When Audits Said “All Clear,” Workers Told a Different Story

How the WELL Survey Uncovered Hidden Risks Missed by Audits in Over 50 Electronics Suppliers

Background

A multinational electronics company deployed the WELL Survey across more than 50 suppliers that had already passed traditional social audits. The goal was to compare audit findings with direct worker experience.

• Client: Global electronics company

• Locations: 50+ Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers across China, India, Vietnam, Romania, Malaysia ++

• Tools Used: WELL Survey deployed via the WOVO Engage Dashboard

• Goal: Validate audit results and obtain an accurate, worker-driven view of human rights risks.

The Challenge: Despite Positive Audit Results, the Brand Suspected Gaps in Visibility

• Inconsistent grievance channels across suppliers

• Low worker trust in existing reporting mechanisms

• Audit interviews failing to capture systemic recruitment fee issues

• A need for “between-audit” visibility and validation of real-time risk

   

Our Solution: Deploy the WELL Worker Survey

Labor Solutions implemented a worker-centric, globally consistent human rights survey tailored to regional risks.

Key solution elements included:

• WELL Survey deployed across 50+ suppliers

  • Standardized core indicators for comparability

  • Localized indicators for region-specific risks

  • Experience-based questions workers understood and trusted

• Full deployment support across all countries

• Real-time analytics using the WOVO Engage Dashboard

Results: The WELL Survey revealed significant issues that audits had entirely missed.

Despite strong audit performance, the WELL Survey exposed systemic risks that audits had failed to detect in almost every supplier.

• Workers at 35% of suppliers reported illegal recruitment fees, despite passing audits

• 27% of suppliers showing low worker engagement, driven by unclear or mistrusted grievance channels

• Previously undiscovered issues including:

  • Fear of retaliation

  • Inaccessible grievance systems

  • Supervisory misconduct

  • Localized risks in working hours, recruitment, and harassment

These insights enabled the brand to quickly identify high-risk sites, develop targeted remediation plans, and shift from audit-only compliance to continuous, worker-informed risk visibility. 

The brand was able to:

• Identify high-risk sites within days, not months

• Launch targeted remediation plans faster

• Compare risks across regions and supplier levels

• Provide suppliers with actionable insights backed by worker dat

Why the WELL Survey Worked: Key Success Factors 

Global Consistency + Local Relevance: One Framework, Country-Specific Insights 

The WELL Survey provided a standardized global structure covering core human rights topics—health & safety, access to remedy, harassment & abuse, and worker engagement—while allowing tailored indicators based on regional risks: 

• Working hours focus for China 

• Responsible recruitment for Malaysia and Romania 

• Working environment and supervisory conduct for India 

This combination ensures comparability across countries and actionable insights within each region. 

Worker-Centric, Industry-Refined Questions: Revealing the Reality Behind Compliance 

Experience-based Questions

Unlike audits, the WELL Survey uses: 

• Neutral, experience-based questions 

• Clear language tailored to frontline workers 

• Scenario prompts that help workers reflect on real experiences 

This approach encourages authentic, accurate feedback, revealing issues that often go unreported during interviews. 

Deployment Support That Ensured High Engagement + Powered True Insights 

Labor Solutions delivered full implementation support across all 50+ suppliers, ensuring:

• Consistent rollout

• Strong worker participation

• Representative data across multiple countries

WELL Survey Deployment Support

Implementation Steps

1. Conducted onboarding with each supplier in local languages

2. Customized survey modules by country (working hours, recruitment etc.)

3. Launched WELL Survey simultaneously across all regions

4. Collected worker responses anonymously through QR codes.

5. Analyzed data via WOVO Dashboard and built heatmap visualizations

6. Shared supplier-level insights with the brand for remediation pl

Real-Time, Actionable Insight Through WOVO Dashboard

The brand’s team accessed results instantly via the WOVO Dashboard, enabling them launch surveys simultaneously across multiple countries and languages to gain immediate visibility into:

• Priority issues across countries

• Visualize risk levels through a supplier heatmap 

• Compare priority issues across sites and regions 

• Share insights directly with suppliers for follow-up 

This enabled action plans within days, not after the next audit cycle.

Immediate Impact + Remediation

Using worker-level insights that were previously inaccessible, the brand has decided to conduct supplier self assessmentss and action plans.

This project demonstrated that even well-established audit programs can miss systemic, persistent issues and reaffirmed that worker-driven data is essential to effective, modern due diligence. 

Interested in exploreing The WELL Survey for your Organization?