How Consumer Goods Suppliers Can Streamline Social and Labor Information with the Higg FSLM

For the suppliers that produce consumer goods around the globe, navigating an ever-increasing number of social and labor requirements from different brands, retailers, and regulatory bodies is a very real challenge. Brands and retailers are more concerned than ever about the social and labor risks that could be hidden in their supply chains. And some suppliers are themselves leading the way in regards to safe and fair working conditions—and using their record to expand their customer base. 

The idea that social and labor assessments are valuable (and often necessary) isn’t in question. The hard part is how suppliers can accomplish their own and their customers’ requirements without excessive time, effort, and expense. The answer is to use a widely accepted, industry-standard solution that allows suppliers to conduct one assessment and easily share it with their business partners and customers at scale. 

One such assessment is the Higg Facility Social and Labor Module (FSLM). Read on to learn how suppliers can use it to achieve their goals, meet customer and regulatory requirements, and open doors to new business opportunities. More importantly, see how suppliers can do this all with less administrative burden for everyone involved. 

Why suppliers are choosing to focus on social and labor conditions

If you want to do business with major brands and retailers worldwide, you likely need to show that your facilities promote healthy and safe working conditions and fair labor practices. But assessing your social and labor landscape does more than just check a box for your customers. 

Suppliers that focus on meeting standards for safe, healthy, and fair working conditions also reap benefits like: 

• Higher productivity and product quality: When workers are treated well, they’re healthier, more motivated, and less prone to errors. This translates into efficiency gains, cost savings, and happier customers.
• Lower turnover and absenteeism: Poor labor practices drive high employee turnover, which is costly due to constant retraining. Improvements in working conditions, fair wages, and safe facilities increase worker retention.
• Reduced operational risks: Proactively managing labor conditions helps avoid crises that can disrupt operations and damage relationships with your brand customers and end-consumers.

For these reasons, and many others, smart and responsible suppliers are increasingly focusing on their worker experience, including health, safety, wages, and gender equality.

Read about how Crystal International Group Limited, one of the world’s largest garment manufacturers, established and met its own ambitious targets for social and environmental responsibility over the last 17 years. Crystal International Group launched its Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement (PACE) program in 2013 to unlock the potential of female employees, equipping them with life skills and career development opportunities. Since then, the program has reached over 70,000 female workers globally, leading Crystal International Group Limited to lead the way in social and labor practices surrounding gender equality in the workplace.

Social and labor assessments without the fatigue 

The challenge facing today’s suppliers isn’t whether to conduct social and labor assessments—it’s how to do so efficiently without drowning in duplicative requirements. As Dr. Christian Schindler, Director General of the International Textile Manufacturers Federation, puts it in the Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP) Impact Report 2024: “Our industry is suffering since the tsunami of audits hit in the last 15 to 20 years, so audit fatigue really is a big issue for the industry.”

The numbers tell the story of this audit burden. Many facilities find themselves conducting multiple assessments throughout the year—often covering similar ground—to satisfy different brand requirements, taking up more than 200 days each year in some cases. This creates significant direct and indirect costs, not to mention the opportunity cost of time that could be spent on actual improvements rather than redundant documentation.

The Higg FSLM, built on SLCP’s Converged Assessment Framework (CAF), offers a fundamentally different approach. SLCP is a multi-stakeholder initiative that has united more than 100 major brands and over 15,000 facilities from 50+ countries around CAF—a comprehensive data collection tool to assess working conditions in global facilities. It provides credible and actionable data that supports human rights due diligence.

Instead of multiple assessments for multiple brands, the Higg FSLM enables suppliers to complete one comprehensive assessment covering areas including wages, working hours, worker health and safety, and management systems, then share it across their entire brand customer network. The key differentiator: You own and control your assessment data, unlike traditional, proprietary audits where brands retain data ownership.

This approach is delivering real results. According to the SLCP Impact Report 2024, the average SLCP assessment was shared with an average of nearly three brands in 2024, a 16% increase from 2023. With over 100 brands now accepting the Higg FSLM, and more joining each year, suppliers can dramatically reduce administrative burden while maintaining comprehensive coverage of their social and labor practices.

Proven results from the field

Real suppliers are seeing real benefits from this approach. Here are just two examples from the SLCP Impact Report 2024:

Artistic Milliners, a leading textile manufacturer, achieved: 

• 100 percent facility adoption: All Artistic Milliners facilities now use SLCP assessments
• Significant cost savings: Around $30,000 saved in audit costs since implementing SLCP
• Time efficiency: Two months’ worth of work saved by using SLCP instead of multiple audits
• Brand acceptance: 50% of their customers now accept SLCP or have replaced traditional audits with SLCP
• Eliminated redundancy: In 2023, over 90 unnecessary audits were reduced due to SLCP adoption 

Avery Dennison, a multinational manufacturer and distributor, had results including: 

• Eliminating over 90 unnecessary audits in 2023
• 88 percent in-house facility adoption in 2024
• Successfully reducing audit fatigue
• Enhancing supply chain transparency and prioritization for resources to improve working conditions

These success stories aren’t just one-offs. Broader industry data shows manufacturers are reaping real benefits when they use the Higg FSLM to conduct their social and labor assessments. 

According to the Better Buying Purchasing Practices Index, suppliers using SLCP, including those completing the Higg FSLM on Worldly, report significant monetary savings: 62 percent save up to $5,000 USD and 26 percent save up to $10,000 USD on audit costs when their buyers accept SLCP assessments. Additionally, 57 percent of respondents reported monetary savings as a benefit of adopting SLCP’s framework. 

Beyond immediate cost savings, suppliers are discovering that strategic use of social and labor assessments opens doors to new financial opportunities. PVH Corp’s sustainable supply chain finance program offers discounted interest rates to suppliers based on their SLCP assessment performance. In 2024, 19 participating suppliers saved over $250,000 through lower interest rates from participating banks including DBS, UOB, Standard Chartered, HSBC, and BNP Paribas. 

The data also reveals that facilities using SLCP assessments show measurable improvements over time. Repeat users of the assessment framework demonstrate fewer legal non-compliances compared to first-time users. Facilities that have conducted assessments for four consecutive years report 2.4 fewer legal non-compliances on average compared to those in their second year.

Join thousands of suppliers already sharing their assessments at scale with SLCP and Worldly 

The momentum behind converged social and labor assessments is undeniable. In 2024, 10,200 SLCP assessments were completed globally, representing a 10 percent increase from 2023 and covering an estimated 7.3 million workers worldwide. Suppliers across all industries are recognizing the value of this approach, and it shows in the growing number adopting the Higg FSLM as their assessment framework. 

Here’s how it all works together: 

• SLCP is a multi-stakeholder initiative committed to improving working conditions in global supply chains. 
• SLCP’s data collection tool, the Converged Assessment Framework (CAF), collects  comprehensive data about working conditions in facilities, reducing the need for multiple proprietary brand audits while providing credible and actionable data that supports human rights due diligence.
• The Higg Facility Social & Labor Module (FSLM) is part of the Higg Index suite of sustainability solutions developed by Cascale, the global non-profit alliance. Worldly provides access to the Higg Index, including the Higg FSLM and the Higg Facility Environment Module (FEM).  
• Higg FSLM is a standardized self-assessment using the SLCP’s framework. Facilities use Higg FSLM to measure their social performance across key areas like wages, working hours, worker voice, and worker health and safety.
• Worldly is an Active Accredited Host for SLCP. Companies can access SLCP’s tool, the CAF, by using the Higg FSLM on the Worldly platform.

For suppliers ready to take control of their social compliance data and streamline their assessment processes, the Higg FSLM on the Worldly platform represents the smart choice for strengthening social and labor practices while reducing audit fatigue. With regulatory requirements intensifying globally and brands increasing their emphasis on supply chain transparency, the suppliers investing in strategic, converged assessments today are positioning themselves not just for compliance, but for competitive advantage and better supply chains.

Take control of your social compliance data with the Higg FSLM on Worldly. Learn more, or get started today.