#HRinHR is Application of Human Rights in Business

this article first appeared at #IAmHR, republished with permission.

#HRinHR is a program that will help Human Resource  professionals in improving their company’s strategic policies, employee services and programs

LODI Inc. and  #HRinHR

Our core advocacy at Learning and Organization Development Institute Inc (LODI Inc.) is not to provide lip service  about social justice, but help practitioners find practical application of human rights in HR’s day to day operations. A good example of #HRinHR is

Our HR Mentoring 1.0 program evolved thru our different runs, and now carries these objectives. At the end of the 7 Saturday program, participants should be able to

• Have a grasp of the basic ‘technical’ know how of the end to end operations of Human Capital Management.
• Understand, if not embrace, the leadership framework anchored on SQ and EQ.
• Promote social good by identifying areas for improvement in their respective workplaces, and introduce corrective actions.
• Suggest policy improvements or employee programs that will align corporate culture, values and policies to that human rights in business.

Our 1.0 program is not only about technical skills, but also about leadership and social good.

#HRinHR Workshop

HRinHR can be an effective exercise to help HR professionals, if not the entire management team, in identifying employee service points that impacts social justice. These include but not limited to  the timely and accurate release of employee salary and benefits, employee engagement programs that encourage open communication, safe environment and discipline system that observes substantive and procedural due process.

#HRinHR Assessment

HRinHR is also a tool to help strategic policy makers and HR business partners align company policies, corporate culture and values, to that of best practices in business and human rights, national and international laws. These include, but not limited to, non discrimination, gender equality, cybercrime,  data privacy, general labor standards, occupational health and safety.

Benefits of  #HRinHR

When human rights are observed in business, it can bring these benefits:

Attract and retain good talents

A recent study commissioned by Jobstreet, re: laws of attraction, points to one of the gripes of Filipino employees are companies who are not socially responsible (non compliance to the minimum standards of the law and/or no CSR program).

Customer trust

If a business properly respects human rights, then in all likelihood, it will be more profitable – Richard Karmel, Partner at Mazars

59% of US consumers surveyed saith they’d be less likely to buy from a company it they knew they have suffered data breach (Deloitee, 2015)

Only 25% of US Consumers believe most companies handle their sensitive personal data responsibly. Yet 72% believe businesses, not government, are best equipped to protect them. (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2018)

I believe, consumers in the Philippines have similar sentiments, thanks to civil society groups like FMA, who are educating Filipinos about business and human rights.

Observing human rights in business is a social investment, the return of investments is high trust rating from customers.

Growth opportunities

If a company wants to enter into partnerships or seeks new investors, trustworthiness, good reputation, compliance with the law will come-in handy. A high trust rating from customers, an employer of choice from the job market and compliance to national and international laws will likely result to growth opportunities.

It is common knowledge that companies wanting to do business with multinational clients will likely lead to careful scrutiny, specially those from companies who have presence in the US and European countries.

Add to that, there are investors representing 5.3B USD who are supportive of the UN guiding principles of business and human rights.

So it is wise to put our businesses in order and establish good housekeeping practices, while waiting for the growth opportunity.

If you want to be part of our HR 1.0 Mentoring program, feel free to go to our sign-up page.

If you wish to bring the #HRinHR workshop and tool to your organization, shoot us an email at hrmentoring[at]lodi-inc[dot]com.