Using the RoSPA Awards to benchmark supplier safety standards worldwide

Company: Nike

Nike’s safety journey began more than thirty years ago with the launch of the company’s Code of Conduct. The Code, along with supportive Code Leadership Standards, details Nike’s requirements of contract manufacturers worldwide – focused on showing respect for the environment, the people who work in factories and the principles of a healthy and safe workplace.

Since the Code’s inception, a range of safety initiatives have been implemented, and over the last decade, they have focused on building safety capabilities in supplier factories – through knowledge, skill and confidence.

Nike’s focus is on helping suppliers build a health and safety culture in their facilities, through engaged leadership, robust safety systems and the right skills and organisational capabilities to effectively manage safety on site.

Buoyed by a Harvard Business School case study published in 2019 which showed that this focus has improved quality and productivity and dramatically lowered incident rates, Nike began scaling its approach to suppliers who represented 80 per cent of its finished goods production volume.

Introducing the RoSPA Awards

A few years later, to further authenticate their approach, Nike sought an independent benchmark of supplier performance from a credible external safety body, engaging the RoSPA Achievement Awards in 2023. That year, 16 volunteer factories participated during Nike’s 2023 financial year. Incredibly, 10 factories received a Gold RoSPA Award and six a Silver.

The engagement and excitement in the process started to spread throughout Nike’s supply chain, with more supplier factories wanting to get involved. The following year, 64 factories applied, resulting in 40 Gold RoSPA Awards, 21 Silver and three Bronze.

The success of the RoSPA Awards for Nike suppliers is an extension of Nike’s overarching strategy to support its supplier factories in becoming world-class safe and healthy workplaces. Participating has brought many benefits to the supplier, the workers and their local communities, as described in the National Safety Council (NSC) work on valuing impact.

The RoSPA Awards process has been a vital complement to the health and safety culture programme at Nike, bringing recognition for work done to date in this area, but also serving to engage supplier factories even more. The opportunity to work as a team, reflect on the work and learn through feedback has been valuable.

For Nike, their partnership with RoSPA is just beginning. As Sittichoke Huckuntod, Director of Health and Safety at Nike concludes: “The value that the existing RoSPA Award winners received by challenging themselves throughout the RoSPA Awards process and benchmarking their safety performance against other world class manufacturers is immeasurable.

“We are just starting to benchmark performance of Nike’s suppliers through the RoSPA Awards and would love to see even more of our suppliers involved. For Nike, when it comes to the pursuit of better, there is no finish line.”

November 2024.

“The value that the existing RoSPA Award winners received by challenging themselves throughout the RoSPA Awards process and benchmarking their safety performance against other world class manufacturers is immeasurable.” - Sittichoke Huckuntod, Director of Health and Safety, Nike