How to get a job in Business and Human Rights
I’ve been working about 15 years now in primarily the supply chain labour standards (I built the first Burberry Corporate Responsibility Asia team) and modern slavery side of business human rights due diligence (with anti-slavery charity Unseen, in Human Rights Watch and a consultancy), but also in assessing and advising in other contexts (e.g. a little on social impacts in mining and energy) and training on the new laws requiring overall business respect for human rights and ESG (Environmental Social Governance). Over the years I have frequently been asked for advice by people seeking careers in what is now business and human rights (the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were launched in 2011), and the pieces of it historically called “CSR” (Corporate Social Responsibility). By this I’m not referring to philanthropy and merely charitable giving (although I’ve done a little work in those areas), but primarily how the money was made in the first place; i.e. the fields of practitioning in Ethical Trade, Ethical Fashion, Responsible Sourcing/ Sustainable Procurement, Environmental Sustainability and related.
To be a bit more helpful than quick email replies, and to perhaps help more good people who’d like to do good while doing business, here are some thoughts on how to get jobs or develop careers in this wonderful wide world of Business and Human Rights:
- Linkedin Bios: Sure, some people don’t like Linkedin, but I’m sorry, it’s one of the best tools around. I can’t tell you how many jobs I’ve been approached about through Linkedin, and how much I’ve used Linkedin to try to hire people into my teams of Consultants on Business and Human Rights, or my Responsible Sourcing and CSR practioning teams in exciting companies and organisations. Linkedin is a fantastic place to find people who have the professional skills you need. If you want to show up when people are searching for people like you, I’d suggest ensuring all your CV and more are well filled out on Linkedin. The more key words about the type of skills or experience you have the easier you might be found and considered to work on those topics you love. Also get some endorsements from people who’ve worked with you, and perhaps start writing some articles too to show your writing skill and knowledge. Fill out your Linkedin fully.
- Industry Recruitment : Whilst I believe it’s essential if you are seeking work in Business and Human Rights to keep your Linkedin Bio updated, it’s also good to watch the industry recruitment sites and apply for roles. And if you don’t get them, every application or interview is good experience. You can follow job opportunities in Business and Human Rights by either joining email newsletters, or just bookmarking and visiting websites often such as:
- The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre who post some excellent mostly non profit roles in human rights : https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/jobs
- The probably leading Sustainability and CSR recruitment firm in UK and USA “Acre Resources” https://www.acre.com/ (and Euro friends, watch their site for coming news….) who place professionals at almost all levels in consultancies, corporates, and NGO, and who helped me get roles early in my career and hire great team members over the past 15 years, and;
- The tripartite UK Ethical Trading Initiative who work on supply chain labour standards and advertise some of their roles at https://www.ethicaltrade.org/jobs-eti
- BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), who advertise roles in their own teams around the world or from their large, slightly more USA based corporate member base at https://www.bsr.org/en/careers
- And from the USA (and a Hong Kong office), the Ellen Weinreb Group who seek to fill some generally more senior jobs https://weinrebgroup.com/
There are other Business and Human Rights and Sustainability job sites too! Please remind me and I’ll be happy to edit this if I can and post here, or you can just post in the comments section below. Thanks!
3. Mailing lists, and Learning the Content and Acronyms: People often ask me how I got into my career in CSR which has over the years morphed into business and human rights. If I had to say just one thing, I’d say reading. Reading industry reports and media, and becoming knowledgeable about what the issues are, what stakeholders say business should do, what some companies are doing, perhaps these days what the new laws such as the UK Modern Slavery Act are (yes, go read at least it’s Transparency in Supply Chains clauses), why they are coming about, and how business should respond, makes you potentially knowledgeable and useful as a team member for an employer. In particular I’ve found my role whether inside a corporate or as a trainer or consultant or advisor, is very frequently to be updating people on the new laws and standards, and explaining the NGO, charity and other stakeholder concerns which have driven these. In this work we need to understand Why business needs to change and improve, which then helps us advise How To. If practitioning in-house, knowing what stakeholders increasingly expect helps to design and deliver better responses for your employer (and hence supply chain workers or others whose human rights you are helping teams better respect through improving an ethical trade/ responsible sourcing programme).
I headed this paragraph “mailing lists” as by joining the mailing lists/email newsletters of organisations such as those above (BHHRC, ETI, BSR, etc), you start to see the new reports, read commentary, articles and blogs on new laws or standards, and be a part of the conversation and become knowledgeable. And the mailing list are so much better now! Back in my day we just had csr-chicks@yahoogroups…. (still around but the above organisations have far better newsletters). As for Acronyms, unfortunately the HRDD (Human Rights Due Diligence) world is full of them. Make sure you know what the UNGPs are, the OECD Guidelines, and what are the CHRB and the ETI (see above), and how they differ to the FLA, SAI, BSCI, ICTI, RBA (EICC),…and more! As I say, there are lots of Acronyms! (Sorry!). If you’d like to know more about these, you can google them, or please answer my survey below so I can consider how to best help you understand the differences and mapping of them, or comment, or contact me…on linkedin!
4. Writing: These days we have amazing mediums like Medium (!) and Linkedin articles sections, making professional blogging easy. If you spent time in your gap year abroad somewhere, follow a country’s human rights risks closely (China issues are dear to my heart), or read a lot about an industry, don’t be scared to write! If you are young and not sure, then perhaps write a short article which queries how things are done and briefly analyses the approaches you’ve been reading about. Or even better, perhaps you wrote a Thesis, or Essays for your studies. Well don’t let them sit getting dusty. Pull it out and cut down into one or two short essays. When you combine posting these articles on Linkedin with ensuring your Linkedin Bio is up to date and has lots of key words about what you know or are experienced in, you start to build a profile that can be found or people might follow. They might even think of you if they need someone knowledge about those issues…. So on a related note….
5. Coffees, Events, Networking and Advice: Get out there! Once you’ve been reading the websites and mailing lists, read reports or books about the issues, and are perhaps writing some of your thoughts, and have a feel for what sorts of roles there are in your longer term future (and perhaps even some at your level), don’t be afraid to reach out to people who seem to be in your dream job, and ask for advice! I got a great job this way once! A real break and step forward in early in my career. So I know this approach works! Only, a) realise that for every 20 you message 10 will reply, 5 meet, and 1 be useful; and b) please don’t message saying “please give me advice”. Rather, be specific. Know what you want! (And if you don’t, please get the book “What colour is my Parachute?” from the library and do the exercises: it worked for me). Rather than being very general, please message people asking for specific advice e.g. “Hi, I’m Julie. I speak French and lived in X french speaking country for Y months/years and, now having graduated in BA/MA in Human Rights/Sociology am seeking work in business and Human Rights. My thesis was on XYZ BHR issue, so I’m wondering if, given your Bio says you work on these BHR issues in Y country, you might have 20 minutes for a coffee or lunch near your office in the next 2 weeks? I’d be most grateful for advice on how I might find work on these issues” Or better yet: “I’d love to share with you a summary of what I found in my recent research on these issues for my Thesis/article and see what you think”. State what is unique about you, perhaps reference a link to an article you wrote or what your thesis was about, and any unique skills you might have. And say when you are available to meet someone. And ask if people might know anyone seeking help from someone like you. And, from the mailing lists above, or other industry events they reference, get to industry events if you can.
Over the years the leading CSR / Sustainability conference organisations Ethical Corporation and Innovation Forum have at times given volunteers free access to their conferences in return for volunteering and assistance at their events. These are a wonderful place to hear the conversation, and perhaps even meet potential hiring managers in industry. And people to ask for coffee with later!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention the UK based Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (especially as they featured me updating on the UK Modern Slavery Act impact for business on one of their podcasts!-Thanks Guys!), so do check it out here for more networking and learning: https://icrs.info/
6. Offer your own offering online: If all this is still failing, remember, you are not alone! It’s good to be wanting to do good work helping cause more of the business respect for Human Rights, Social Impact and/or Environmental Sustainability (SDGs, sorry-more acronyms) that our Society and Planet needs. We are also though in an age of no “iron rice bowl” jobs, yet amazing tools for entrepreneurship! Check out the websites of tutors like Marie Forleo, Mastin Kipp and Denise Duffield Thomas and learn the Jeff Walker “Launch” book approach if you have some sort of skill or experience you could package into something you teach online. People of all ages and backgrounds have been launching successful businesses in this way around subjects they are passionate about. For example, if you spent lots of time in Indonesia, then why not create a small Udemy course on how business people might want to better understand Indonesian culture or current society if they want to improve their ethical trade or human rights efforts with Indonesian suppliers or business partners. Even if your course doesn’t take off, it’s great practice in you learning to teach, to weave together what you know with the business and human rights fundamentals you’ve hopefully been learning above (what’s behind all those Arconyms like UNGPs) and demonstrate to a future employer how you proactively apply your intelligence and get good, innovative work done.
To Conclude: It’s a welcoming community most of the time in the world of business and human rights and Sustainability (we are mostly all pretty passionate about the work, and optimists that we might help make the world a better place), so don’t be afraid to reach out. And if you are rejected, the good news is that people are busy, which means some time soon they might need to hire someone like you! So keep reading, thinking, writing, reaching out, and applying. Any other work you do that might not be business and human rights related is never to your detriment and also helps. Even experience as a Deliveroo cyclist will give you unique insights into the Gig Economy and help you better understand the lawsuits around the human rights issues related to living wage and zero hours contracts which this sort of work raises, yet which are increasingly a part of how business operate. Overall, it’s been exciting over the years to see people I gave advice to early in their career eventually find great roles. Sometimes it takes years, but keep your dream alive and keep reading, learning, writing and applying as it really does pay off. You can find a way. Good luck!!
Next Steps: If you liked this article, and you’d like more:
- I’d be most grateful if you could answer a few quick questions in this survey about what was useful in this article or what you’d love to know more about: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DD7PX8C Thanks!
- I’m running a Facebook group BizHumanRightsCareer which includes some former colleagues from brands, many experts still working on the issues in brands, so a great place to join, post your questions, tag me and I’ll respond or ask colleagues to, learn, and network in the industry! You can join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/335417200713541
- I have a BizHumanRightsCareers group too where I’ve posted more helpful articles, but please comment and tag me if you’d like it to be active! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13758385/
- If fixing Modern Slavery interests you more, we have a larger Linkedin group on that. Again, you need to post articles or comments or questions and tag me if you want input and insights from our interaction: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8483627/
- Other times I just tweet about the issues, and retweet many business human rights posts here: https://twitter.com/KatieAL
- If you want to read more decent work and human rights in global supply chains Insights, check out my other Articles on business Human Rights at https://supplyeschange.com and join my SupplyESChange enewsletter. See my “Scaled Action” page to read about how I advocate we can cause faster improvements to end modern slavery and human rights abuses in supply chains/for the people #WhoMakeOurClothes.
7. We also have an old podcast “Workers Voice” on Apple podcast app which you might enjoy. Thanks for your thoughts on what you’d like to hear when we launch another one soon. Watch this space….!
8. I welcome and give Thanks for your Follows and connects at Linkedin (where I also have more articles you might find helpful reading). I’m https://www.linkedin.com/in/katelarsen/ ; and;
If you really found this helpful, I did this for free, so please consider supporting me on Patreon for a few $ or £ a month at https://www.patreon.com/KateLarsen .
Then I can write, (or podcast?) for you and your questions more often, and better support our voices and efforts to make a difference!
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8. And Pro-bono tech support, potential business partners/team, or Angel investor contacts for ESG AI-NLP Tech tools and other Social Impact products I’m developing with my network are welcomed too!
Thanks for your read and support, and Best Wishes playing your role to support the respect for human rights which helps us all have better lives.
