This guide builds on the 2024 Pathway to Respecting Human Rights and Addressing Modern Slavery Risks, which outlined ten steps for property and construction businesses and their suppliers to respect human rights and address modern slavery.
The new guide, Impact Metrics for Addressing Modern Slavery in Property and Construction, is for the step after implementation, measuring the real-world impacts of these actions.
Property Council Director National Policy Frankie Muskovic said the report will help transform good intentions into measurable progress.
“While companies across the property industry are taking important steps to address modern slavery risks, measuring the real-world impact of these efforts is vital,” she said.
“Modern slavery is a challenging issue, but going beyond policies and taking action is where we now need to get to.
“You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Working from the positive impact we hope to see on the ground, back to actions that can be taken now, we hope this guide helps the property sector and other industries make a meaningful impact.”
Better Sydney CEO Robin Mellon said: “With Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, international due diligence requirements, and a focus on continuous improvement, it’s vital we measure our progress over time to ensure that we are not just improving our reporting but improving people’s lives.
“These ‘Impact Metrics’ represent a world-leading approach; one that uses the ‘Lived Experience Engagement Spectrum’ developed by the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery to move beyond ‘involvement’ towards ‘collaboration’ and ‘empowerment’.
“This means we can put the voices of those with lived experience of modern slavery, exploitation and vulnerabilities at the heart of what we do.”
Australian Red Cross Senior Manager Modern Slavery Prevention and Response Natalie Maxwell-Davis said: “Centring the voices of people with lived experience in what we do is essential to driving effective action and meaningful change in addressing modern slavery.
“The invaluable insights from the people with lived experience of modern slavery that were consulted in this project allowed us to incorporate practical metrics aimed to drive changes to processes and behaviours and increase protections for workers at risk.”
The Guide is structured around four key impact areas: Governance, Supply Chain, Grievance and Remediation, and Collaboration.
Through actionable targets and indicators of success in each impact area, it enables businesses to understand the performance of their actions in managing modern slavery risks in order to work to improve them. This Guide includes:
- An overview of the relevant impact area and its connection to responsible business practices.
- Clear, actionable targets that organisations can aim for within their operations and supply chains.
- Indicators to measure the success of modern slavery risk management, including action and results-oriented KPIs.
- Best practice examples to demonstrate how organisations can operationalise these goals.
- Practical metrics to measure progress toward the intended goals.
The Property Council would like to thank the members of the Property Council’s Modern Slavery Working Group for their insights and guidance throughout.
Particular thanks go to Robin Mellon (CEO, Better Sydney) for his facilitation of the group; Natalie Maxwell-Davis and Katie Bjorem (Australian Red Cross) for their frontline expertise; and to the individuals with lived experience of exploitation who generously shared their perspectives. Sincere thanks also to Nick Dexter (Edge Impact) for leading the development of the guide.
Discover the ‘Impact Metrics for Addressing Modern Slavery in Property and Construction: A guide to understanding and measuring impacts’ at https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/submissions/human-rights-and-modern-slavery