German and European Supply Chain Due Diligence
New and expected laws in Europe will cause the upgrade of due diligence programmes to be far more robust and valuable to truly identify ESG risks in the supply chain. No longer will a simple screening of a database suffice as due diligence.
These new laws will directly or indirectly affect any company or a supplier to any company operating in Europe.
Speeki has the answer to supply chain compliance and due diligence, globally.
For over 20 years, our experts at Speeki have been delivering solutions to conduct reviews, due diligence, audits and investigations on suppliers as they relate to ESG issues. We have the depth of experience and knowledge to add value to this process with a range of end-to-end solutions to meet the requirements of the regulations and add value to the business.
Supplier due diligence programme analysis, build and monitoring.
For most companies, their due diligence on suppliers is lacking. We can build an entire system to cover all key risks that impact your supply chain across the ESG spectrum, including human rights and environmental issues.
Software for questionnaires, surveys and data gathering
The Speeki Platform can be used to engage with suppliers with questionnaires and disclosures. Use the platform to collect data, push out training, request disclosures and receive incidents and feedback.
Supplier training and awareness and eLearning solutions
Part of the solution is engaging better with your suppliers. Taking them along the road to uplevel their own compliance and approach to ESG. We have ready-made eLearning that can be launched to help educate the supply chain.
Risk Assessments, DD analysis and ESG audits of suppliers
There will be a need for a very detailed risk assessment across your supply chain. Not every supplier should receive the same level of focus or due diligence. We can help risk rate, sort and identify key areas to focus.
'Due Diligence' means a lot of things. Based on risk, different solutions might be needed.
At the end of the day, your role is to remove the risk of suppliers engaging in certain unethical activity (e.g corruption, human rights abuses, environmental damage, etc.). In selecting a supplier, you need the data on which to make an informed decision about whether the supplier is engaged in such activity 'or could be'. How much data you need and how comfortable you are very much comes down to understanding and appreciating ESG risk. It is essential to have a workable and effective supplier due diligence and selection programme.
Lighter Options.
Due Diligence might simply be a questionnaire or signed disclosures from the supplier or some special contractual language. It may extend to screening them against certain databases, media reports or reviewing some of their policies and procedures to manage their own risks.
Heavier options.
You may need to go further in your fact gathering to conduct a background check, interviews, site visits, deep dives into their procedures, an audit, training or require them to obtain certain certifications or ratings.
Due diligence insights
Explore our expert articles on due diligence
You need to work out which ESG areas are a risk in each supplier and how that risk could impact you.
While human rights, corruption, and environmental issues are the subject of most regulations, you also need to know if your supplier is going to breach confidentiality, steal your IP, misuse your private information, be open to hacking or data loss, run an unsafe workplace, lack in governance, or engage in modern-day slavery or illegal pay practices.
We follow a framework to build a programme for you to solve this problem
You will need a programme to manage this huge challenge. We have a system to build a programme known as Engage. We will help you implement your programme to meet all the legal requirements and also your business ones. Have the programme embedded in your supply chain management function to assess ESG risks in your supply chain.
We have technology solutions ready to deploy to help in key aspects of the programme
Every programme needs some technology. That could be as simple as some risk spreadsheets, pivot tables, visualisation software like PowerBI, a survey & disclosure tool, a learning management system. Some of that technology Speeki can provide and some we can recommend from our partners.
Content and guidance on risk
Risk in the supply chain is often hard to predict and identify. It may take some deeper analysis through interviews, meetings, location tours, research, inspections, or even a full audit. It may be simple desk-based research or the reliance on self disclosure from the supplier. Either way, your risk identification skills, risk management and ESG risk knowledge will need to be enhanced.
Andrew Henderson
Andrew has been a leader in the third party due diligence area for over a decade. He understands the needs of companies to conduct due diligence in a way that is effective and timely. He has designed, implemented and reviewed programmes across a range of risk areas including anti-corruption, human rights, environmental and money laundering/financial fraud.
Some of the ways that Speeki can help you are listed below.
Speeki knows ESG. We know risk and we know how to identify it, manage it, and leverage it. We are experts at building solutions to meet due diligence requirements and supplier selection. Our experts have been doing it for over 20 years. Some of the key areas where we can help are shown here, but our expertise is broad and solutions are best identified after doing an initial needs analysis workshop of your current and future plans on supplier management.
There is a lot of work to build a comprehensive programme around supplier due diligence and onboarding. Speeki will follow a framework that we created called 'Engage' that is a step-by-step way to build a programme and make sure it is valuable to the business as well as meets regulatory needs.
A big element of supplier risk management is an understanding of risk. Many supply chain professionals have not considered ESG risks beyond perhaps sanctions and corruption controls. Our services extend to detailed risk assessments in supplier categories and classifying risk around ESG areas.
Many companies have some form of supplier risk model in place and some form of due diligence being conducted, even if it is a simple questionnaire or webform collecting information. Speeki can review your existing processes and provide a gap analysis and areas for improvement to upscale the activity to meet the new rules and best practices.
Your suppliers may also need some guidance on ESG risks. While the main obligation is on themselves to do their own training, it is advisable to make training available to your suppliers on key topics that are relevant to them in so far as it relates to their provision of products or services to you. Speeki has ready made training on key issues and can develop custom courses.
It is most likely that for at least your higher risk suppliers you will need to conduct some deeper dive audits on key areas of the ESG spectrum that relates to them. Speeki conducts audits on suppliers in areas including governance, ethics, compliance, anti-corruption, sanctions, human rights, modern-day slavery, and many others in partnership with other content providers as required.
Much of the current legislation requires an incident reporting system to allow anyone to report issues about the suppliers (or your company). A separate incident management system is often required to simplify reporting issues. Speeki has a comprehensive App driven reporting system for suppliers to use and report issues on any ESG topic with a simple 'click of a button'.
Speeki is the solution for managing your ESG initiatives in one place.
