Through the Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment (FAIR, phase II) supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the ILO developed a strategy for engaging employers of domestic workers and increasing their awareness of recruitment-related abuses, targeting employers of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong (China). 

First, a behavioural experiment was carried out in the form of an online randomised control trial (RCT) in collaboration with the University of Geneva to test what message frame can best influence employers of domestic workers in their choice of an agency. The behavioural levers identified in the experiment, and presented in Behavioural insights in employers’ choice of recruitment services for domestic work, were used to inform the content of a campaign targeting employers of domestic workers. 

Second, an immersive experience was created in the form of an online gamified website www.thehiringchallenge.org, produced in collaboration with Rights Exposure. The website is a key milestone of the ILO campaign that places the viewer in the shoes of an employer of domestic workers in Hong Kong. Videos promoting the website were produced using the message frames identified in the behavioural experiment.  

The webinar brought together the experts involved in research, production and dissemination of this innovative campaign which draws on Behavioural insights to effect a change in demand in the complex market of recruitment providers in Hong Kong. 

The webinar aimed to encourage the use of more innovative methods to advance the fair recruitment agenda, which is intimately linked to the elimination of forced labour and trafficking in persons. 

The exchange of experiences and discussions aimed to increase the understanding of Behavioural science approaches as part of strategies to prevent recruitment abuses and abuses to decent work, in the aim of informing future interventions designed by stakeholders including ILO staff and constituents, UN, government, private sector, and civil society organisations.  

The webinar was also an opportunity to reflect on the application of behavioural science and innovation, two workstreams of the UN Secretary-General’s Quintet of Change highlighted in Our Common Agenda as two capabilities that will help accelerate progress towards the SDGs. 

The webinar was facilitated by Ms. Miriam Boudraa (ITC-ILO Turin), moderated by Ms. Gaëla Roudy Fraser (ILO, Geneva), and featured presentations by Ms. Ayaka Suzuki (Executive Office of the Secretary-General, United Nations, New York), Ms. Claire Hobden (ILO, Geneva), and Mr. Robert Godden (Rights Exposure Ltd, London).

If you miss the webinar you can still increase your understanding of these new and innovative approaches! Check out the recording of the meeting in English or French.