ONLINE SELF-ASSESSMENT FOR FLA'S UNIVERSITY LICENSEES
This online self-assessment is geared towards the FLA’s university licensees, particularly, Category C licensees participating in the Enhanced Licensee Program. For more information about this program (and the FLA’s Licensee Programs including the different categories), please visit the FLA website at www.fairlabor.org. 

GENERAL OBJECTIVE
Companies enrolled in the FLA's Enhanced Licensee Program, particularly Category C Licensees, often have limited resources to ensure compliance with workplace codes of conduct. Furthermore, their relationships to their suppliers varies tremendously, ranging from owning a factory to being indirectly linked to the production facilities of the goods they procure. 

The Licensee Profile and Self-Assessment (LPSA) takes these differences into account and aims to provide an accurate indication of the company’s compliance program at the moment the LPSA is taken. It also serves as an instrument to help develop a capacity building plan, which will allow the company to improve its compliance level. While the tools will be open to all licensees eventually, we anticipate focusing mainly on Category C Licensees initially as they are the next category of licensees requiring fuller integration into the FLA.

The information gathered through this tool will be made available to the licensee, the FLA and the licensee's participating university licensors (and licensing agents CLC and LRG), in order to help assess the licensee's compliance level and required next steps.

To cover a range of different business models, there are seven different versions available of the LPSA and it covers situations in which a company owns its factories or one that works through agents etc. The results of all tools look similar and are easily comparable.

LICENSEE PROFILE AND SELF-ASSESSMENT (LPSA) OF COMPLIANCE CAPACITY

Every LPSA has two parts:

1. A very general profile (“PROFILE”) of the company’s size and business model and sourcing practices. 

2. The second part, the Self-Assessment, refers to the obligations the Licensee has committed to fulfill by joining the FLA and assesses the level of compliance with these obligations. The Self-Assessment will measure the licensee’s existing level of involvement with/commitment to the following company obligations identified as the priorities for C licensees initially:

•      Adopt and Communicate the Code
•      Train internal staff on compliance.
•      Conduct internal monitoring.
•      Collect and manage compliance information.
•      Remediate in a timely manner.

Each of these obligations will be measured through 5 sections with questions, which will generate a scale from 1-5 for each section, (with 5 being the most desirable scenario, and 1 indicating much work needs to be done).

INITIATING CAPACITY BUILDING
The results of the LPSA are the starting point of a capacity building process geared towards improving the company’s compliance level. The automated LPSA Results Email proposes tools and training that can help the licensee improve its compliance, which vary depending on results. A starting point of these tools will be the Licensee Toolkit and Resource Center, in-person orientations and more focused trainings on specific company obligations or code of conduct elements.

Ideally, the licensee will repeat the self-assessment on a regular basis (e.g. annually), which allows the licensee, the FLA, and the licensee's universities and agents to observe the development of the company’s compliance program and its implementation at the company and supplier levels.

FLA VERIFICATION & DUE DILIGENCE
Although the LPSA is a self-assessment tool, due diligence on the part of the FLA is not neglected. For example, companies indicating that they discuss working conditions in their contracts with factories will be asked to submit a copy of their contract so that the FLA can verify the information, or report to the universities in cases where the companies give inaccurate information on their compliance level. Category C Licensees will be randomly selected for such verification on a periodic basis and visits to US company headquarters and facilities (initially) began in Fall 2008 and will continue. In addition, the FLA has begun rolling a sample of Category C licensees into FLA's Independent External Monitoring (IEM) Program in 2009.  

To access the LPSA questionnaire please click here.