We've invested heavily in supplier auditing but feel like we're going round in circles. What are we missing?

You're not alone — and you're asking exactly the right question. Across industries, companies that have built sophisticated audit programmes are increasingly finding that the same issues recur year after year, scores inch up marginally, and the cost of maintaining the system grows while confidence in what it's actually telling you diminishes. This is audit fatigue, and it's one of the most common frustrations we hear from companies considering ETI membership.

What's typically missing is the shift from monitoring to meaningful engagement. Audits are transactional: they measure against a standard at a point in time. What drives real change is sustained relationships with suppliers, genuine worker voice, root cause analysis, and the kind of collaborative problem-solving that can only happen when trust exists between buyers, suppliers and workers.

ETI's programmes are specifically designed to make that shift. Our members don't just inspect their supply chains — they work with them. And because ETI brings companies together collectively, you benefit from shared experience, common approaches to systemic issues, and the weight of collective action in ways that no individual audit programme can replicate.

Find out more about ETI's approach to meaningful stakeholder engagement