Development of Social Responsibility Guidelines and
Audit for US multinational company with operations in Asia.
Background: Our client, a multinational, publicly-traded manufacturer
and distributor with a nationally-recognized brand desired to develop a comprehensive
and proactive approach to Social Responsibility.
Any mistreatment or
substandard working conditions is against the client’s ethical standards and could
irreparably harm their brand image with customers, thus, resulting in bad
publicity and lower sales revenue. Client was increasingly concerned they lacked visibility to how
employees are treated in their Asian facility and the facilities of their Asian
vendors.
Client has been conducting ad hoc audits using US personnel who focused on portions of Social Responsibility,
but client desired a more comprehensive process of conducting audits and
effecting meaningful change while reducing their corporate risk and costs of
compliance.
East West was engaged by client to first, help client customize a comprehensive policy based on client’s existing Ethical Standards and Guiding Principles. Second, develop an audit standard to use when
evaluating facility’s adherence to policy and guidelines. Third, implement audit processes in Asia to
effect meaningful change with continuous improvement.
Challenge: Integrate
client’s existing Guiding Principals
and published Ethical Standards to
build audit tools used to gather information.
Develop plan and business process to accommodate client’s need for transparency,
policy adherence and continuous improvement.
Reduce client’s cost of compliance while improving effectiveness and
minimizing risks.
Solution: EWA recommended and performed a multi step approach:
East West US operations
- Conduct 2-day Social Responsibility discovery
session with client to determine how best to use existing Guiding Principals and Ethical Standards in creating a
comprehensive policy.
- Using East West existing audit outlines,
customize audit documents to accommodate all items in client’s existing
policies.
- Develop defined Corporate Social Responsibility audit process for Asian facility and vendors.
East West China Operations
- Reviewed policies and audit guidelines for
clarity and workability in China.
- Develop audit schedule which accommodates client’s
requirements to include compliance and continuous improvement.
- Conduct audits and report findings to client. Include results, comments, follow-up
dates and commitments.
- Correct identified problems at the facilities of
the vendors.
- Illustrate compliance trends for subsequent
audits
Result: Relationship is ongoing
with the audits on schedule. Cost of
compliance was reduced since East West uses Asian personnel to augment client’s
Western personnel and client has been able to reduce number of Asian trips by
US employees.
Client is better equipped to understand
its progress with respect to Social Responsibility. Client felt that East West delivered a comprehensive system
customized to their needs and interests to effect the desired changes. Client believes that employees are better
treated with safer working conditions and risk of exposure to unethical
employment treatment has been reduced, thus addressing their concern of bad
publicity by the local and Western media and government officials.
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