Audit, Findings, and Remediation
Social Audit
A structured review of workplace conditions and controls against labor, ethics, health and safety, and related expectations.
Definition
A social audit is a review process used to test whether a site is meeting defined requirements. It often includes document review, site walkthroughs, worker interviews, and management interviews.
It gives teams a snapshot of conditions at a point in time. That snapshot can be useful, but it should always be read with its limits in mind.
How this source informs this section
SMETA Audit Overview
SMETA is a strong reference for what a social audit typically includes in scope, methodology, and follow-up structure.
Why it matters
Audits still sit at the center of many responsible sourcing programs, so teams need to know what they are good at: identifying visible gaps, creating a findings record, and starting corrective action.
They also matter because audit results often drive prioritization, supplier conversations, and business consequences even when the audit does not capture the whole picture.
How this source informs this section
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
OECD guidance is useful because it places audits inside a broader due-diligence system rather than treating them as the whole program.
Nuance
A clean social audit does not prove a site is low risk forever. Some issues are hidden, coached, or highly dependent on worker trust and timing.
The most useful teams treat the audit as one input alongside grievance data, worker voice, historical patterns, and supplier context.
How this source informs this section
SMETA Audit Overview
Audit-methodology context supports reading the report as a point-in-time input with known limits rather than a complete judgment about actual conditions.
Sources
SMETA Audit Overview
Sedex · methodology
Used here for how SMETA describes audit scope, records review, worker interviews, findings, and corrective action plan (CAP) follow-up.
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
OECD · guidance
OECD's core guidance on how companies identify risk, prioritize, respond, track follow-up, and communicate what changed.
