Senior Specialist, Multinational Enterprises Programme
International Labour Office
Emily Sims is a Senior Specialist in the ILO Programme on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy. She is the manager of the ILO Helpdesk for Business, which provides guidance to company managers and workers about how to apply the principles of international labour standards in company operations, including supply chains.
Emily is trained at the graduate level in both law and economics (Juris Doctor, Yale Law School; MSc in economics, London School of Economics). She began her career in the ILO in 1994 in the Standards Department, where she was responsible for evaluating governments’ compliance with ratified conventions concerning employment creation and human resources development; and for research on the link between international labour standards and economic growth in developing countries.
In 2002, Emily moved to the Enterprise Department to do research on the link between international labour standards and productivity and competitiveness, collaborating with the Asian Productivity Organization network of business school researchers. Her research now focuses on the potential synergies between public regulation of the workplace and company and industry social responsibility initiatives; and on how financial markets are using international labour standards in their investment decisions. She is the author of numerous articles and co-author of two books: Corporate Success through People and Labour-Management Cooperation in SMEs: Forms and Factors.
Emily has also been involved in drafting of the labour component of various key CSR instruments: update of the ILO MNE Declaration (2006), ISO 26000, update of the OECD Guidelines (2011); UN Guiding Principles (2008, 2011). She has also provided technical assistance to a range of industry and multi-stakeholder initiatives. She is also a faculty member at Bocconi Business School in Milan, Italy, for the Master in Green Management, Energy and Corporate Social Responsibility, which is ranked No. 1 in the world.