Global supply chain due diligence can be an overwhelming puzzle for companies to solve on their own. Programs are complicated by complex supply chains and a regulatory landscape that is evolving in response to modern product compliance and corporate social responsibility concerns. Companies often lack the awareness, funding or resources to overcome these barriers—despite increased scrutiny from external stakeholders and the risks associated with non-compliance.
Failing to comply with product compliance and human rights regulations can cause significant pain for your company and brand, including reputational damage, legal penalties, fines and lack of access to global markets. In order to minimize these risks, more and more companies are choosing to work with a compliance partner to help them assess risk, automate data collection and manage their compliance programs from a true software platform.
Finding Hidden Risks
Multinational corporations fall under the scope of a range of regulations, but they sometimes lack the awareness to identify certain risks, even if their compliance programs are otherwise comprehensive. When it comes to procurement, many make the mistake of believing the complexity in their vendor networks diminishes the responsibility they have in keeping it free of bribery and corruption, for example, and fail to perform effective oversight into their vendors’ activities.
Supply chains are regulated with a range of international laws that engage modern slavery, conflict mineral, anti-bribery and anti-corruption standards. Failure to comply can cost your company millions in fines. A partner like Assent can ensure you’re always aware of these risks, simplifying supplier engagement at a fraction of the cost it would take to execute the initiative through internal resources.
Protecting Your Reputation
The fines and legal penalties associated with non-compliance can be hefty, but damage to a brand’s reputation can take years to repair. Although a company might satisfy mandatory compliance requirements from a legal point of view, that doesn’t protect it from the pressure it may receive from external stakeholders such as NGOs, consumers and investors.
For example, under the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, a company must report on its efforts to reduce human trafficking and forced labor, but they are not required to prove these rights abuses do not occur in their supply chain. Proper due diligence and supply chain engagement help companies mitigate their risks of these activities occurring in their supply chains, thereby achieving both compliance with the law and brand protection by prioritizing human rights.
Is your company aware of the risks associated with non-compliance? Learn from industry best-practices in the whitepaper, Regulatory Enforcement: A Case Study Review of Non-Compliance Risks.
Ensuring Products Get to Market
The Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation is always changing due to an expanding list of substances of very high concern (SVHCs). If a product is manufactured using any of these SVHCs, it can be restricted from entering the European marketplace, leading to lost contracts, revenue and production costs. Because the SVHC list grows consistently, companies are often not up-to-date on current compliance standards.
A compliance partner can save companies from investing millions of dollars into a product that may ultimately never gain market access in Europe. Guidance from regulatory experts will ensure your company is always aware of new SVHCs, while automated supply chain engagement streamlines vendor communications and facilitates access to vitally-important compliance data.
Guidance, Engagement and Education
The global marketplace is home to a diverse network of regulations designed to protect human dignity and the environment. A compliance partner can provide regulatory guidance to help your company determine which regulations its products are in scope of, and keep you informed as those laws evolve and expand. It can automate and streamline supplier engagement so your company has more efficient interactions with its vendors—which means better data.
Every day, more companies decide to enhance their programs by working with a compliance partner like Assent. Assent Compliance has the most comprehensive suite of compliance modules available. We work with 33 percent of Fortune 500 companies, helping hundreds of thousands of products enter the global marketplace successfully and engaging over 280,000 suppliers along the way.
Assent enhances its services by providing leadership and guidance through an expansive set of learning materials that is always growing to keep pace with the regulatory landscape. From a range of free supplementary resources (i.e. FAQs, eBooks, whitepapers) to the industry’s most comprehensive compliance learning management system in the Assent University Classroom, Assent facilitates continued compliance education, increasing the efficiency of internal teams and improving the quality of data mined from supply chains.
For more information about the risks in your supply chain and the consequences associated with non-compliance, read our whitepaper ‘Regulatory Enforcement: A Case Study Review of Non-Compliance Risks.’
If you have any questions or concerns, email our compliance experts at info@assentcompliance.com.