Human Rights Capacity Diagnostic
Welcome to the Human Rights Capacity Diagnostic (HRCD) – a short self assessment of your company’s management capacity to respect human rights and conduct ongoing due diligence. If you are familiar with the tool and want to get started right away, click the button below. If this is the first time you are using the tool, please read the following introductory information.
What is the HRCD and why should I use it?
The Human Rights Capacity Diagnostic (HRCD) is intended to help you
assess and improve your company’s management capacity to identify and manage
its potential and actual human rights impacts.
- start conversations about human rights due diligence within your business;
- assess the capacity of the business to fulfil the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and undertake human rights due diligence as described by the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and other frameworks;
- get guidance on how to take your management capacity to the next level – through designing or improving policies and management processes, engaging stakeholders and rightsholders, building staff awareness and knowledge, improving your communication and more;
- establish priorities, targets and aspirations for your management of human rights impacts, and performance appropriate to your industry, size, geographical spread and other risk factors;
- compare the management capacity of different business units or subsidiaries within the company to manage human rights impacts;
- monitor your progress and improvement over time.
The HRCD (formerly Organisational Capacity Assessment Instrument, OCAI) has been developed by management consultancy twentyfifty ltd. based on over a decade of experience of supporting leading multinationals to implement human rights due diligence. It also builds on work with the Business and Human Rights Peer Learning Group of the Global Compact Network Germany. Its development has been funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
How does the HRCD work?
The HRCD is a self-assessment instrument with 23 questions centred on the major elements of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights as outlined in the UN Guiding Principles. The corporate responsibility to respect is a global standard of expected conduct for all businesses regardless of size or where they operate. Fulfilling this basic social expectation requires embedding respect for human rights within the business through adequate policies and structures, due diligence and remediation processes. The HRC Diagnostic can be used to shed light on whether that embedding is underway, and what steps to take to further strengthen it.
The questions in the HRCD are divided into five sections: policy commitment, assessing risks and impacts, integrating and embedding respect for human rights, tracking and communicating performance and grievance and remedy.
When filling in the HRCD you evaluate where your company currently
stands within a spectrum from “Non-responsive” to “Demonstrating
Leadership”:
Non-responsive |
No formal commitment to or
action on human rights due diligence. Ad-hoc, superficial engagement when
issues are made public. ... |
Reactive |
Formal
policy commitment on human rights is available. Dominant logic is avoidance of
reputation risk to the company. ... |
Efficient Management |
Understanding of most salient human right issues
and how existing management processes address them. Integration of some human
rights elements in existing systems and processes. ... |
Proactive Experimentation |
Management
team interested and supportive of proactive due diligence. There are examples
of innovative initiatives or projects in the business to proactively identify
and address human rights impacts or dilemmas. ... |
Strategic Integration |
On-going due diligence processes are
integrated into management practice also on the local level. Emphasis is on
building capacities across the organisation and on continuous improvement. ... |
Demonstrating Leadership |
Attention is on
strengthening a human rights respecting culture in and outside the company,
beyond its direct business relationships. ... |
The completion of the questionnaire gives you a clear overview of your current capacity and aspirations that can be used for further internal awareness-raising and strategy development. While there is a progression from “Non-responsive” to “Demonstrating Leadership” set out in the diagnostic, it is not the intention to suggest that it is necessary for all companies to reach the advanced levels of management capacity. How companies meet their responsibility to respect human rights will vary according to their operational context, size, sector and their specific human rights risk profile. Part of this diagnostic’s utility is to enable you to define what you deem appropriate given the profile of your company.
The level descriptions will therefore not fit perfectly to the particular situation in your company. When answering the questions, please tick the level you feel applies most to where your company stands. While the is no strictly linear progression from one level to the other, higher levels usually include what applies to previous levels and add a different aspect that distinguishes a more advanced due diligence program.
Upon completion of the diagnostic, you will receive a short analysis report. Tailored to your current management capacity level, the report will:
- highlight your actual and aspired capacity levels per question
- provide you with suggestions for how to enhance your capacity according to where your biggest improvement needs are
- point you to relevant available resources to support your next steps
When using the tool, you can find explanations and more information about business and human rights, human rights due diligence and good practices when clicking on these words.
For more information on how to use the HRCD and how the instrument has been developed please refer to the FAQ section.
Terms of Use
The HRC Diagnostic is a free self-assessment instrument. Please read through the terms of use stated below. By starting the assessment you agree to the terms.
- Your responses will be kept confidential and will not be handed over to third parties
- Aggregated results from all users may be used by twentyfifty ltd. and the German Global Compact Network for benchmarking analyses while preserving individual and organizational confidentiality (see for example the analysis of the previous OCAI tool user data from 2012-2014)
- E-mail addresses will not be used for any purpose other than that related to your organization's use of the HRCD
- The HRCD should not be changed, adapted, and administered independently from this web tool without the written permission from twentyfifty ltd. and the Global Compact Network Germany