Overview

The SRA as a rapid diagnostic tool scores Unit of Assessments according to low, medium, or high risk ratings based on key performance indicators. 

Presence of risk indicators (or incidence of violations to the requirements) could result in medium or high risk ratings for the Unit of Assessment. 

A low risk rating, on the other hand, means there is evidence that the Unit of Assessment has:

• adequate controls to screen out risks of violations to the standards

• procedures to detect issues when they occur and address any deviations resulting from gaps in the business processes

For example, in the SRA, the performance indicators for low risk rating include having established policies and procedures, monitoring and corrective action systems, and other management systems elements.  

For small operations, the management systems may be fairly simple, whereas larger organizations will have more sophisticated processes.

The key measure of whether the system is working is based on how effective the system is at anticipating problems before they happen and addressing the root cause of issues to ensure that they do not happen again.   

The systems approach aligns with the SRA and allows assessors to:

• understand the labor and human rights issues as a problem-situation that emerges from different sources and factors;

• adequately assess whether a Unit of Assessment has all the management systems elements needed for effective implementation of social responsibility standards

Objectives:

• Discuss the value of a systems approach to conducting social responsibility assessments

• Discuss the requirements of intent, implementation, and effectiveness as criteria for determining conformance

• Understand the importance of triangulation for ensuring the conduct of an effective assessment

• Understand multiple data-gathering methods, and use of multiple sources to produce validated findings