Social audits, explained.

Most buyers receive audit reports and few are ever told how to read one. This post is written from the audited side of the table, which is an unusual angle and a useful one.

What they look at

The common programmes differ in emphasis but overlap heavily: working hours and wages against the law and against records, health and safety, freedom of association, no child or forced labour, management systems, and in the wider audits, environment and business integrity. Our facility is audited under amfori BSCI, SMETA 4-Pillar and the SCAN supply-chain security programme; certificate and report references are available to buyers on request.

How a factory prepares

Honestly, the preparation is mostly filing. Records have to exist, agree with each other and be findable: time records against payroll, training against roles, machine maintenance against machines. An audit rarely discovers something the management did not know; it discovers what the paperwork cannot support.

An audit measures whether your records can prove what you already believe.

Reading a finding

A report with zero findings should raise an eyebrow, not lower one. Findings are graded, and most are administrative: a missing signature, a sign in the wrong language, a register updated late. What matters is the grade, whether the same finding repeats across cycles, and whether corrective actions close on time. A repeat minor is a worse signal than a one-off major that was fixed.

What an audit is not

It is a sample taken on one or two days, not continuous supervision, and it is not a quality inspection. It says nothing about whether your shoes will be well made. Treat it as the floor a supplier must clear, then judge the making separately.

We would rather send you the full report, findings included, than a summary page with a logo on it. Ask for the whole thing, from any supplier.