Evaluating Worker Engagement

Factories have several existing mechanisms, such as anonymous complaint boxes, for workers to report their grievances or suggestions. However, they typically don’t provide regular updates to aggrieved workers on complaint status, and other important touchstones. It is in this context that we evaluated the effectiveness of WOVO, a worker engagement platform designed by Labor Solutions. WOVO allows workers to anonymously submit messages (either through the SMS service or a digital application) and firm administration to manage and respond to these through an online dashboard.

Will digital communication make grievance processes easier for workers and management? What benefits can this have for both stakeholders?

The tool was implemented in two factories and covered 7,500 workers for a period of 7 months. We randomly allocated the workers to two groups. While both groups had access to the tool, only the first received formal training on how to use it. Through WOVO, workers were able to send their suggestions or grievances via SMS directly to factory management. In addition to the quantitative findings from our intervention, we also interacted with Human Resource managers to understand their experience of implementing and using WOVO.

Our initial research found that only 50% of workers own smartphones. This combined with low literacy did not favor the introduction of a mobile application and was also a barrier to using an SMS service. Workers sometimes prefer to talk face to face with or call factory managers. 

However, with increased trust and training the first group showed higher levels of tool usage.

• Of the cases that were registered to the application, 92% came from the first intervention group.
• The tool was utilized 4.4% more than the physical suggestion box provided at the factories. 
• The workers who used WOVO more were 10% less likely to quit and saw 5% less absenteeism.

Overall, however, the tool saw low usage among workers. This research led us to creating our own homegrown two-way communication tool, Inache.