CASE STUDY
Creating an engaging human rights e-learning programme for PMI
Overview
Philip Morris International (PMI) approached twentyfifty to develop the content for a business and human rights e-learning programme. Their aim was to bring their ‘Human Rights Commitment’ to life by giving all their employees a clear understanding of what human rights are, how they relate to the business and the wider value chain, and the role of employees in helping to safeguard them. The design objective was to ensure that the e-learning was informative, accessible, and helped employees reflect on what actions they could take in their particular roles.
The challenge
To develop a 30-minute global e-learning programme for all 70,000+ employees to raise awareness of human rights across the business. PMI wanted an interactive, engaging e-learning programme that would emphasise why human rights are important to the business and how to respect them in all steps of the value chain. Aligning the e-learning’s modules with some of PMI’s key salient risks (child labour, forced labour, freedom of association, and environmental stewardship) made it current and relevant to employees.
Our approach
To create the e-learning, we worked in partnership with PMI to develop an architecture that enabled employees to have autonomy over the order in which they completed the sections. The programme included case studies that focused on rightsholders in the value chain and the potential human rights risks that they face. This brought the human rights issues to life and helped learners to see situations from the different perspectives of the people working on a farm, in a factory, in an office and in the local community.
The e-learning programme also helped to engage stakeholders right across the business, providing an introduction to international human rights standards and explaining how PMI addresses risks. It also incorporated time for self-reflection so employees could relate what they had learnt to their own area of work.
Results
- An engaging, 30-minute e-learning programme that has been rolled out globally and received great feedback from employees:
“I found this e-learning very easy to follow as it explains with simple examples such a complex and huge topic like human rights (both in theory and practice). It is user friendly, not too long and not too short, graphically modern, and the voice over is well articulated”. Female employee, Supply Chain, Indonesia - 2021 Brandon Hall Group Gold Excellence award for Best Advance in Custom Content
- It has been integrated into existing learning frameworks across the business and is being translated into 7 languages to enable further understanding and reach.