Key Topic: Steps in an Audit

An audit typically consists of several steps, listed below:

1. Arrival at Worksite: No one at the worksite should be notified in advance that the audit team will visit on a particular day. 
2. Opening Meeting with Management: Explain audit process to worksite managers, including the portions in which management is or is not requested to participate.
3. Walkthrough of Worksite: Observe conditions in the factory and any associated locations such as cafeterias and dormitories. 
4. Worker Interviews: Auditors should always interview members of worker organizations or local worker advocacy groups. Interviews should be conducted without management present, ideally offsite.
5. Management Interviews: Opportunity to corroborate or find discrepancies in information gathered through worker interviews. 
6. Interviews with Labor Brokers and Recruiters: For companies with significant numbers of migrant and contract workers in their supply chains. 
7. Documentation Review: Provide tangible proof of compliance, and to either corroborate or find discrepancies in the information gathered through interviews. 
8. Closing Meeting with Management: Report to management any code violations found in the facility. Request documentation from managers confirming the issues raised in an audit and a step-by-step process for how management is going to address those issues. 
9. Closing Meeting with Workers: Inform workers of audit results and planned follow-up. Managers can also proactively offer to share audit report findings, results, and follow-up plans publicly.
10. Report Preparation: To share findings with stakeholders and to ensure compliance operations survive personnel changes.

For further context, visit ILAB’s Auditing for Child Labor Guide.