The dilemma: Nearly 300 million migrant workers in China work far from their hometowns, families and children. They usually work well over 70 hours per week, most of them six days a week. Most of them are undereducated and remain so due to a lack of money and time for education, as well as chronic fatigue because of their permanent state of exhaustion. Migrant workers live in a vicious social cycle, and a systemic way to escape has not existed to date.

GSN has broken up this vicious social cycle with TRI-MONY: its radical eco-social business concept. One systemic element of this concept entails a company’s profit being divided into three equal parts. One-third is still reserved for the shareholder or company owner as a personal dividend. The other two-thirds are strictly designated to finance the company's radical commitment to corporate social responsibility (= activities inside the company) and corporate citizenship (= activities in society).

RADICAL CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

The concept of a living wage was implemented at GSN Shenzhen in late 2018. Since then, migrant workers at GSN have been earning a living wage. Based on 40 working hours per week, this living wage is high enough to let migrant workers participate in the life of society in a dignified way. This alone reduces worker fatigue and exhaustion and increases their motivation. Surprisingly, GSN even experienced an increase in work efficiency that more than offset the additional costs incurred by the living wage. This exceeded the management’s expectation and produced a status quo at which social investment creates additional efficiency for the company. In a nutshell: The company’s investment ultimately incurs no additional cost, a fantastic win-win situation.

RADICAL CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP

One activity within GSN’s CC program is The See your Child program, which is described here: https://gsn.cn.com/what-we-do-for-the-community. Its effect is a better social prognosis for the children of migrant workers as well as much higher motivation for migrant workers to work at GSN and to increase GSN’s competitiveness. As a result, GSN staff fluctuation has decreased to almost zero, keeping valuable expertise within the company.

THE IMPACT: A MINOR MIRACLE

More motivated and relaxed thanks to a new two-day weekend and work-free evenings during the week, migrant workers at GSN embarked upon different kinds of self-education, partially supported by GSN. After a few years, this voluntary investment in their self-education potentially raises their level of professional qualification and enables migrant workers to achieve better career opportunities, whether in their hometowns or at GSN. Consequently, migrant workers at GSN climb the social ladder and have the chance to live with their children and families again.

Miraculously, the TRI-MONY systemic eco-social business concept and its implementation at GSN are breaking up the vicious social cycle faced by migrant workers. We invite everyone to copy this fantastic system and willingly exchange information with other stakeholders.

TRI-MONY creates these advantages in a simple way:

•    A social investment by a corporation generates monetary profits that more than offset the investment

•    Employee turnover drops and the company retains valuable expertise

•    The company becomes an attractive employer

•    The company’s sales prices become more competitive after a short time

•    Migrant workers receive a salary that respects their dignity

•    The children of migrant workers have much more intensive social contact with their parents and vice versa

•    Migrant workers experience social advancement

•    After an estimated three years, additional education for migrant workers gives them the chance to be promoted at GSN or to find jobs close to or in their hometowns – reuniting families.