Department: Communications & Corporate Affairs
City: Scandicci
State/Province: Firenze
Location: Italy
Company Description
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
Position Overview
The Manager is a key member of Global Citizenship, Worker Well-being team responsible to implement the team’s strategy in Italy with some additional opportunities for global projects. The Manager is the main partner with the sourcing team and suppliers in Italy.
The Manager will conduct human rights due diligence for the region (Italy, Spain, Portugal, UK, Romania) and ensure suppliers comply with our Operating Standards and all applicable laws via our supplier programs for on-boarding, education, auditing and monitoring. The Manager will also lead the implementation of relevant worker well-being initiatives and will be a local resource on social compliance, human rights, and worker-centered industry programs and tools.
We are offering temporary contract that can be converted to permanent after a year.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Conduct human rights due diligence through assessing risk in the region, recommending prevention and mitigation strategies, and ensuring remediation with proper tracking
- Drive supplier improvement and compliance performance through supplier engagement, onsite monitoring, training, and leveraging partnerships like FSLM/SLCP where applicable
- Manage implementation and progress of worker well-being initiatives (i.e., wage management strategy) as needed and continuously stay connected to the industry to present new opportunities
- Proactively connect with local industry experts and peers while staying updated on global trends, new initiatives, and global projects
- Represent the brand and lead participation in regional industry working groups
- Coordinate and lead status updates and engagement meetings with sourcing and production teams
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as Sustainability and Global Expansion to ensure a consistent brand approach with suppliers
- Lead roundtable discussions and trainings with suppliers related to human resource management system capability building
- Conduct regular visits to factory sites which will include some or all of the following:
- Health and safety inspection
- Wage and hour analysis
- CAP verification
- Data gathering
- Worker engagement
- Manage supplier onboarding process for Global Citizenship approval of new supplier requests in region
- Be an expert user of key IT platforms used by the team including, Worldly and Logility
- Maintain exceptional record keeping for all factory visits, calendar, and travel expenses
- Attend meetings via phone and video conference on a regular basis on Eastern Standard Time (EST)
- Support of global team initiatives is required (i.e., upstream human rights due diligence, data analysis outside of region)
Experience, Skills, and Knowledge
- Bachelor’s degree or above in related field and Technical or Auditing Certification
- Minimum 5-7 years of experience preferably in Brands/ buying houses.
- Experience working in an international organization/environment.
- Excellent communication skills, verbal & written
- Attention to detail and strong organizational skills
- Strong interpersonal skills (especially ability to work collaboratively and influence others )
- Ability to manage confidential information with the highest level of integrity is required
- Recognition of the trends in social /Human Rights field and their impact on business performance
- Ability to adapt working style to suit different situations and challenges
- Demonstrated professional ethics & ability to navigate complex issues with contracted suppliers
- High Proficiency in MS Office, especially PowerPoint and Excel
- Ability to manage multiple projects and meet deliverable deadlines with attention to detail
- Experience collaborating with industry partners (associations, memberships)
- Must be self-motivated / self-starter with commitment to superior quality and accuracy
- Willingness to travel throughout Italy and surrounding countries on a regular basis and sometimes on short notice
- Fluency in English both written and verbal required
- Fluency in Italian both written and verbal required