Decent Work and Social Auditing Senior Coordinator

Decent Work and Social Auditing Senior Coordinator

Starting Date: Early January 2025

Contract type: Full-time and open-ended

Salary (yearly): if hired in London (office) – 47’200 GBP, if in Delhi (office) – 2'466'550 INR, if in Lahore (office) - 5'491'950 PKR, if in Izmir (remote) - 76'500 TRY, if in Lund (remote) 50'000 SEK, if in Amsterdam (remote) - 50'000 EUR, commensurate with relevant experience and skills

Location: London, UK (preferred), while exceptional candidates will be considered from the following locations: Izmir, Türkiye; Lahore, Pakistan; Delhi, India; Lund, Sweden; Amsterdam, Netherlands.

About the Job

Are you passionate about promoting decent work and improving social auditing practices? As our Decent Work and Social Auditing Senior Coordinator, you'll play a key role in Better Cotton’s certification programme. You'll be responsible for providing technical input, developing tools, and ensuring that our social auditing processes are top-notch.

In this role, you'll work closely with various teams to support our mission of promoting decent work. You'll have the opportunity to collaborate with experts in the field, share your knowledge, and contribute to the continuous improvement of our new certification programme. We're looking for someone who is enthusiastic, detail-oriented, and committed to making a positive impact. If you have experience in social auditing and a passion for promoting decent work, we'd love to hear from you!

What will you do

In this role, you will be responsible for:

Standard Setting, Policy Development and Alignment:

• Provide technical input during the periodic review of Better Cotton Principles and Criteria.
• Establish minimum compliance criteria for the Decent Work Principle under the Better Cotton Standard, with a defined process for potential derogations based on diverse country contexts.
• Design tools and methodologies to audit decent work indicators, including for worker interviews, document reviews, and site visits. Ensure ethical compliance and accurate assessment of working conditions.
• Monitor trends and emerging best practices in social auditing, advising both internal teams and Certification Bodies on process enhancements and audit improvements.

Assurance Capacity Strengthening and Oversight

• Monitor and strengthen the capacity of Certification Bodies and second-party Better Cotton assessors to conduct credible and effective social audits.
• Lead calibration exercises with Certification Bodies to ensure consistent understanding and grading of decent work indicators.
• Ensure the overall credibility of Better Cotton’s social auditing and certification programme by maintaining high standards in audit processes and outcomes.

Risk Management and Mitigation:

• Develop and maintain a risk management framework, prioritizing high-risk regions for enhanced social auditing. This will involve maintaining an accurate understanding of contextual decent work risks and challenges and advising on context-specific adaptations to the auditing methodology.
• Regularly review audit outcomes to identify and log recurring risks, adapting social auditing methodologies as necessary to address these vulnerabilities.
• Ensure that incident management processes include timely escalation, response, and remediation of high-risk issues related to worker welfare and labour rights.

Communication and Reporting:

• Ensuring that assurance, risk and incidents data is duly processed with the lessons learned informing continuous improvement across the organisation.

About you

You will ensure the credibility and compliance of Better Cotton’s social auditing programme, providing technical input, developing tools, overseeing risk management, and supporting Certification Bodies and assessors. The ideal candidate will have a solid background in social auditing and a deep commitment to promoting labour rights, especially within the agricultural sector.

You should bring experience in implementing social auditing frameworks, designing strategies to address labour rights incidents, or actively managing such incidents, as well as a proven ability to collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders. As a strategic, rightsholder-focused professional with a commitment to compliance and keen attention to detail, you will lead initiatives to improve working conditions and promote sustainable, fair, and safe labour practices in cotton-farming communities, ensuring alignment with our standards while prioritising the needs of rightsholders.

To be successful in this role, you will bring the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

Technical Knowledge:

• In-depth understanding of decent work principles, labour rights, and social auditing methodologies.
• Experience in identifying root causes of labour rights risks and designing effective verification approaches.
• Familiarity with how other certification schemes address decent work challenges, manage incidents, and implement remediation processes is an asset. This includes awareness of different frameworks for handling labour rights violations, corrective actions, and monitoring progress.
• Master's degree in human rights, international development, sustainability, or related fields, or equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in developing and implementing social auditing frameworks, managing compliance standards, training auditors and overseeing complex audit processes.

Communication and Coordination Skills:

• Excellent cross-functional coordination skills, with the ability to align initiatives with the organisation’s broader roadmap for decent work.
• Strong verbal and written communication abilities to convey complex concepts to diverse audiences, including non-expert stakeholders.
• Experience working in multi-cultural and international settings.

Analytical Skills:

• Strong analytical skills to interpret audit data, assess compliance risks, and implement effective corrective actions.
• Ability to proactively identify risks and create tailored solutions to improve audit and monitoring practices.

Project Management:

• Proven project management experience, with the ability to prioritize tasks and manage deadlines effectively.

Language and IT Skills:

• Fluency in English is required; additional languages relevant to Better Cotton’s work (e.g., French, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu) are a strong asset.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Salesforce and other audit-related tools.

What we offer

• Hybrid working – Two to three days/week in the offices central London, Delhi or Lahore
• The opportunity to work from anywhere in the world for up to one month per year
• Flexible working, with core hours from 10 am to 4 pm local time
• Continuous learning and development
• 25 days paid annual leave, plus 8-9 Bank Holidays and a further 3 days off offered during year-end festive season
• Enhanced parental leave and benefits
• A warm, positive working environment where everyone is valued
• The opportunity to make your mark and make a difference.

Working arrangements

The position is full-time (40 hours per week) and will be based in London (preferred location). Exceptional candidates will be considered from the following locations: Izmir, Türkiye; Lahore, Pakistan; Delhi, India; Lund, Sweden; Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Better Cotton offers flexible working, with core hours being 10 am – 4 pm.

The position might require some international travel.

Apply now

Send us your CV (2 pages maximum) and a brief cover (motivation) letter (1-page maximum) by or before 08.12.2024 via this link.

In your cover (motivation) letter, please include an explanation of why your experience is specifically relevant to this role at Better Cotton. We want to see your personal style – what makes you tick and why you think your next opportunity is here with us.

Our hiring process

Initial Screening: Applicant screening is a crucial step in our recruitment process. This stage may involve a brief phone interview or video call to evaluate your suitability for the position. During this screening, we review resumes and cover letters, and may conduct initial background checks to narrow down the pool of applicants. Internal candidates are encouraged to inform their line manager about their application to promote transparency and help facilitate a smooth transition if selected.

Interviews:

If you successfully pass the initial screening, you will be invited for interviews. The interview process at Better Cotton may include one or more rounds of interviews with various stakeholders, such as the hiring manager, team members, and potentially senior management. As an internal candidate, you may have discussions regarding your current responsibilities and how they will transition to the new position.

Assessment and Testing: Depending on the role, you might be required to complete assessments, technical tests, or skills evaluations to gauge your competency and suitability for the position. Internal candidates may have the option to demonstrate their existing skills through current job performance or past project outcomes.

Reference Checks:

Once you progress further in the process, reference checks are conducted to validate your work history, skills, and qualifications, and for some roles, your education and criminal history. Internal candidates may be asked for references from current or previous supervisors within Better Cotton to provide insights into their performance and capabilities.

After completing interviews, assessments, and reference checks, the hiring team evaluates your performance and fit for the role. If you are selected and your references are relevant and satisfactory, you will receive a formal job offer letter outlining the terms of employment, compensation, benefits, and any other relevant details. For internal candidates, the offer process may include a discussion about how your transition to the new role will be managed and any support needed for a smooth handover.

About Better Cotton

Better Cotton is a global not-for-profit organization supporting the production of more equitable and sustainable cotton at farm level. We exist to catalyse the cotton farming community with partners, governments and others to continuously drive positive impact by setting standards and facilitating the supply and demand of more sustainable cotton from farm to brand. In just 15 years we have aligned more than a fifth of the world’s cotton with our standard and helped farmers and farming communities thrive. Join us in building a better, more sustainable future for cotton worldwide.

About our Values

The post holder will be expected to operate in line with our workplace values which are:

• Trustworthy (including honest, transparent, credible)
• As having Integrity (including responsible, authentic)
• Positive (including problem-solving, pragmatic)
• Engaging (including adaptable, inclusive, holistic)
• Daring (including courageous, innovative, game-changing)

Better Cotton is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to good practice and transparency in the management of natural, human, and financial resources.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to any attitudes or behaviours that put children or adults at risk of harm. Safeguarding incidents are acts of serious misconduct and are grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including, dismissal and referral to relevant authorities for criminal prosecution. Therefore, all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks.