Modern slavery is the behaviour or practice of using threats, coercion, or deception to exploit people and their freedom. It can happen to people of all ages usually belonging to socially or financially deprived communities and prevails in major economies around the world. Examples of modern slavery include child labour, debt bondage, human trafficking, forced labour, etc.
Since the victims of such abuse and exploitation are incapable of fighting for themselves due to unawareness or lack of resources, it is the duty of all businesses to check their operations and supply chain for potential modern slavery risks. Unless all organisations engage their employees and suppliers to identify and report modern slavery, it will continue.
The first step for businesses towards staying compliant with anti-modern slavery laws is to provide competent training to their employees and all concerned personnel in their supply chain. Training can help curb the exploitation. Let’s look at some other benefits of training.
The Benefits of Modern Slavery Training
1. Increased Awareness
The most important purpose of modern slavery training is to increase awareness and share ways of identifying it within their organisation or supply chain. If employees do not know what to look for, they are likely not to raise any concerns they may have. Proper information helps them identify right from wrong. Also, modern slavery training helps employees know when and how to report such incidences.
2. Keeping Up to Date with Changing Laws
Modern slavery and compliance laws keep changing regularly. Continuing operations and activities based on obsolete laws can decrease their efficiency and increase the risks of malpractices and non-compliance. Regular training can help inform employees and suppliers of the changed norms and clearly state the standards of behaviour expected from them to comply with these laws.
3. Relevant Course Content
Online modern slavery training programs help design and impart relevant information to all employees. Providing the same information to every level of the organisation might not produce the desired results. As employees’ responsibilities and roles change, so must the information being provided. Online modern slavery training is the best way to fulfil this requirement.
4. Enhanced Learning and Engagement
Every employee is entitled to appropriate knowledge enhancement opportunities. Training is the right way to help your employees brush up their knowledge about modern slavery and the ways to avoid it. Including them in such training activities can also enhance their participation in finding any case of exploitation in your organisation. Better learning opportunities gives rise to better engagement as employees feel valued.
5. Increased Compliance
Modern slavery compliance requirements not only hold an organisation responsible for checking exploitation in their operations and supply chain, compliance laws also require businesses to train their employees to fight against this social evil. High employee engagement can only be attained through proper guidance and training. Hence, by implementing training, organisations may also fulfil their compliance obligations.
Why Sentrient’s Modern Slavery Training Course?
Sentrient’s Modern Slavery Training Course was developed to assist businesses in Australia to provide their employees and suppliers with the required information. It is a 15-minute online course that is easy to implement and can be accessed from the Sentrient human resource management system or your own LMS.
Learners will gain knowledge about how to identify and report behaviours that constitute modern slavery and incidences of modern slavery in or around their organisation. The topics covered in the Sentrient course are as follows:
- What is modern slavery
- Types of modern slavery
- Identify and report risks of modern slavery
- Human rights and prevention of modern slavery
Conclusion:
Modern slavery training plays an important role in spreading awareness and educating employees and stakeholders about modern slavery risks in their organisation and supply chains. It is regularly updated training that keeps organisations abreast of their modern slavery compliance requirements.
This article was originally published here