Planning for Impact: Translating Social Responsibility into Good Business Practice

Verité’s solutions-oriented training and consulting programs are designed to provide practical tools, skills, and knowledge to build controls into everyday business practices. 

Our programs help bridge gaps in systems and business processes, overcome implementation obstacles, deepen commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility values, create sustainable improvements, and empower workers to participate in solutions. We provide training to facility staff, brand CSR staff, and auditors throughout the year, all over the world.

IMPACT:

Verité’s training of field staff for one of the world’s largest retailers helped the company move from policing-oriented assessments of its suppliers to performance improvement.

For more information or if you have any questions about our training programs, please contact us here.

Upcoming Trainings

EICC-GeSI Labor & Ethics Lead Auditor Course
Opening for registration soon:
  • Manila, Philippines: July 29 - August 2, 2013 (conducted in English)
  • Seattle, WA, USA: August 12 - 16, 2013 (conducted in English)
  • Mexico City, Mexico: September 9 - 13, 2013 (conducted in Spanish)
  • Shenzhen, China: October 14 - 18, 2013 (conducted in Mandarin)
  • Penang, Malaysia: November 4 - 8, 2013 (conducted in English)
  • Vietnam: December 9 - 13, 2013 (conducted in English)

For Auditors

EICC-GeSI Labor & Ethics Lead Auditor Training
This course provides the competencies necessary to successfully perform Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC)-Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) Validated Audit Process (VAP) audits. The highly interactive five-day workshop covers social systems auditing, investigative skills, management systems, validation, and reporting as well as the EICC-GeSI Validated Audit Process. The course includes an online self-study module covering the background and context of the EICC-GeSI program, common labor issues, compliance and legal standards, and other knowledge content.
Successful completion of this course fulfills the training requirement of IRCA (International Register of Certificated Auditors) for certifying labor and ethics auditors as EICC-GeSI Labor & Ethics Lead Auditors. The workshops are facilitated by expert trainers and former and current EICC auditors.
The Verité Systems Approach to Social Responsibility Workshop
Our three-day experiential workshop introduces a flexible and robust method for handling social and environmental issues. A practical how-to toolkit will enable assessors to:
  • Locate and measure gaps in a supplier’s existing business processes and systems.
  • Understand how specific operational controls screen for compliance risks in a facility’s day-to-day business functions.
  • Lead suppliers in identifying and integrating controls that proactively screen for Code risks.
  • Help suppliers manage risk deeper into the supply chain, preparing them for a self-governing level of social and environmental responsibility.

A customized Systems Approach Guidebook is the central component of a toolkit for creating a common understanding among internal Social Responsibility (SR) staff, business partners of Code requirements, and the management systems that screen out non-compliance with these standards. This book serves as a practical “how-to” manual providing a framework for understanding how to ensure that Code standards are met throughout the employment lifecycle in day-to-day business operations. Besides serving as a practical reference document for SR systems, standards and best practices, the Guidebook also serves as the foundation for orientation seminars and technical capability-building workshops, and offers compatible systems assessment tools for internal, brand, and third-party monitoring.

Lead Auditor Accreditation Training: Investigative Skills Workshop
Our highly interactive, five-day workshop provides accreditation for the social monitoring programs of brands, licensees, and suppliers. Designed for experienced monitors, the class can be customized for a company’s Code of Conduct and audit tools. We build on the experiences of participants to strengthen their skills in identifying, validating, analyzing, and accurately reporting critical workplace conditions as part of a state-of-the-art external monitoring program. The course cuts across sectors and regions by focusing on “how” rather than “what” to look for in assessing the effectiveness of any management system as well as understanding performance gaps at the facility level.

For Brands

Worker Participation
Sustained change requires that workers be full partners in assessing, improving, and maintaining fair, legal, and safe employment practices. We provide training and education programs that provide workers with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to become effective participants in positive change in the workplace. We provide technical training for management and workers, and facilitate the creation of participatory structures and systems that integrate workers into facility monitoring. Training workshops include Code standards, communication, team building, conflict resolution, factory monitoring, reporting, and problem solving.
Worker Empowerment & Skills Training Program
Verité helps workers develop the understanding and skills to participate in improving labor protections in their workplaces by traveling directly to them. Each course series provides essential information, new perspectives, and practical tools for personal and professional development. We’ve engaged 120,000 workers in the last decade on topics including:
  • Code and labor law
  • Avoiding injuryHealth and nutrition
  • Personal finance
  • Harassment
  • Grievance systems
  • Addressing conflict
  • Communication
  • Leadership
In response to factory requests, we’ve added workshops for managers that complement and magnify the impact of our worker courses.

For Suppliers

The Verité Systems Approach to Social Responsibility Workshop
Our two-day practical workshop examines the drivers of social compliance risk in a factory’s current business systems and the operational controls that can proactively manage that risk. Through participatory case studies and other experiential activities, the class focuses on:
  • Analyzing business processes to identify risks of social and environmental noncompliance.
  • Finding solutions that are practical and sustainable.
  • The course is for factory managers, human resources, and Social Responsibility staff. They will be oriented to a practical toolkit that helps them assess their factory functions and integrate appropriate controls.

A customized Systems Approach Guidebook is the central component of a toolkit for creating a common understanding among internal Social Responsibility (SR) staff, business partners of Code requirements, and the management systems that screen out non-compliance with these standards. This book serves as a practical “how-to” manual providing a framework for understanding how to ensure that Code standards are met throughout the employment lifecycle in day-to-day business operations. Besides serving as a practical reference document for SR systems, standards and best practices, the Guidebook also serves as the foundation for orientation seminars and technical capability-building workshops, and offers compatible systems assessment tools for internal, brand, and third-party monitoring.

Read the course description in Chinese here. 在此阅览课程说明。

Performance Improvement Program
This is a flexible and cost-effective assessment, consultation, and capability building engagement based on a continuous improvement model. Verité offers a series of assessment and training programs for individual and groups of suppliers that build the systems, strategies, knowledge, and skills needed to meet the standards of their clients' social and environmental compliance programs. The customized six-to-twelve-month programs are designed to develop understanding of standards and effective management systems and build the analysis and problem solving skills to close compliance gaps and strengthen factory functions to maintain improvements over time.