During April, APSCA continued to leverage a productive March quarter through focused development of an improved Member Application and Auditor Certification Process. The Association also actioned development of an Ethics and Integrity Program with the appointment of an Ethics & Integrity Advisor.

The Association’s President & CEO, Rona Starr commented “Rationalization of our administrative function is critical to the preservation and promotion of our core mission; to enhance the professionalism, consistency and credibility of social compliance auditors. Q1 2018 delivered substantial advancement across the five pillars of our Strategic Plan and will continue to foster industry confidence to better service our Members”.

Auditor Registrations

We are enrolling auditors associated with APSCA Member Firms who are now completing their registration online in APSCA’s data system.  Of our 40 member firms, 13 have completed their auditor registrations representing over 900 auditors. Over 2,500 auditors are scheduled to be fully registered by the end of May 2018.

We encourage our Member Firms to have their auditor’s subscribe to APSCA’s newsletter to stay up to date here. 

Auditor Certification
Last month we shared our progress on Auditor Certification.  We are incorporating the learnings from the China Pilot and working with third party experts to finalize an examination process which is scalable and cost efficient for all.  This requires development of the following:

• Multiple ChoiceShort Answers Exam
  • Working with a third party to convert many short answer questions into multiple choice questions, determining the pass mark and developing a study guide.
• Case Study Exam
  • Further refine the Case Study Exam by reviewing the questions and finalize the on-line platform to track results.
• Interview
  • Refinement of the overarching Case Study and individual scenarios used throughout the face to face interview process, further refine the scoring and the on-line platform to track results.

Applications – Firm Membership
The Executive Board has prioritized development of an enhanced application process for Member Firms effecting a temporary hold on the processing of new member applications until the process has been finalized. 

APSCA Membership has always been accepted on a provisional basis with all member firms required to re-apply following launch of the improved application process.

The new process is expected for release in Q3 2018, following which APSCA will contact all provisional members and pending membership applicants to initiate the revised process.

APSCA Stakeholder Board Developments
Additional to the Executive Board, APSCA is serviced by a dedicated, multi-stakeholder Board with independent, brand, retail and initiative representation. The Stakeholder Board shares three members with the Executive Board and has provided almost three years of support and guidance.  

During April, Mr Jan Furstenborg, announced his retirement from the Stakeholder Board following much thought and deliberation. Mr Furstenborg was ASPCA’s first independent Stakeholder Board member and instrumental in the development of the Competency Framework and Code of Professional Conduct.

Mr Furstenborg has offered to provide ongoing guidance to APSCA on an ad-hoc basis as we continue our growth and development.  We wish Jan the best in his retirement and thank him for his gracious support and willingness to advise APSCA in an ongoing, albeit unofficial capacity. APSCA is pleased to announce that Mr Wesley Wilson has taken the position recently vacated by Mr Furstenborg.

With Mr Darrell Doren stepping down earlier this year and the movement of Mr Wesley Wilson to the role of independent, the Stakeholder Board are pleased to welcome Mr Christian Ewert and Ms Jan Saumweber to the Stakeholder Board with immediate effect.  Mr Ewert is the Director General of amfori, a leading global business association for open and sustainable trade and Ms Saumweber is the SVP Responsible Sourcing for Walmart. To read more about Mr Ewert and Ms Saumweber  click here.

APSCA would like to thank both Jan Furstenborg and Darrell Doren for their years of contribution to the Stakeholder Board and welcome Christian Ewert and Jan Saumweber. ​

Ethics & Integrity Advisor
The process to develop an Ethics & Integrity Program was agreed during the Executive Board meeting this past March.  Tim Lindon has been brought on by APSCA to lead this work and joined as a Senior Advisor. ​

Mr Lindon is a Senior Fellow at the New York University School of Law Program on Compliance and Enforcement, and formerly Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for Philip Morris International.  

According to Mr Lindon, this will include the handling of allegations where APSCA members (firms and auditors) have alleged to have violated APSCA’s Code of Professional Conduct adding “APSCA will implement an ethics and integrity program that is transparent, credible, efficient and workable”.

2018 Annual General Meeting
4 December 2018, 1.00pm – 4.00pm | Hong Kong
 While we will endeavor to accommodate all interested parties, seats will be limited necessitating an allocation for individual organizations.  Further details, including registration information, will be provided in due course. ​

New APSCA Website

APSCA has commenced revision of our website with a view to improve accessibility and member service.  We request your patience while these changes take effect and welcome all input pre and post release.

Out & About
APSCA was recently represented at a series of events including the ELEVATE Leadership Series (22 March 2018 – Sydney, Australia) and the Sedex Conference – Impact Through Leadership (13 & 14 March 2018, London). During the latter, Rona Starr (President & CEO APSCA) participated on the panel ‘Whose responsibility is it to go ‘beyond compliance’?‘. The discussion shared insight into the attainment of social compliance and considered responsibilities for the assurance of sustained compliance ‘beyond the audit’. Panellists also included Jill Tucker (C&A Foundation), Baptiste Carrier-Pradal (Sustainable Apparel Coalition) and Dr Simon Lord (Sime Darby). The full discussion can be viewed via the link below.

Auditor Certification Pilot – China

The 2nd Auditor Certification pilot took place in Shenzhen, China on 7 & 8 March.
We had 48 auditors representing 29 Member Firms over the two days with auditors having a range of experience from just starting in the social compliance industry to 20+ years’ experience.  They all completed the following assessments:

1. Multiple ChoiceShort Answer.
2. Case Study.
3. 3 x Simulated Interviews.

Overall, we received great feedback from the auditors as they were willing to help improve the process.  Day 1 auditors found it challenging to be without their phones all day, however, day 2 auditors were more accepting of the “no phone” rule and came with a great attitude. 
 
Some of the suggestions received:

• Reduce redundancy of some of the online multiple choice short answer questions.
• For Short Answer and Interview format, try to offer guidance on expectations.
• For online exam, group the questions that are similar types: multiple choice / select all that  Apply, short answer.
• Chinese translation should incorporate more technical terms, even including English where appropriate (for example “root cause analysis”). 
• Prefer multiple case studies to test issue identification, rather than in one large case study.       
• Auditors want to complete the exam, which require fewer questions or longer exam time. 
• Interview: allocate briefing and planning time prior to conducting mock interview.
• Provide guidance on how interviews are evaluated.
• Provide better context for the interview and expected outcomes.

Two debrief sessions were held with management of the Member Firms participating in the pilot; one in Shenzhen and one in Hong Kong, which enabled open discussions about the process and where improvements will be made.

All the feedback and exam results are now being collated and further refinement will be made in the coming months.

Thank you to all the auditors for their participation in this important milestone!

Please see our “Certification Pilot” page on our website for more photos of the event:  http://www.theapsca.org/certification-pilot.html

Examiners Invigilators:
Top Left:  Julie Shaw (APSCA), Joe He (Disney), Brian Hui (WRAP), CK Wong (DNV), Glen Si (BV),
​Eric Leung (Hallmark).
​Bottom Left:  Kara Chan (Independent), Snow Sun (Walmart), David Han (LL Bean), Kelvin Ho (Arche Advisors), Tara Holeman (Ethos Matters), Rona Starr (APSCA).

APSCA Auditor Certification Exam
On Thursday 22 March a group of APSCA stakeholders met with Third Party experts on exam preparation, HumRRo, to review the exam questions and results from the recent Auditor Certification Pilot in China .  During this meeting APSCA worked with experts who provided training and guidance on how to enhance the multiple choice/ short answer questions before breaking into 3 groups to work on improving the questions based on recommendations from HumRRo.  We continue to make progress towards our final goal to implement the exam and certifying social compliance auditors.

Sedex Conference – London
​APSCA participated in the recent Sedex Conference in London on 13 & 14 March 2018.  APSCA had a booth at the conference which gave us the opportunity to connect with many of our members who were in attendance, and to meet with others in the industry, providing an update on our progress. 

Rona Starr (APSCA PresidentCEO) and Avedis Seferian (WRAP PresidentCEO and APSCA Executive Board Chair).
(Photo Credit: Stephen D Lawrence Photography) 

 APSCA Executive Board Meeting
​The APSCA Executive Board met in London on 15 & 16 March 2018.

The agenda was extensive and focussed on progress to our strategy – a few highlights were:  debrief on the examination pilot which took place in China the week before, how the registration of auditors was progressing; we have approx. 2500 auditors in our system going through the validation process.  We discussed recommendations for ethics & integrity protocol as well as had a presentation from a recent marketing and communication review.

It was great to have our full Board present for the full 2 day meeting.

From Top Left:  Rona Starr (APSCA PresidentCEO), Avedis Seferian (APSCA Executive Chair), Greg Gardner (Arche Advisors), Petra Herbertz-Crumpler (Walmart), Kevin Franklin (ELEVATE), Rajan Kamalanathan (Bureau Veritas), Frank Dorssers (TÜV Rheinland), Christophe Liebon (Intertek), Fred Waelter (UL), Pierre-Yves Dupont (SGS). 
(Not pictured but also in attendance:  Wesley Wilson (Independent),
Antonio Astone (DNV-GL), Randy Rankin (Independent).

ELEVATE Conference – Sydney
ELEVATE Leadership Series 2018 took place in Sydney on 22 March 2018 which provided the latest progress on the rollout of the Modern Slavery Act in Australia and importantly to equip business to tackle the problem.

APSCA participated on a panel session:  Transparency, Trust and Impact – Partnership Approach to Responsible Supply Chains.  This was an opportunity to share APSCA’s Mission and progress to our strategy. ​

APSCA Support StatementOrganizations providing support via the APSCA Support Statement  (that was launched last year) continues to grow.  These organizations have provided their permission to use their name / logo which you can view on our website:

http://www.theapsca.org/support-statement.html

If you would like to offer your support and have your organization’s name/ logo placed on our website, please let us know by contacting director@theapsca.org.

Out & About
Check out our “Out & About” page for photos from the great events our Members have been part of:   http://www.theapsca.org/out–about.html

Stay Up-To-Date
Visit our website www.theapsca.org to see the work-in-progress and follow us on LinkedIn.

Auditor Certification Pilot – China
The dates for our second Auditor Certification Pilot have been confirmed as 7 & 8 March 2018 in Shenzhen, China.  The pilot will have 48 participants, 24 each day, representing 29 Member Firms.  Upon arrival the participants will be allocated a number and divided into 3 groups, with each group rotating throughout the day to complete the following exams:

1.  Multiple Choice & Short Answer.
2.  Case Studies.
3.  Simulated Interviews.

The simulated interviews will be based on the following scenarios:

1.  Opening Meeting.
2.  Closing Meeting.
3.  Employee Interview.

Following the China pilot, we will be meeting with third party experts to incorporate additional learnings and determine the pass score in preparation for implementation later in 2018.  There are still a number of steps to achieve before we go live – but exciting progress continues!

Look out for our next Newsletter as we share the results of our 2nd pilot in China.

New Member
We are pleased to announce our new member:  Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Ltd (Lloyd’s
Register).
​Welcome to APSCA !l

APSCA Registered Auditors
​We now have approx. 2,500 auditors registered from our 41 Member Firms.  Auditor information received from our Member Firms was assessed and uploaded into APSCA’s data system.  We have begun the process of having those auditors access their account, via a secure password, to complete the registration process.  This involves the completion of an on-line consent to manage their information, signed APSCA Code of Professional Conduct and to upload their image.  Once this is complete each auditor is assigned an APSCA Membership No.  They will be able to access and update their details at any time.  This work is being completed in 3 waves and is estimated to be completed by June 2018.  Following this the public will be able to validate APSCA registered auditors’ key credentials – stay tuned to our Newsletter for an update on when this will be available.

APSCA’s Code of Professional Conduct and Confidentiality Framework Agreement have been sent to all Member Firms for their signature – to review a copy of the Code of Professional Conduct, see our website:

http://www.theapsca.org/working-group.html

2018-2020 Strategy Progress
In the December Newsletter we shared with you APSCA’s Strategy Plan which consists of 5 key pillars:
​·        Validation
·        Governance
·        Compliance
·        Communication
·        Supporting Processes & Systems

We began 2018 with a great start and all elements are on time or in some cases ahead of time, with the only exception being the release of the new Confidentiality Framework Agreement which was delayed by a month due to the Christmas holiday break.

Sedex 2018 Conference
– Come by APSCA’s booth and say “Hi”!
We are proud to be supporting Sedex’s 2018 Conference, which will bring together more than 600 leaders in responsible sourcing for two days’ of discussion, insight, networking and real-world advice, all with the aim of providing practical ways to achieve impact through leadership. If you are going to be there – pop by and see us at our booth!  If you haven’t booked your ticket to secure your place at Europe’s largest responsible sourcing conference in 2018: 13th – 14th March, London, UK – see more at: http://bit.ly/2CDIvB6 

APSCA Support Statement
​Organizations providing support via the APSCA Support Statement  (that was launched last year) continues to grow.  These organizations have provided their permission to use their name / logo which you can view on our website:

http://www.theapsca.org/support-statement.html

If you would like to offer your support and have your organization’s name/ logo placed on our website, please let us know by contacting director@theapsca.org.

Out & About
Check out our “Out & About” page for photos from the great events our Members have been part of:   http://www.theapsca.org/out–about.html

Stay Up-To-Date
Visit our website www.theapsca.org to see the work-in-progress and follow us on LinkedIn.