Acting Responsibly, Driving Accountability

The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is a non-profit organization with a common goal to use shared standards and tools to advance social, ethical, and environmental responsibility in the global electronics supply chain. As a member of RBA – alongside other leading electronics companies – we commit to the responsible business standards of the RBA Code of Conduct. This is part of Dell’s Code of Conduct and Supplier Principles. The RBA code is aligned with internationally recognized frameworks, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Labor Organization (ILO) standards. We ask our suppliers to abide by the RBA Code of Conduct and our Supplier Principles as a condition of doing business with Dell.

Audit findings are going to happen – the key is making sure they don’t happen again. Suppliers are required to create a corrective action plan and root cause analysis to address findings identified during an audit or survey, and we support them along the way. While our audits cover suppliers in multiple tiers of our supply chain, we have also started to assist our first-tier suppliers in monitoring the parts of their own supply chain that Dell does not already audit. Building capabilities for sub-tier SER management is a priority that we believe will strengthen the electronics industry as a whole.

Every year, Dell evaluates supplier risk and develops an annual audit plan for our supplier facilities. During our risk assessment process, we evaluate all direct material suppliers based on geographic location, business relationship, manufacturing processes, past SER performance, and public report. New suppliers undergo a risk assessment during the onboarding process. Based on their assigned risk level, suppliers must conduct an audit based on the RBA Code of Conduct. As a condition of doing business with Dell, these suppliers undergo the same audit and corrective action plan processes as existing Dell suppliers to maintain Dell’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility within the supply chain.

We conduct regular audits assessing occupational hazards across our supply chain in combination with routine employee surveys to raise awareness of health and safety issues amongst our workforce. We also offer a dedicated mobile training program featuring targeted courses and information on important health and safety topics.

Dell’s Supply Chain Sustainability team works closely with procurement teams to monitor social and environmental performance. We incorporate discussions about social and environmental progress in suppliers’ quarterly business reviews to ensure their progress mirrors that of Dell Technologies. Suppliers that fail to take appropriate actions to correct social and environmental audit findings may lose their business with Dell.