Addressing Common Concerns About Rightsholder Engagement at Suppliers

Practical answers from lived ESG & HRDD implementation experience

After writing about the importance of rightsholder engagement at suppliers, I’m often asked a similar set of questions.

They’re honest questions. They usually come from experienced procurement, sustainability, and HR leaders—not from resistance, but from responsibility.

Below are practical answers, drawn directly from implementing ESG and HRDD on the ground, not from guidance notes.

“What if engaging rightsholders exposes workers to retaliation?”

This is one of the most common—and most valid—concerns.

From implementation experience, the answer is not to avoid engagement, but to design it carefully.

What consistently works:

• Engage rightsholders in groups, not one-on-one
• Avoid naming individuals or quoting people verbatim
• Use neutral, trusted facilitators rather than line managers
• Move slower where buyer leverage is limited

Risk does not come from engagement itself. It comes from poorly designed engagement.

When workers feel protected, anonymity is respected, and expectations are managed, engagement actually reduces fear rather than increases it.

“What if suppliers are approached by multiple buyers?”

This is increasingly common—especially deeper in the supply chain.

From experience, problems arise when engagement turns into:

• repeated audits
• overlapping questionnaires
• competing demands

What works better:

• Coordinate engagement where possible
• Start with visits and listening, not corrective action plans
• Keep interactions with rightsholders short and respectful

Rightsholders are busy. Respecting their time is part of respecting their rights.

When engagement is focused and human, it is far less overwhelming than repeated formal assessments.

“What if changes are costly or disruptive?”

This concern often assumes that most human rights risks require capital investment.

In reality, many risks we see are linked to:

• supervision quality
• communication gaps
• unclear responsibilities
• weak grievance handling
• management behaviour

These are process and people issues, not infrastructure issues.

Where costs do exist:

• sequencing matters
• prioritisation matters
• not everything needs to change at once

Implementation experience shows that how change is introduced matters more than how fast.

“What if rightsholder engagement complicates operations?”

In practice, engagement rarely creates complexity.

It reveals complexity that already exists but is not openly discussed.

Ignoring that complexity doesn’t make it disappear—it only delays escalation.

Well-designed engagement helps companies:

• surface issues earlier
• reduce surprises
• prevent sudden disruptions
• make better, more informed decisions

Engagement simplifies the long term by addressing reality in the short term.

Where Experienced Companies Start

From what we’ve seen work on the ground, effective companies rarely try to do everything at once.

They usually begin with:

1. their own operations
2. then key suppliers
3. then deeper tiers, progressively and deliberately

This approach builds internal confidence, supplier trust, and practical learning—before scaling.

Closing Thought

Rightsholder engagement is often seen as risky.

From lived ESG and HRDD implementation experience, the real risk lies in not engaging—or engaging without care.

When designed thoughtfully, rightsholder engagement:

• protects people
• strengthens suppliers
• and reduces business risk over time

If your organisation is navigating these concerns while moving HRDD from paper to practice, the answer is rarely to do less. It is to do it better—slowly, respectfully, and grounded in reality.

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