What is the People Matter Charter?

There are multiple common challenges faced by organisations and their supply chain, ranging from poor diversity practices, people exploitation, poor wellbeing, employment conditions and a general lack of skills. People issues are vast, yet all connected. The People Matter Charter supports organisations and their supply chains in addressing these challenges together through one workforce strategy.

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The Eight Commitments

#1 Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Evidence the implementation of Equality & Diversity or Fairness, Inclusion & Respect (EDI / FIR) objectives and practices that go beyond the Equality Act 2010 in order to deliver increased employee satisfaction and an improvement in workplace behaviour.

#2 Skills & Training
Evidence an employment, skills and training strategy with a monitored implementation plan.

#3 Workforce culture
Evidence the implementation of physical, mental and social wellbeing objectives and practices designed to support a healthy, resilient and independent workforce culture.

#4 Living Wage
Evidence a plan towards paying the real living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.

#5 Due Diligence
Evidence materials supply chain due diligence processes that ensures that basic human rights are being protected.

#6 Labour Legal Requirements
Evidence that the organisation is complying with the legal requirement to ensure that all the permanent or temporary labour in your organisation have the right to work in this country.

#7 Labour Exploitation
Evidence processes are in operation and monitored to ensure that the organisation has the capacity & resilience to identify and report issues of labour exploitation.

#8 Payments
Demonstrate that all payment mechanisms in place for employment comply with HMRC Legislation in relation to Tax, NI and pension contributions. As well as legal compliance, evidence that employees directly employed or through our supply chain are not subjected to hidden payments and have access to all benefits such as sick, holiday and paternity pay and they are made aware of their entitlements.

A set of standards for the entire industry

Created by stakeholders from across the industry

The People Matter Charter

Why sign the Charter?

Do you employ people? Do you work with supply chain partners who employ people, either sub-contractors or suppliers? If yes, regardless of your organisation’s size, the Charter applies to you.

By committing to the Charter you will:

Demonstrate to clients your commitment to engage and develop your workforce
Increase staff retention
Improve wellbeing and help decrease absenteeism
Improve supply chain resilience
Adapt to the needs of an evolving industry
Collaborate with industry to improve labour standards across the value chain

What are you committing to by signing the Charter?

Signatories to the Charter must:

Already be at least ‘entry level’ in 6 of the 8 commitments outlined in the People Matter Charter Roadmap
Be committed to embedding the People Matter Charter in your organisation
Be committed to working with your supply chain and embedding the Charter’s commitments in your supply chain requirements
Provide the School with one written case study per year, providing either qualitative or quantitative evidence on the impact the Charter is having on your organisation and / or supply chain

How to sign the Charter

Signing up to the Charter is easy and it’s completely free! First, check that you are a member of the Supply Chain Sustainability School. If not sign up here.

Step 1

Complete the People Matter Roadmap. The Roadmap helps you assess your levels of maturity against each of the 8 commitments outlined in the Charter. It’s simple and shouldn’t take long, and we’ve provided some guidance to help.

Step 2

Once you’ve completed the roadmap you can then decide if you wish up to sign the Charter. If you’re not yet ready to commit, you can still complete the roadmap. It’s a great tool to help you understand your organisation’s level of maturity, and provides a platform on which to develop a workforce strategy.

Step 3

If you are ready to commit to the Charter, send an email directly to Helen Carter who will be in touch.

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I’ve signed the Charter. What happens next?

Congratulations! You have pledged to:

Implement the commitments within your own workforce strategy
Work with your key supply chain partners to embed the commitments in their workforce strategy and sign up to the Charter
Provide an annual case study that provides qualitative and/or quantitative evidence of the impact that the Charter has had on your organisation and the supply chain

Your logo will now be added to the growing number of committed organisations on the Supply Chain Sustainability School website and you will receive a signatory pack including:

A copy of the Charter you can circulate to your internal departments
A commitment certificate for display
The Charter Roadmap to plan how you will implement the Charter over time
A presentation pack which can be used to promote the Charter internally and with your supply chain

For any further information, please reach out to Helen Carter.