People
The second pillar in the fashion business is “People”. This pillar is also known as the Social pillar. The social pillar cares about implementing social welfare measures. For example, companies are less likely to be profitable if they lack the support of their employees, the communities in which they operate and other stakeholders. Businesses benefit when they care about the welfare of their employees. In order to improve employee welfare, companies should set flexible working hours and provide adequate leave. In addition, companies offer reasonable salaries, and they should also provide adequate learning and development opportunities to improve the skills of their employees. Finally, governments and organizations need to be vigilant in eliminating unfair practices such as child labour and exploitation of workers in the production and supply chain (Colson, 2022).
When it comes to Gen Z, many people first think of a variation on the stereotype that “young people spend too much time on their phones. However, Gen Z is becoming an increasingly important part of the workforce. In terms of purchasing power and disposable income, Gen Z is becoming increasingly influential. With the impact of COVID-19, people have experienced a recession. The effects of the recession lasted for years and severely impacted the job market. This ripple effect on attitudes toward higher education and the popularity of specific disciplines, products or services. Today’s Gen Z are more likely to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Math) disciplines. This has led to Gen Z’s strong belief in social causes and corporate responsibility (Bewicke, 2022).
Brands need to focus more on personalized experiences and rewards to engage Gen Z. Gen Z wants to see the value of what they buy. If brands combine special offers and rewards with social media, they can better reach Gen Z’s target audience. Also, Gen Z is very interested in social media and some influencers. Giving relevant influencers their unique referral code and sharing it with their followers is a highly promising promotional marketing campaign (Bewicke, 2022). Gen Z is more interested in the concept of metaverse and more open to metaverse and its related new technologies. 61.6% of Gen Z say they are familiar with the concept of metaverse, compared to 39.5% of Millennials. Brands and retailers should take full advantage of this phenomenon now to make their promotions （Bespoke and Moran, 2022)
The fashion brand ‘The Reformation’ is a great example of how to respond to diversity. In last year’s report, The Reformation joined the Fair Labor Association in 2021, and they are committed to expanding programs that support workers and protect their rights with the support and cooperation of labour associations and their members. They advocate for basic sustenance and self-sufficiency for all workers. The Reformation completed a significant pay increase in 2021 and will continue this work in 2022 and beyond. In early 2022, The Reformation partnered with Mathison, a platform for diversity hiring and retention. Mathison has a lot to offer their teams in learning, best practice development, and practical recruiting support to ensure they’re reaching a more diverse workforce. Also in the supply chain, they work with a very large number of partners to ensure corporate transparency so that the company remains responsible and sustainable in its values. This guarantees fair labour rights, such as the prohibition of child labour and forced labour, among others （thereformation.com).
If a fashion company wants to be successful, it needs to first connect its employees to meaningful work, and secondly ensure that the company creates a very strong sense of belonging. This is the only way to know the values and perspectives of company’s employees. Understand what employees really experience and feel in their personal and professional lives, and build a positive strategy to respond to their true feelings and experiences internally. At the same time companies need to increase the pipeline of diverse talent and increase senior representation within the company. Secondly, efforts to address the skills gap of employees are very important for companies, and diversity talent recruitment has always been a challenge for companies. Therefore, companies need to expand the scope of recruiting diverse talent by partnering with some external companies and organizations. In e-commerce, companies are more interested in finding employees with a combination of fashion and technology backgrounds. The fashion industry is a very international industry, and in order to interact with consumers, companies need to reach out to more native speakers than ever before, as well as communicate with fashion talent from different places （McKinsey & Company, 2022, pp. 109-111)
Reference:
Colson, D. (2 February 2022) The Three Pillars of Sustainability: Economic, Social And Environment. Available at: https://www.transformationholdings.com/corporate-sustainability/3-pillars-sustainability/ (Accessed: 12 Oct 2022)
Fig 1, Inclusion Europe. (2022) The European Pillar of Social Rights Available at: http://www.inclusion-europe.eu/social-pillar/ (Accessed: 12 Oct 2022)
Bewicke, H. (12 September 2022) Gen Z consumer behaviour: What you need to know. Available at: https://www.talon.one/blog/gen-z-consumer-behavior-what-you-need-to-know (Accessed: 12 Oct 2022)
thereformation.com (2022) THE SUSTAINBILITY REPORT: 2021 YEAR IN REVIEW. Available at: https://www.thereformation.com/sustainability-report-q4.html (Accessed: 16 Oct 2022)
McKinsey & Company (2022) The State of Fashion 2022. Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/state%20of%20fashion/2022/the-state-of-fashion-2022.pdf (Accessed: 16 Oct 2022)
Bespoke, D and Moran, G. (2022) Gen Z and Millennials 2022. Available at: https://www.drapersonline.com/guides/gen-z-and-millennials-2022 (Accessed: 16 Oct 2022)