The Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) project is an International Labour Organization (ILO) project aimed at improving productivity and working conditions in small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) through advisory and training services. The project assists government agencies, training institutions, industry associations and trade unions in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas in providing SCORE training to smes to help them develop collaborative working relationships where business owners and workers share the benefits.

The ILO's core philosophy and mission is to "promote social justice and decent work". The goal of the SCORE project is to promote sustainable business development by providing high-quality employment and ensuring that workers work in safe and healthy workplaces.

To do a good job in the management of enterprise safety production is a common task faced by all countries in the world, especially developing countries, and it is also a slope to climb and a barrier to cross in China's safety production work. In cooperation with the International Labor Organization, the introduction of the SCORE project in China is a management method, which is a good mechanism to guide enterprises to establish safe development, self-restraint, self-motivation and continuous improvement.

Since 2010, the SCORE program has been implemented in more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. As of August 2023, with the efforts of more than 1,600 SCORE trainers, more than 921,000 workers and managers in more than 5,200 enterprises have benefited from SCORE training.

In order to collect the achievements and success stories of SCORE training worldwide, the global SCORE team has released the first annual SCORE update to showcase the impressive practice cases carried out from 2022 to 2023. As more and more SCORE trainers join, many countries are actively carrying out SCORE program practice. Due to the large number of cases to choose from, only one case in each country is selected for the classic case analysis in this update. 。Leverage's previous field practice of two SCORE modules, workplace cooperation improvement and gender equality, in nine companies in China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey and Vietnam, was selected as a classic case study in China in the SCORE Project Training Annual Update 2022-2023.

On June 28, 2022, the SCORE Trainer Network was officially launched to facilitate knowledge and experience sharing among experts and SCORE trainers from around the world. By organizing regular online events, the Global SCORE team seeks to facilitate the engagement and provide them with the opportunity to learn about new industry trends for SCORE trainers, who are critical to sustaining SCORE in their countries.This initiative is also part of the team's sustainability strategy to promote SCORE training as an important tool for increasing productivity and improving working conditions at scale.

The second online event "Success and Innovation in implementing SCORE Training" was held on November 23, 2022. Participants engaged in active discussions, sharing examples of SCORE training practices they provided during the 2019 pandemic and their experiences in maintaining and expanding SCORE training in their home countries.

The latest edition of SCORE's Global Trainer webinar was held on April 19, 2023, with the theme "Supporting smes towards a Circular Economy and Net Zero." More than 70 participants connected to learn the success story of Lecka, a small Vietnamese company that produces nutritious snacks. The Founder Marcus shared their steps taken to improve the company's sustainability, including using environmentally friendly packaging and tracking and publishing their greenhouse gas emissions online. During the webinar, participants learned about the new SCORE4Climate module, which is designed to support smes on the path to a circular economy. Participants had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of moving from a linear economic model to a circular economy, which would not only benefit the environment, but would also bring substantial benefits to smes and their workers. The benefits include cost savings, increased productivity, competitiveness, resilience, and occupational safety and health.

In August 2022, with the support of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the SCORE Academy, Canadian clothing manufacturer Gildan Activewear Inc. and global technical service provider Leverage officially launched the SCORE project.  It aims to help a total of nine companies located in China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey and Vietnam conduct training on two SCORE modules on workplace cooperation and gender equality. By February 2023, eight of the nine companies had successfully completed the SCORE process, and one company's implementation was still ongoing. The following results have been achieved:

1. Establish a collaborative SCORE improvement culture in the workplace

The enthusiasm of employees to express personal opinions and suggestions has been improved, and the awareness of employees to actively participate in and work with management to promote the progress of the enterprise has been enhanced.

Employees are encouraged to submit comments through online feedback forms and the improvement suggestion reward system, and employees whose suggestions are adopted are rewarded. In addition, the workshops of all departments have posted two-dimensional codes to facilitate the online feedback of employee feedback forms. Once the opinion is passed, the enterprise will provide employees with certain material rewards such as overall income increase, which not only motivates employees, but also enhances the enthusiasm of employees.

Other major achievements include:

  ● Overall, employee satisfaction has increased, with absenteeism falling by an average of 0.2%

  ● Through expert and management visits to the workshop/plant, the 5S principle is effectively implemented and waste is reduced

2, Raise awareness of gender equality

Through the implementation of the gender equality module,  gender equality awareness of enterprises was raised and the content was spread to all employees in the factory. Enterprises actively promote the empowerment of women, advocate the rights and interests of female employees, and strengthen the protection of women's rights and interests.

Measures implemented include: ensuring the principle of non-discrimination in recruitment; improving facilities for female employees, such as adding and improving nursing rooms in the workplace; mainstreaming flexible working throughout the enterprise; increasing female employees’ awareness of their rights; Specific training is provided to female employees to improve their overall capabilities and achieve a better work-life balance.

The main results related to gender equality are as follows:

● The eight enterprises implemented 91 improvement proposals related to promoting gender equality and promoting women's rights and interests

● A total of 4,003 female employees have been trained, with an average promotion of 1.5%

In the process of project implementation, a total of 81 enterprise innovation technology meetings were held, and a total of 531 improvement suggestions were collected from 8 enterprises, of which 524 were implemented.