Ilo evaluation

5.2Emerging Good Practices

During this evaluation process the evaluators have encountered a number of emerging good practices. These are presented below.

Combining classroom training with hands-on in-company support

The first good practice is well developed and core to the approach of SCORE. The SCORE modules are delivered to SMEs in a sequence of an intake visit, classroom training and three follow-up visits over a period of a few months to support Enterprise Improvement Teams (EITs) to implement lessons learned from the classroom in the company. During the visits the SCORE trainers also monitor progress and collect data on Key Performance Indicators for SCORE reporting. The SCORE country teams have documented case studies and testimonials that show the relevance and effectiveness of this approach. In this Mid-Term Evaluation the evaluators during 16 enterprise visits in 7 different SCORE countries could confirm that this combined approach of classroom training and in-company visits is not only highly appreciated but also produces clear effects on the work floor, with the implementation of the 5-S (Kaisen) methodology as clearest example.

Possible further improvements in this approach identified in this Mid-Term Evaluation are the following.

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  The first intake visit to companies that are interested in SCORE could be more systematized and trainers could more systematically provide an estimate of possible savings than can be achieved during implementation. This could increase the buy-in of companies in taking and paying for SCORE modules.
  
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  The SCORE modules typically have three follow-up visits during a period of a few months (generally less than three months). But some of the improvement ideas require more time to be implemented and embedded in the company. It could be considered to increase the number of in-company visits (against payment) and to realize a ‘year-after’ company visit. Such a year-after visit can also be an impulse for companies to think about other SCORE modules.
  

Mixed worker-management involvement as powerful tool to improve cooperation

This element is also core to the SCORE approach and therefore it is also already a more consolidated good practice. However, when looking at the broad range of existing SME support interventions worldwide, the ILO SCORE approach to involve both management and workers in training and EITs is rather unique and rarely applied in other training courses that usually target owners and managers or at best provide separate training packages for managers/owners and workers.

M&E data on participation in training and in EITs show that workers’ participation in training has increased to 45% and female workers account for 29% of the workers that have been trained. The EITs generally show a similar composition. These figures show that the approach has been empowering for workers and also for women workers, although the percentage of women that participate is still somewhat lagging behind. The feedback of workers during interviews in this evaluation exercise confirms that the effects of mixed participation are strong. From the management perspective it is regularly indicated that generating workers’ ideas bring innovations in the organization of production that otherwise would never have been discovered.
The mixed management-worker approach works well in all SCORE countries, even in countries with a less obvious culture of workers participation, like China, Vietnam and India. This means that this approach is applicable across cultures and sectors. This is an important lesson, because this means that the concept of mixed participation could be adapted by other SME support programs and possibly also in larger enterprises. A word of caution is also needed. Mixed worker-management participation in EITs is of course an improvement compared to situations where there was no workers’ participation. But the EITs should not replace more formal forms of workers’ participation and unionization in companies or be used as argument to keep the doors closed for more formal ways of organization. Nevertheless, in the largely non-unionized SME sector the experience of EITs on the longer term, carefully, could prepare the ground for more institutionalized workers participation and employers-workers social dialogue.

Working in supply chains creates better opportunities for sustainability

The supply chain experiences in China and India show promising leads towards alternative approaches to reach out to SMEs as suppliers in national and international supply chains. The investment and effort in reaching out vertically to lower tier suppliers can be less than trying to expand horizontally through industry associations as is currently done, because tracking and tracing of supplying companies in these chains becomes gradually stronger. There is a clear interest of lead buyers to certify quality and compliance in their supply chain and therefore relevant companies can be more easily reached through their lead buyers. This also creates opportunities for cost-recovery, because the lead buyers can finance the training costs for their suppliers. Another characteristic is that in supply chains attention is not only focused on quality and productivity but also on compliance with international labour standards, human rights and gender equity. These are relevant not only in the mandate of ILO but also in the theory of change of SCORE.

So far SCORE’s experience with this approach is limited to China, India and Colombia (although to a certain extent an attempt was made in Vietnam). There is no proof that this approach will be more universally applicable. However, in all SCORE countries there is a clear and keen interest in adopting this approach and start-up more pilots. If this is done in the final two years of SCORE Phase II, this emerging practice could become more consolidated towards the end of Phase II.

Using specific sector experiences to kick-start new experiences in other countries

This practice is only recently emerging with the gradual development of SCORE. In the past 8 years, SCORE has built experience in multiple sectors, ranging from industry to services. These experiences have become part of the knowledge base of SCORE and are shared on the ILO SCORE papyrus website. There have been some first experiences in using SCORE experiences in Colombia to support the process of starting up in SCORE in Peru and Bolivia. The Tourism sector experiences in South Africa have been used for an offspring project in Kenya and an exposure visit of SCORE Indonesia is planned to South Africa to learn from the tourism sector experience. The emerging practice of sharing and exchanging lessons, approaches, tools and instruments on the SCORE papyrus website and directly between countries shows an interesting road towards achieving more capacity to start and develop new SCORE initiatives in new sectors in existing SCORE countries and also to add other experiences in new countries.