HR Capacity and Responsible Recruitment Awareness of Myanmar Factory Staff Strengthened Through Training Programme

Many locally owned factories in Myanmar don't have opportunities to receive training and are at risk of non-compliance, including hiring child labour. Underdeveloped HR systems and lack of innovative management skills also means that they struggle to effectively integrate young workers into the workforce.

In 2019, The Centre for Child Rights and Business (formerly CCR CSR) collaborated with Businness Innovation Facility (BIF), a five-year initiative funded by the UK Department of International Development, to support factories to build their ethical recruitment mechanism to increase their business competitiveness. This was done through a customised programme model that focused on “learn to do” (through training) and “do to learn” (e.g. creating action plans to develop a child labour policy etc.), with The Centre providing on-site coaching.

Thirty-three HR managers and staff from 13 factories in Myanmar took part in the HR training sessions, and a further 53 participants took part in a coaching session about responsible recruitment and management of young and juvenile workers.

72% of the participants had previously never attended a training course that focuses on HR management so this training was both enlightening and useful to them. After the programme, 97% of HR staff reported increased confidence in supporting their factories. They also gained greater awareness on effective and responsible recruitment, as well measures to improve worker retention. 

“We would like to take part in more training courses like this in the future, as this training really help us to improve our HR system. Previously, we thought that workers are leaving the factory because of personal issues. But after attending the HR training, we started to conduct exit interviews and we now understand that workers leave the factory not only because of their personal issues, but also because of weaknesses in our factory management." An HR manager after the training