immediately on the job. Human resources managers found that supervisors’ problem solving skills were significantly better, and data from participating factories showed a 12% drop in employee warnings, an 8% drop in absenteeism, and substantial improvements in production quality. Rejections within the factory fell by 39% and shipment rejections declined by 44%. Workers also stated that supervisors’ performance had improved, and they rated the trained supervisors 7 to 10 % higher than supervisors were rated in two Gap factories that did not participate in the training.
Her Excellency, Prak Chantha, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training reminded audiences of the crucial importance of the garment industry in Cambodia. “In 2006 the industry accounted for $2.5 billion in exports and it provided livelihoods for some 1.7 million workers and their extended families. Based on the good evaluation results, this training could clearly have a significant impact on the competitiveness of Cambodia’s leading export industry. Not only will it improve labor/management relations, which will help Cambodia maintain its worldwide reputation for good labor standards, but also through improving production quality, the training can help to make the industry more cost-competitive.”
Conor Boyle, Deputy Program Manager for ILO Better Factories Cambodia, stated that he was encouraged by strong support from leading retailers who will share the training costs with the factories that produce for them. “This is a crucial time for the industry. Due to ever increasing global competition, factories are expected to produce garments of better quality, do so more efficiently, and for lower cost. Through training programs and other capacity building measures that develop effective managers, companies should be better prepared to compete.”
Conor Boyle also noted that by training both Chinese and Cambodian supervisors in their own languages, the program will ensure sound understanding of the content. “Participatory training methods that emphasize communication and problem solving skills will help participants to communicate clearly and respectfully, and also to identify and resolve problems before they escalate. As the evaluation already shows, this will help both to reduce workplace conflict and to improve productivity.”
The four-day training program takes place in two two-day sessions with a four to six-week break between them. This enables participants to put their newly-acquired skills into practice and then return for more training and discussion on how they applied their new skills back on the job. The sessions also include video-taped practice that allows participants to see for themselves how well they are doing.
A special 12-hour version of the Supervisory Skills Training Program is being developed for owners and senior managers so that they too understand the new supervisory practices and can strongly endorse them and mentor supervisors if needed. This is expected to train up to 300 participants.
