Human rights strategy for a leading supermarket
A leading supermarket engaged Sancroft to help them be more proactive in their human rights strategy. We worked closely with the client to develop KPIs and publish external commitments.
Our client, a leading supermarket, wanted to take a more proactive approach to protecting human rights. They wanted to prioritise protecting people and the business, against the greatest human rights risks that they were likely to face.
They sought a partner and chose Sancroft to help them prioritise their salient human rights risks across the Group’s various business units. Together we developed their human rights commitments and their targets and roadmaps to tackle them.
Finally, we developed training materials for their senior team and to help communicate the strategy to those internally and externally who would need to know about this and especially those who would help to implement the plan.
Sancroft worked closely with colleagues from across the business to understand the different human rights risks business units could be connected to. We analysed multiple sources, conducting extensive desk research to assess and prioritise different risks posed to workers in their global supply chains. We also considered changing social, economic, environmental, technological, and political drivers of human rights risks. The project was also informed by consultation with external stakeholders to bring in the perspectives of rightsholders.
The business wanted to set public-facing commitments and targets. We, therefore, worked closely with colleagues at different levels in the businesses to define their ambition level in relation to peers, and ensure robustness against changing external expectations and regulatory requirements. We then co-developed key performance indictors to drive and evidence performance and actionable, timebound plans to achieve them.
Before publishing the new commitments externally, in the last phase of work, we developed factsheets and videos to make sure that everyone in the business understood the commitments and why they were being made. As it was important that the materials were accessible and relatable for colleagues across the business, we conducted focus groups to understand current perceptions of human rights and the language that people feel comfortable with when talking about these issues. We then produced an externally facing report and website copy.
Our work meant that the client has an actionable and ambitious plan to proactively tackle its most salient human rights risks and emerging threats to people in their value chain – one that key stakeholders understand.
Our client had a plan that benefited from our integrated approach to managing social and environmental risks.
They had an understanding how a human rights approach brings value to businesses.
Lastly, our expertise in capacity building and communication meant that we could create engaging materials to effectively upskill people across the business and communicate the plan to different audiences.