Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/234597
HR/CR Responsible Outsourcing Ways companies are improving employee living conditions. By Jeffrey Puritt Business process outsourcing (BPO) first arose out of the need for companies to stay competitive by cutting costs. This was often achieved by taking existing operations and transplanting them to a country where it was cheaper to operate. Unfortunately, corporate responsibility (CR) in that other country was often not high on the priority list. Shifting Social Landscapes Thankfully, times have changed. Corporate stand-outs include Unilever, the world's largest producer of black tea. The company is on the ground making a difference for their small tea producers. They encourage sustainable tea farming and have educated almost half a million of their smallholder tea farmers in sustainable agricultural practices. The result is that Unilever gets a more reliable supply chain of higher quality, sustainably grown tea from small producers, and the farmers get more income from the increased yield. BPO as an industry has matured, and providers have learned that community development and employee well-being have a strong impact on staff retention and service quality. Those impacts are detailed in the whitepaper Outsourcing for Social Good: A BPO Perspective, from global outsourcer TELUS International and CR consultancy Impakt Corporation. According to the report, the need for social change is great: One billion people worldwide will go hungry tonight, and 800 million people lack dependable access to clean water sources. Developing countries desperately need social change. Responsible BPOs are responding to that need—and doing so on the front lines. Today's progressive BPOs have found that addressing social inequities in the developing countries where they operate is mutually beneficial for the community, the company and its employees, and their customers. [64] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2013 When governments fall short of providing basics like housing, education, and clean water, there is a real opportunity for companies to step in and provide support for their workers and their communities. Nestlé has made a similar leap improving conditions and operations for its coffee producers. For its Nespresso coffee brand, Nestlé works with small farmers in Africa and Latin America to provide advice, resources, and local processing facilities that help the small producers prosper, while also securing a more consistent supply chain. Like these large multinationals, BPOs have become a major economic and social presence in the developing world,