If your business works with a supply chain, supply chain management is essential for ensuring customer satisfaction, keeping operational costs to a minimum, and perhaps — most importantly — mitigating supply chain risks.
From health and safety hazards to data breaches, compliance risks, corruption and bribery and environmental issues, supply chain risks come in many different forms. And if risks are realised, your business might face some serious consequences.
Without adequate policies and procedures in place to protect workers from harm and ensure your business operations are ethical, sustainable and profitable, your business might find itself on the receiving end of legal fines and penalties, reputational damage and financial difficulties.
But with supply chain risk management services, you can easily ensure your entire supply chain not only complies with but goes above and beyond risk management regulations. Supply chain risk management services such as accreditation schemes and credential management services can help you manage risks across a wide range of criteria and achieve consistency and efficiency throughout your supply chain.
With the right tools, supply chain risk management becomes a much more manageable task, and your supply chain can become safe, increasingly profitable, reliable and sustainable. Your supply chain can even become a valuable asset for attracting investors, conscious customers and employees, giving your business a more competitive edge.
As a leading provider of risk management services, CHAS has seen firsthand how the right services can help businesses thrive. So in this post, we’ve broken down exactly how supply chain risk management services can help you drive business success.
Save Time and Money
Mitigating supply chain risks is a big task that can require a lot of time, effort and involvement from different personnel and supply chain partners. Supply chain risk management services take on some of the responsibility, saving you both time and money.
For example, by signing up as a CHAS client and selecting accredited contractors through the CHAS Client portal, you can save time and money on contractor assessments. You can find contractors who have already demonstrated their compliance in different areas of risk management. Accredited contractors have the knowledge, experience and qualifications needed to help you implement supply chain risk management strategies and comply with important legislation. And with the CHAS alert system, you’ll be notified in real-time if the compliance status of contractors changes.
Similarly, with credential management systems, a digital wallet that allows you to see the identity of contractors and their eligibility to work, you can make sure any workers involved in your supply chain are legitimate without having to manually check the status of every worker.
Protect Your Revenue and Reputation
Ineffective supply chain risk management compromises both your revenue and reputation. For example, health and safety incidents can result in business operations being paused; your business may need to cover sick pay, legal fines or pay compensation; and reputational damage can stem from bad press or supply chain delays.
Similarly, environmental issues as a result of your business operations, data breaches and employee welfare can also lead to fines and negative publicity, damaging your brand extensively. Investors may be deterred; your sales may take a hit; and customers are likely to lose trust in your business.
Supply chain risk management services make it easier for you to identify, assess and monitor risks and take preventative action to prevent hazards from causing incidents, protecting your business from financial and reputational damage.
Book a callback to learn more about our compliance and supply chain risk management services.
Avoid Legal Fines and Penalties
Managing supply chain risks isn’t just good business; it’s your legal responsibility. There are many different laws and regulations your business needs to abide by, including legislation regarding health and safety, environmental and social responsibility, corruption and financial activities.
Breaching laws and regulations can result in fines, penalties and even imprisonment. And with supply chain standards becoming stricter, prosecutions and fines are on the rise. So protecting your business from legal liabilities is more important than ever, and supply chain risk management services can help you ensure and demonstrate compliance.
Prevent Labour Exploitation in Your Supply Chain
Your business has a moral and legal obligation to prevent labour exploitation. Modern slavery is a very real issue and one that all businesses should be tackling. The construction industry has been named as one of the sectors most prone to exploitation, and construction firms in particular need to be aware of exploitation so they can take steps to monitor, assess and prevent risks of modern slavery.
But regardless of industry, almost any business that’s part of a supply chain will need to comply with the Modern Slavery Act (MSA 2015). Failure to do so can result in strict legal sanctions, fines and imprisonment, not to mention reputational damage and loss of customer confidence and market share.
Supply chain management services make it easier to spot and stop exploitation in its tracks. For example, CHAS services allow you to keep track of workers’ rights to work and the credentials of companies and individuals, helping you identify bogus self-employment. And by using supply chain risk management services to ensure ethical procurement activities, you can protect your business, encourage investments and improve employee satisfaction and morale.
Combat Corruption and Bribery
Bribery and corruption is an issue that businesses, employees and governing bodies are becoming increasingly aware of, and so regulations are now enforced more strictly than ever to prevent unethical business practices.
Under the Bribery Act 2010, if you can’t prove that you have adequate procedures in place to combat corruption, you’re guilty of failing to prevent bribery and you can face unlimited fines.
While awareness of the need to tackle bribery and corruption is on the increase, few organisations have the knowledge or resources to effectively vet individual contractors. Bribery and corruption compliance is just one of the areas monitored through CHAS’ supply chain management services.
Strengthen Your Supply Chain With CHAS Risk Management Services
CHAS is the UK’s foremost authority on supply chain risk management. We offer a range of products and services that can help you mitigate supply chain risks and ensure compliance throughout your business.
Contractors can join CHAS and gain access to accreditation schemes, business shield support, insurance solutions, training modules, risk assessment templates and more. As a CHAS Contractor, you can gain accreditation in up to 12 areas of risk management with the Common Assessment Standard, demonstrate your competence and compliance to CHAS Clients and prequalify for thousands of projects.
As a client, you can join CHAS for free and start accessing industry-leading supply chain risk management services straight away. You’ll get real-time alerts about the compliance statuses of your supply chain partners, and you can easily find contractors who are suitably qualified and experienced for your projects.
If you’re ready to start mitigating your supply chain risks with leading solutions, contact us today and our team of risk management experts will help you find the best solution for your business.
