Each year, scholars, business leaders, and policymakers gather at Harvard University’s SHINE Summit to discuss employee well-being. The Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE), a research initiative at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public School, aims to advance global well-being by putting people at the center of business strategy and organizational culture.
Harvard SHINE has been a trusted partner to Levi Strauss & Co. and the Levi Strauss Foundation for more than five years, helping to advance our Worker Well-being (WWB) initiative. At this year’s summit, Kim Almeida, Levi Strauss Foundation director of Worker Rights and Well-being, spoke alongside panelists from the World Bank and Starbucks. Kim shared LS&Co.’s history of investing in apparel worker health through WWB and the importance of improving the workplace systems and equity among workers in order to build resilient and adaptive supply chains.
“What made this year’s Summit unique was the timeliness and urgency of this topic – the COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how critical it is for employers to make well-being a key business priority, not only for their own employees, but also for workers in their supply chains,” Kim said. “I enjoyed sharing details of our Worker Well-being program as an example of how we are turning research insights into actions that LS&Co. and our supplier factories can take to improve apparel workers’ health, engagement and satisfaction at work.”
Worker Well-being has benefited more than 219,000 workers globally with factory-based programs that seek to address issues related to health, financial security and gender equality. The program operates on the premise that when workers are healthy, satisfied, and engaged, they and the business will benefit.
Improving the work experiences and lives of the women and men who make our products is a continuous process. In 2022, LS&Co. will release its updated Worker Well-being Guidebook which offers new strategies and tactics to suppliers, building on the program’s success to date. Together, we can ensure that we are providing workers with access to the resources, support, and opportunities to learn and develop.
