Doing Human Resource Management Right in The Changing Gems and Jewellery Industry
The gears of the gems and jewellery industry are moving towards sustainability and balancing high demand without putting tremendous pressure on the supply chain. All of these have massive implications for the people involved in every aspect of the jewellery manufacturing process, making it necessary to bring rapid improvement in workforce satisfaction and address the exploitation of people involved in processes like mining.
Fine jewellery in itself, is an everlasting asset, but its production and distribution are known to cause sustainability concerns. Now, when we think about sustainability the first thing that comes to mind is the environment, and although mining raises ecological problems, the cost of extracting each gemstone or precious metal goes way beyond that. Each diamond has a story, and more often than not it’s riddled with issues.
Then there is also an additional dimension of emerging technology and its impact on people involved in the production and trade processes, measures for tracing the source of raw materials, increasing the efficiency of establishing standards for responsible sourcing, and measuring the effectiveness of such standards. At the same time, ethical and responsible sourcing is fairly simple. As a manufacturer or as a consumer one needs to dig deeper than the on-paper standards to encourage methods of production that keep people and the environment at the forefront. As consciousness becomes an essential factor in a consumer’s buying decisions, leading jewellery brands across the world are getting on board for fulfilling and improvising the fair trade practices in the industry.
Impact Of ESG Goals
As there are several economies across the world going through rapid development, the demand for assets like jewellery is evolving rapidly as well. In such a market, to ensure that the burgeoning demand doesn’t put unprecedented pressure on resources, both natural and human, it’s essential to establish ESG or Environmental, Social, and Governance goals. The industry is mostly divided into brands that have embarked on the sustainability journey to win the confidence of their stakeholders while others tune into their ESG goals with values and measurable goals at the core of their working, giving them an edge over the others. As per the Jewelry Industry Thematic ESG Report 2023, the trends for sustainable jewellery gear toward ethical sourcing and fair pricing, and zoom in on transparent practices in the supply chain.
The ESG goals stretch further than financials and the health impact when it comes to the human factor, it covers aspects like diversity and gender equality, in strife to make the industry truly inclusive.
Leading The Responsibility Front With DEI Initiatives
DEI Initiatives or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives are designed to address discrimination, biases, and marginalization issues and improve the overall work culture of an industry. This holds for the craftspeople, artisans, and labourers of the jewellery industry as well. These practices improve the work satisfaction rate and also reduce barriers to entry for the marginalised segments in an industry. For instance, SJMA’s (Surat Jewellery Manufacturers Association) initiative to make it easier for women to get information about the roles the industry offers through counseling programs and to make it possible for women to build a career in the jewellery industry. While these initiatives tie well with good human resource management practices, they also quite naturally translate into better productivity, more efficiency, and an increase in the overall confidence of employees in an establishment.
Introduction Of Tech
The jewellery industry has come under massive scrutiny since knowledge about blood diamonds or conflict diamonds and child labour and environmental concerns about gold mining have become widespread. This has pushed the industry to bring about innovations that would address the concerns and align with the ethics of the new-age consumer. This has led to technological progressions like lab-grown diamonds which act as an antidote to exploitation in the mining industry. Lab-grown diamonds have made it possible to produce diamonds that are eco-conscious, ethical, and accessible. As the more aware segment of consumers is increasingly signing up for lab-grown diamonds, this jewellery tech revolution has turned the tide for the industry, also making the biggest brands in the world champion lab-grown diamonds. As these brands are also the ones with the most complex and difficult to manage supply chains, major innovations like these help deal with the impact of a changing jewellery market on the workforce.
Alongside this, several tech innovations like CAD and 3D modelling have increased the efficiency of manufacturing processes, making it easier to meet the growing demand for jewellery.
Tracking The Human Cost Of Greenwashing
On the surface, creating and buying truly sustainable and ethical jewellery might seem simple enough but alongside the supply chain difficulties that involves thousands of players, transparency concerns are one of the biggest concerns of the responsible jewellery industry. With increasing consumer interest in sustainable jewellery several brands have jumped on the bandwagon without really putting in the effort to ensure transparency at each stage. Greenwashing has a major human cost as it not only harms the values of a consumer wanting to invest in responsible jewellery, it also encourages a brand that may not follow the best practices when it comes to building better lives for their workforce. Hence, thorough research on a consumer’s part and the establishment of reliable councils that can give certifications to genuine responsible jewellery brands is essential to prevent the practice of greenwashing as the sustainable jewellery space grows.
The ‘Human’ Factor In Building Something Truly Ethical
Responsible jewellery is the true essence of jewellery by the people and for the people who are conscious of the minutest consequences of each action. Therefore it’s essential to factor in the human cost behind each piece of jewellery. The concerns that conflict diamonds cause for miners and the people who inhabit the area are massive, so nothing can be sustainable without being sustainable for the human stakeholders.