Today, most employers recognize the economic, reputational and ethical importance – and legal requirement – of safeguarding the health and well-being of their employees. Some 64% of US organizations enhanced their health and well-being offerings in 2024.15 Recent work conducted by SHINE16 and Better Work17 have documented these outcomes. For example, after four years of assessment in Vietnamese garment factories, Better Work’s training and improvements to working conditions were linked to an average increase in profitability of 25%.18 SHINE’s research has similarly shown that improvements in workplace well-being are directly correlated with gains in productivity, retention and resilience.19 This data confirms what many companies have long intuited: health is a driver of business performance. If we make an impact on the top line and not just the bottom line, we can actually help drive business growth. And that’s where you get the arguments around sales, where you get arguments around profitability. And that’s when you get the finance director to wake up. Paul Litchfield, Chief Medical Adviser, Compass Group A quarter of experts, all with professional backgrounds in clinical care, health or health and safety, echoed this view. In interviews, they often cited evidence from their own experience to illustrate the direct link between workforce well-being and organizational performance. The business case for the “duty of care” with the direct workforce has thus been well established.20,21 If health is a multiplier for productivity and essential for resilience, would its value not then apply throughout the supply chain? If so, the next frontier is to extend this logic to supplier and contract labour and to the communities on which supply-chain labour depend. Most corporate investments in workforce health coverage and well-being focus narrowly on directly employed workers. In many global supply chains, a substantial share of labour, including contractors, outsourced personnel and informal workers, lies beyond the corporate payroll and oversight. And yet workers in global supply chains often operate in environments without access to basic healthcare, clean water, adequate sanitation and consistent wages.22 No one should die or get injured when they go to work – that’s the moral argument. What needs to work along with it is the economic one. Sometimes we treat them as though there’s a trade-off. In reality, they go together. Sandro Pettineo, Senior Programme Officer, Employers’ Activities, International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization COVID-19 underscored the risks of poor health access and poor health conditions in this critical workforce. Illness and absenteeism in front-line and production roles created significant operational disruptions.23 The pandemic revealed a crucial weakness in how global supply chains operate and reinforced that the health and safety of supply- chain workers are fundamental to enterprise risk management and operational continuity.24,25 Thus, organizational health and safety strategies will need to evolve to match the realities of modern supply chains. In this context, worker well-being – whether in a factory, farm or freight corridor – is no longer peripheral. It is core to operational continuity. Businesses that fail to account for the health of their full labour ecosystem risk underestimating vulnerabilities and missing opportunities to strengthen performance. Forward-looking companies are beginning to recognize that safeguarding worker health beyond direct employees is an operational differentiator. Firms that invest in the health of their workforce report tangible business returns. Levi Strauss & Co.’s Worker Well-being initiative – active in more than 100 factories across 14 countries – has documented improvements in worker retention and productivity.26 The programme supports factory-led interventions in health, financial literacy and gender equity, and has shown that suppliers who co- funded programmes saw up to a fourfold return on investment.27 An independent evaluation by SHINE further found correlations between factory-level well- being investments and measurable gains in output, engagement and satisfaction.28 Workforce Health Across the Value Chain: Organizational Insights to Mitigate Risk and Create Sustainable Growth 7

Workforce Health Across the Value Chain 2025