The Workers Protocol (WP)
The quantification of the workers' added value exists, restlessly collected through the data of their continuous efforts. Unfortunately, it is systematically interpreted as a group metric, feeding collective statistics where individuality becomes invisible.
Beyond resulting in unfair work environments, the issue of industrial KPIs reducing individuals to group statistics deprives workers of their sovereignty over the ownership of their own data.
For instance, when KPIs are based on the group (production line output), one underperforming worker impacts the KPIs of all workers in that line.
If the data of one underperforming worker is collected independently from its co-line workers, one is able to isolate the issue and remove the worker from that workstation to train them or re-assign them to an easier workstation.
The immediate results would be a fair working environment and increased efficiency.
Ultimately, group-based KPIs and statistics also generate a lack of visibility to the end consumer.
The Workers Protocol is a digital solution aiming to amplify a simple truth that our experience managing African factories has taught us over the years: workers need a purpose as much as they need a job.
The Workers Protocol (WP) will consist of three components:
1) An on-chain worker’s profile used as the identifier:
The worker’s profile's main role consists in collecting and displaying the professional achievements of workers on a user-friendly interface.
It also acts as a KPIs tracker and enables a bonus system based on performance that abolishes underperformance punishments and uses smart-contract automatic rewards instead.
Incentives could be free transportation, training, free housing, salary bonuses etc… directly linked to the progression registered on the worker’s profile and triggered automatically.
The WP eventually gives birth to a virtuous circle of motivation and incentives.
2) An on-chain product profile used as an end-user interface that connects consumers and workers in a P-to-P fashion:
As a consumer buying a t-shirt, for example, product statistics and data are available to me. I know how many t-shirts like mine were produced, how fast, where they were shipped, what countries buy them most etc… and most importantly what workers participated in manufacturing my product.
I would then have access to the information of the workers’ profiles (whatever the workers chose to share publicly)
This system results in the highest degree possible of product traceability and transparency.
It also participates in customer awareness-raising; statistics of workers' produced goods can be quite impressive and unexpected to the consumer who will see the value of a garment in terms of hard work and beyond the price.
Finally, the WP extends the possibilities for innovation as a new digital solution. A peer-to-peer tipping system is our 1st effective innovation made possible by the Workers Protocole.
As a consumer buying a t-shirt again and with access to such detailed information about the supply chain, I can choose to tip workers that have been working on my t-shirt. I can directly tip a worker from my consumers' wallet to the workers’ account resulting in potential income growth for factory workers.
3) A Gamified system for the workers, capitalising on the ROX of the video-game Industry:
Video games have an extra fun factor and a degree of involvement that have elevated the industry above all others in the past decade. Battle-tested and proven mechanisms have become industry standards that have inspired the design of the WP.
The WP uses playful and addictive experience points and progression systems and level-ups to build a real sense of career-building. Objective oriented stimulations as such generate engagement and retention as opposed to the turn-over that is frequently plaguing the manufacturing industry.
Goals to achieve are clear and immutable to workers, rewarded when accomplished and saved for posterity. Workers are now in possession of a database of their contributions to the collective and to the industry that allows the quantification of their added value, giving them their market worth and tools to better leverage their experiences.
This proposal is part of Waya Collective in the sense of being a building block of it and therefore developed within the Waya framework. However, it is an independent solution that will be made available to the ecosystem and benefit everyone.
Waya Collective
Waya Collective is a DAO built on Cardano with the aim to leapfrog industrialization by building a new economy. Starting in Africa, Waya builds new industries from the ground up and utilises Cardano to scale across the world.
OWNERSHIP:
The WP puts the philosophy around products into a new perspective: A customer-centric product development is as important as a worker-centric product production.
Its purpose is to promote empowerment and protect the worker against the possibility of modern slavery through increased visibility
SOCIAL EQUITY:
The WP tends toward a more inclusive world and a meritocratic environment through individual rewards replacing opaque group rewards (and too often punishments)
Beyond workers’ empowerment, it also spearheads women empowerment (traditionally not vocal in Africa) by quantifying their value through the exact same metrics as men workers.
Finally, the peer-to-peer tipping service from end-user to worker contributes to bridging the purchase-power gap between social classes.
SCALABLE:
The WP is open-source and complements existing ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning systems) for easy adoption by factories and playful for easy adoption by workers. The core mechanisms are adaptable in any industry beyond Waya Collective and beyond textile.
WIN-WIN-WIN:
While workers benefit from increased protection and empowerment, collectives benefit from more accurate data and increased reactivity and end-users benefit from more transparency.
ADOPTION:
A new tool also implies additional and specific training of workers and management for its adoption which we at Waya are designing and will provide as part of the Knowledge Sharing Protocol (KSP, see Waya’s White Paper).
In addition, piercing through the dusty armour of the industry status-quo to empower the workers requires pulling back some sleeves. We will use Waya’s 1st owned factory to battle-test and validate the WP as a reliable and effective tool.
OPERATIONAL:
For the WP to be effective it needs consistency. Creating and implementing standards and routines in the workflow of a factory is one of the challenges that need to be addressed. These standards and routines will be shared within the Waya network the same way worker training will be implemented, using the KSP.
Also, unexpected and unidentified bottlenecks will appear due to the novelty of the WP. They will be tackled with immediate damage control solutions first, before being examined for a root cause and countered with a long term action plan.
PROTECTION of Workers:
To be realistic and sincere in our belief that the WP is a digital solution plainly benefiting the workers, we have the responsibility to be careful in giving workers online and on-chain exposure.
Even if the WP is conceived with privacy risks being a priority concern from the get-go, workers' training will have to account for the importance of SSI as well as privacy risks awareness.
Enterprise Operating System (<https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/400976>)