Ethical Toy Program leads the way on audit integrity monitoring

The Ethical Toy Program’s new online auditor assessment tool enables factories to share feedback on auditors’ performance and integrity issues. Ethical Toy Program – the leading responsible sourcing program for the global toy industry – has developed an auditor assessment tool to enable toy factories to evaluate, and feedback on, the performance of on-site auditors. This online assessment tool is the first of its kind for factories undergoing social compliance audits.Factories offer unique insights into the performance and conduct of auditors during the audit process. Ethical Toy Program’s new auditor assessment tool enables factories to both evaluate and feedback on the performance of on-site auditors which audit their facility.The auditor assessment tool is integrated into the Ethical Toy Program’s responsible sourcing platform, Connect. Factories are required to complete the auditor assessment for every audit they undergo.As well as providing an anonymous, numerical assessment, factories can also request a confidential follow-up call from Ethical Toy Program to report concerns relating to quality or integrity issues. The assessment tool is easy to use, and all feedback received is anonymous and strictly confidential.Since the function was launched at the end of March, the Ethical Toy Program has received over 1,100 auditor assessments from factories around the world.“Auditor integrity sits at the heart of the Ethical Toy Program, and we expect all our accredited third party audit partners to adhere to the highest standards of professional ethics. Our new auditor assessment lets factories take an active role in assessing auditor performance, adding an extra layer of monitoring and transparency to our program” said Carmel Giblin, CEO and President at Ethical Toy Program.“This extra layer of transparency helps us ensure that all audits conducted by Ethical Toy Program accredited audit firms are of a consistently high quality, and also guards against unprofessional auditor conduct” she continued.The Ethical Toy Program conducts quarterly KPI reviews of all Ethical Toy Program accredited audit firms to monitor their performance to ensure all audits are of the highest standard. The analysis of anonymous feedback gathered from factories will be included in the KPI reviews in order to provide a complete picture of audit firm performance.The Ethical Toy Program continues to work with external stakeholders to champion best practice and to strengthen the integrity of third party audits. The Ethical Toy Program is an active participant in Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors (APSCA) working groups to both define and develop capabilities for auditors addressing integrity and other social compliance issues.