Date and Time
June 21, 2018
1:00 pm-7:00 pm
EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)
Location
New York
Topic
Sustainability Management | Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
BSR is inviting a select group of our member companies and partners to a half-day event on the changing nature of work and the role of business in helping to shape the 21st-century social contract. The event will include an interactive workshop, followed by a reception.
The event is one of six in a series of global “Redefining Sustainable Business” convenings that will generate insights to help reshape how we think about the sustainable business agenda. These dialogues will feed into content that will be disseminated at the BSR Conference 2018 in New York November 6-8.
This series is based on the view that the forces transforming business and society require new, more resilient business strategies—ones that will necessarily have sustainability at their core.
The global economy is facing a transformation that will have profound impacts on business, national economies, and workers. Automation, new business models, changing expectations from millennials and Generation Z, longer life spans, and global competition are just some of the changes remaking the world of work. At the same time, governments are struggling to adapt quickly enough to shape new models that will enable workers to obtain the skills and economic security they need and to define a clear set of rules that will help business to plan and attract and retain workers. The result is political volatility and uncertainty.
This creates new questions for business. Companies are rethinking how they approach workforce planning and skills development when workforce needs are changing rapidly. New business models mean that old approaches to benefits no longer meet the needs of workers or businesses. Domestic procurement, and the needs of workers in those supply chains, are also undergoing fundamental changes. Working conditions have received less attention in this context than they have in global supply chains. In addition, the role of business in engaging in complex policy dialogues on this crucial topic is not clear.
We would like to explore this issue together, to understand better how these fundamental shifts can be shaped with a view to ensuring that they deliver advances in quality employment, economic development, and environmental protection. We will be joined by key industry leaders in the field of sustainability and beyond.
Key questions that we will explore include:
- What are the changing expectations and needs of workers amidst the changes remaking work?
- What are some innovative approaches that companies are taking to develop new approaches to benefits, contingent work, and skill development?
- What are the principles that companies can apply in developing an approach to these issues?
- What is the proper role of business in helping to reshape policy approaches to these questions?
- What is the proper role of the Chief Sustainability Officer in shaping business strategies on these questions?