Criteria

This is how we evaluate the Globalance Footprint with regard to labour:

Global challenge

A negative Footprint causes

  • The departure or lack of qualified employees
  • A dearth of new perspectives for the future
  • Growing social inequality
  • Unemployment and disrupted social accord
  • Low productivity and high economic costs
  • The violation of human-rights and labour laws
  • Exploitation and modern-day slavery
  • Labour conflicts (strikes)
  • Accidents and illnesses

Global goal

A positive Footprint fosters

  • The labour market viability of employees through training and continuing education
  • The qualifications and know-how of workers
  • Equal opportunity for women
  • Compliance with human-rights and labour laws
  • The enforcement of fair working conditions
  • Social accord between employers and employees
  • Job security, health

My Portfolio

Your Footprint Map for the topic

Name Anteil Footprint URI
4Q Smart Power 0.13 45 /en/assets/4q-smart-power
ABB 0.08 29 /en/assets/abb-1-2
CAF Corp Andina Fomento 0.08 48 /en/assets/caf-corp-andina-fomento
First State Infrastructure 0.15 52 /en/assets/first-state-infrastructure
NTT DoCoMo 0.07 100 /en/assets/ntt-docomo-1
Varian 0.14 44 /en/assets/varian
ZKB Gold ETF 0.07 67 /en/assets/zkb-gold-etf-1
    0
    adverse
    Balanced     100
    positive
    Legend :
    • Colours indicate the Footprint-Scores
    • Field sizes indicate proportion of invested capital

    The three best investments

    The three investments with the best Footprint for this theme are:

    Global Context

    Global Context: Growing wages as countries develop but gap remains

    Job creation and living wages are fundamental drivers of economic development. Companies’ impacts can be positive or negative, depending on business practices.


    Source: International Labour Organization (ILO) Global Wage Report (2015)

    What this chart tells us: Real wages grow fastest in developing countries

    The graph depicts a density function of the distribution of average national real wages in 2000 and 2012. The peaks in the distribution indicate areas where a large part of average real wages accumulate. Within the last decade the peak on the left moves forward on the real wage axis. This indicates that the average real wages in countries at the bottom end of the distribution are increasing. The graph is based on available data on 83 countries and covers 73% of the world‘s employees. It was published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the Global Wage Report 2014/15.

    The younger companies are, the more jobs they create, regardless of their size.

    Laurent Belsie, the National Bureau oF Economic Research Digest of February 2011

    Challenge: Job creation adds economic value

    Taking the risk to build a business creates benefits beyond the interests of its owners and contributes to a growing economy. It provides people with jobs and allows them to support their lives economically.

    At the same time, there are large differences in the way in which companies treat their workforce, often depending on the geographical region and the position of a job in a firm’s hierarchy. The economic and social value of a newly created job also depends on how it affects the employee.

    Investment-relevance: Human Capital is driving Performance

    Beyond generating profits and shareholder value, successful companies also develop human capital. Internal training programs and employee freedom to develop new ideas contribute to a firm‘s ability to persist in an environment of constant competition. Motivated people are more productive and create more value.

    But education and internship programs aren‘t all that matters. Companies who actively fight poor labour conditions and pay fair living wages are less likely to face reputational damages and legal issues. Apart from moral considerations there is therefore also an economic rationale to consider such factors as an investor.

    102

    102 labour days per 1000 workers are lost in France per year due to strikes. In Switzerland this figure amounts to 4.

    1894

    Swiss employees work for 1894 hours each year on average. That‘s 14 hours more than employees in the United States.

    20

    Business startups account for only 3 percent of employment but almost 20 percent of gross job creation in the U.S.

    Relevant sources of guidance for the Globalance Footprint

    When assessing a company‘s labour footprint we consider various sources. The UN Global Compact, for example, publishes helpful guidelines regarding human rights both in general and in the workplace environment. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports on wage developments, labour conditions and recently published a report investigating the role of labour in economic development. Additionally the World Bank‘s Statistics division publishes data on child labour, income inequality and many other indicators relevant to labour concerns. Among these main pillars, we use information disclosed by national research entities and statistics divisions as well as information published by the private sector.