Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Through our Supplier Development Program, our goal is to partner with approximately 100 suppliers annually to help them improve factory working conditions and implement effective management systems. In just its second year, the efforts are far reaching and affect our supply chain. By promoting improved working conditions and communication with factory management, empowering workers and offering valuable training, suppliers are equipped to run a more efficient and productive business and can produce higher-quality products. Participating suppliers report the program has enabled them to reduce worker turnover and incidents of injury, facilitate open communication and significantly increase worker satisfaction.

How it works

Walmart identifies suppliers for voluntary participation in the program. Once a supplier joins, we form an internal consulting team to conduct a thorough analysis of the supplier’s social and environmental management systems and develop a customized program to fit its business model. The resulting plan is comprehensive and focuses on implementing best practices for:

• Hiring and employment: Meet Walmart’s nondiscrimination, age and labour standards.
• Training and development: Develop training programs for factory management and workers.
• Performance management: Provide fairness and equal opportunity for workers.
• Compensation and benefits: Develop internal controls for strong salary and wage administration.
• Discipline and termination: Meet Walmart, legal and international standards for fair, reasonable and humane treatment of workers.
• Worker communication and feedback: Establish procedures for management to respond and communicate actions taken on worker feedback and create appropriate channels for workers to bring issues to management.
• Work hours and production systems: Develop a strong system for monitoring the company’s work hours policy.
• Environmental management: Manage environmental issues by reducing negative impact and improving environmental practices.
• Health and safety of workers: Provide chemical and machine safety training, improved hazard protection safeguards and the use of personal protective equipment.
• We continue to work closely with the supplier to facilitate continuous improvement in its management systems.
• The supplier development initiative is a pivotal component of Ethical Sourcing. To date, Walmart has provided internal resources and support to more than 200 suppliers in all our sourcing regions who have participated or are participating in the program. Through the Supplier Development Program, Walmart has the potential to affect hundreds of factories and thousands of workers in our supply chain.

Success story

In June 2011, Welspun India LDT successfully completed our Supplier Development Program. By identifying solutions to a variety of potential problems, the textile manufacturer was able to:

• Reduce energy consumption by 18 per cent.
• Establish a systematic approach to internal factory audits.
• Improve visibility of emergency exit routes.
• Assign health and safety coordinators to the factory floors.
• Harvest rainwater from retention ponds for production needs.
• Create a standardized selection process for employee promotions.

“We’ve started recording energy savings and other key parameters in a more organized manner, which led to our receiving the National Energy Conservation Award in 2010.”
Tarnjit Singh, head of operations, Welspun India LDT