Members

NIR’s members come together to identify common challenges and dilemmas. Swedish business collaborates with other stakeholders through NIR, with the common goal of conducting economically, socially and environmentally sustainable business.

Swedish business drives global sustainability by acting responsibly and contributing to decent work and sustainable economic growth. Our members represent some of Sweden’s largest exporting companies and the financial sector. Together, our members share a long history of conducting successful business globally.

Doing business in complex markets often involves challenges beyond laws, rules, regulations and guidelines. Local business practices can be an obstacle for conducting sustainable business. The root causes of risks related to human rights and sustainability can be complex to identify and the boundary between political and sustainability risks is often vague.

NIR supports its members in identifying markets and addressing potential risks, enabaling collaboration between members and other actors to mitigate those risks and promoting joint approaches in identified markets.

This approach supports our member companies in conducting sustainable business in complex markets while driving global sustainability by providing solutions and business models.

“At Epiroc, we experience that NIR operates as an excellent bridge in the collaboration between us member companies and public actors around both sustainability challenges but also the business opportunities the increased focus on sustainability brings. NIR is also a very good platform for not only discussing sustainability challenges in complex markets with other Swedish companies but also identifying solutions.”

Camilla Goldbeck-Löwe, Vice President Corporate Sustainability, Epiroc.

Member events

NIR organises and facilitates peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges on current trends and to address challenges and identify opportunities for a positive impact in complex markets.

Topics covered in our member events include:

⦁ Sustainability in mining
⦁ Anticorruption
⦁ EU Taxonomy
⦁ New US Iran policy
⦁ Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation

Facilitating peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges is a core pillar of our operations and results in new initiatives, partnerships and programmes.

Our members

 

Want to become a member?

NIR is a meeting point for our members and Swedish and international business peers to exchange experiences on how to conduct sustainable business, mitigate risks and foster local sustainability in complex markets. NIR provides its members with:

⦁ Support in selected markets
⦁ Training on management in complex environments
⦁ Programmes to apply in local value chains
⦁ Access to relevant networks in selected markets
⦁ Contact with the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Swedish embassies

If you would like to know more about becoming a member, do not hesitate to contact us.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This executive summary presents the findings from the study “Workplace Cooperation: Finding Practical Solutions in the Colombian Context,” conducted by the Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP). The study evaluates the added value of the Swedish Workplace Programme (SWP) dialogue and cooperation model within the Colombian labor market.

Throughout 2022, FIP dedicated efforts to thoroughly understand the SWP model, including its concept, foundations, implementation process, and contributions to the labor market. In 2023, FIP documented the experiences of three companies—SKF Latin Trade, Securitas, and Epiroc—that implemented the SWP model in practice. The study also included face-to-face workshops to gather feedback from various stakeholders including civil society, businesses, government, academia, and international cooperation. The findings suggest that the SWP model has the potential to strengthen labor relations, contribute to decent work, and resolve workplace conflicts in Colombia.

The case studies highlight the importance of collaboration between employers and workers to promote decent work and sustainable development in Colombia. They demonstrate that social dialogue facilitates worker participation in labor decision-making, enhances their representativeness, and promotes cooperation between employers and employees, thus improving labor relations and contributing to the well-being of both employees and companies.

The SWP model is particularly noted for improving workplace relationships and commitment to jointly finding solutions to challenges faced by workers and the company. It empowers workers, enhances leadership, and helps integrate business policies into daily practices, reducing the initial disconnect between management objectives and the day-to-day realities of workers. The study also highlights the model’s capacity to manage conflicts constructively, transforming the perception of conflict as an opportunity for improvement. Structured dialogues deepen understanding of the underlying causes of conflicts, fostering empathy and facilitating effective resolution. This promotes a culture of collaboration and a democratic approach to decision-making, building trust.

Additionally, the model is recognized for enabling workers to make decisions, identify challenges, and propose solutions that impact their well-being, and bridging gender gaps in the workplace. Its inclusive approach adapts to the unique needs and characteristics of each company, promoting a stronger and more diverse organizational culture. It also drives good work performance and productivity by involving workers in problem identification and resolution, as well as in implementing improvements and efficiently identifying ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) risks for companies.

The document identifies the SWP model’s added value in empowering direct interaction among labor stakeholders in Colombia, overcoming historical or cultural reservations, and contributing to the development of stronger labor relations and improved workplace environments in the country.

Challenges and opportunities of the model are also discussed. The study points out the importance of addressing value chain risks, particularly in a global context where corporate clients demand decent work processes and due diligence. It emphasizes the need to integrate SMEs into this process and use anchor companies as drivers of social dialogue throughout the value chain. The role of the state in social dialogue and the importance of highlighting the benefits of the model for adoption across various business sectors are discussed.

The opportunities of the model include raising awareness of human rights in the workplace in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP), to strengthen due diligence, manage risks, promote long-term sustainability, and improve organizational culture. The document also underscores the importance of involving workers in change processes, leveraging their insights for continuous improvement of processes, and fostering innovation opportunities. Lastly, it suggests replicating the model in value chains to address work environment risks and gender biases, involving suppliers and contractors, and integrating the model into corporate policies to strengthen existing programs and transform organizational culture towards resource efficiency and effective participation of employers and workers.

The intervention of the SWP programme had a direct effect at the workplaces, where shop stewards listed several cases where they had managed to intervene and secure results in dialogue with management, avert crises or find solutions based on opportunities and the communication skills obtained during the SWP training. For the Amalgamated Metal Workers Unions in Kenya, the shop stewards pointed to how the training had enabled them to design their own strategies at the workplace in relation to supervisors and staff, and to achieve many concrete results.