Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment

Launched in May 2016, the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment is a collaboration between leading companies and expert organisations to drive positive change in the way that migrant workers are recruited. 

Developed as an initiative of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, the Leadership Group operates as a company-led collective advocacy platform harnessing the leverage of major international brands to promote responsible recruitment practices amongst business, the recruitment industry, and government. All corporate members of the Leadership Group are publicly committed to the Employer Pays Principle and its implementation throughout their supply chains. Together, our mission is bold - the total eradication of recruitment fees being charged to workers anywhere by 2026.

The Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment aims to drive positive change in the international recruitment industry and a global prohibition of recruitment fees being paid by workers.

In particular we work to:

Create Demand for responsible recruitment by raising awareness about the positive benefits of ethical practices and developing tools to help companies implement the Employer Pays Principle

Increase Supply of ethically sourced labour by creating an enabling environment and supporting the development and implementation of systems to identify and use ethical recruitment agencies

Improve protection for migrant workers through effective regulation

Read our Theory of Change and LGRR Action Groups Report.

Reflecting the Dhaka Principles for Migration with Dignity, the Employer Pays Principle is a commitment to ensure that no worker should pay for a job and is increasingly being adopted by companies across a range of industry sectors and locations. Adoption of the Employer Pays Principle across all industries is fundamental to combatting exploitation, forced labour, and trafficking of migrant workers in global supply chains and represents an important step in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of decent work for all.

Corporate Members and Institutional Partners

Contact for the Leadership Group

For more details of the Leadership Group and how to become a member, please contact IHRB’s Head of Migrant Workers Programme Neill Wilkins.