| Due Diligence China Social Assessment Services |
What is a Social Assessment?
What is a Social Assessment?
A social assessment or social due diligence audit assesses existing social liabilities and obligations of a proposed business Merger or Acquisition target or project for an investor or purchaser. A social due diligence audit answers the question for potential investors "What am I letting myself in for?" .
Corporate due diligence has traditionally been undertaken by lawyers or accountants. ERM is experienced in looking beyond financial records and legal issues to identify areas of social risk, based on our knowledge of social liabilities faced by other businesses in the past.
Many businesses are only just beginning to consider the labour and social aspects of their M&A or project, as social risk increases due to today’s faster communications, and in China growing citizen and worker rights awareness. When set against China investment budgets of tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars, investment in a professional assessment of social liabilities and obligations makes sense.
ERM China Social Strategies has both the staff and competence to conduct a number of different due diligence activities that can substantially reduce the risk to business of future liabilities and help you understand your obligations both in the short and long term.
Understanding the social liabilities and obligations of a China investment is every bit as important to business as understanding the financial and environmental ones. However, many clients are only now just beginning to realise that the requirement for social risk assessment goes beyond merely legal and financial due diligence assessment.
Labour law compliance and social issues Due Diligence
For companies looking at an investment and undertaking a “Phase I” environmental assessment.
It is important to understand the environmental liabilities of any future investment, but what about the social ones related to the workforce, neighbourhood and local area?
ERM can conduct a Labour Law Compliance Audit (click here for details) and/or a Baseline Social Assessment.
Assessment of investment compliance with labour regulations
ERM China maintains a regulatory database, and can assess business compliance with a standard suite of Chinese labour laws and regulations (including critical local implementing legislation). We can tailor this service to add other laws or higher sampling when required. For assessment of sensitive Trade Union issues, we can conduct an additional special workshop for facility and HR managers.Pre-Feasibility Studies and Baseline social assessments
Do your or your client understand the impacts and benefits of your infrastructure projects for local communities? Often it is not practical for business to conduct regulatory EIAs (Environmental Impact Assessments) or international ESIAs before committing substantial sums of investment to a project. ERM can conduct a Rapid Social Assessment, possibly as part of a Rapid Environmental and Social Assessment (RESA) to assess impacts, liabilities and obligations. This can save considerable amounts of money for the client by collecting data early that can be used for budgeting purposes as well as direct input to subsequent EIA/ESIAs.
ERM China will assess social issues for a site, neighbourhood and local area. This has been undertaken for clients including ore processing, mining projects, small manufacturing site s. An RSA (or RESA) would automatically include a Baseline Social Assessment. (To read about Social Impact Assessment click here). Contact:
For case studies of ERM’s work in Social Assessment, and Due Diligence or to find out how ERM can help, contact ERM China social consulting. For contact details, please click here.
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