Assessments
Assessments are an important element of any responsible sourcing program. They help to establish the level of compliance at a factory in order to establish the potential risk associated with manufacturing at that facility.
Assessments on their own are limited in their ability to support sustained factory improvement on identified issues. An effective Responsible Sourcing Program pairs assessments with additional initiatives to support factory improvement to working conditions.
Transparency
ELEVATE advocates that transparency is a critical success factor for all assessments. Without transparency, there is limited insight into the risks and scope of issues and no real basis by which to determine what needs to be done or what constitutes improvement.
Our assessments are executed by local, well trained and experienced field staff who have a clear understanding of regional and country specific trends and challenges. Our people are focused and calibrated to conduct superior assessments that establish an accurate view of working conditions, with an unrelenting commitment to quality and integrity.
Assessments are typically executed against company and/or industry codes of conduct (COC) and local labor laws using our experienced in-country staff. The structure of each assessment is adjusted to meet client objectives, unique country challenges, and any work site history that may be available.
Assessments generally include
- an opening and closing meeting with management
- visual/physical inspection
- document/records review, and
- confidential worker interviews.
Assessment + Services
ELEVATE is an industry leader in the “Audit Plus” approach. To maximize the impact of assessments, we provide the following integrated services:
- Corrective Action Plan (CAP) Management to support factory development of realistic and effective improvement plans
- Worker Surveys help to understand the worker perspective and opportunities to improve worker-management relationship
Factory Performance Improvement
We provide a blend of consulting, coaching, classroom training and in-factory support to help factories develop the awareness, capacity to act, business case and mindset to improve working conditions. In-factory support can range from intensive six or twelve month, deep-dive factory improvement program for a factory that is particularly important to the customer, to a less intense, more scalable issue-specific program for larger groups of factories.
Program Support
ELEVATE can also provide local, dedicated staff to a particular client in order to provide cost effective on the ground support for Responsible Sourcing efforts.