Assurance & compliance
Hybrid Audit
An audit combining remote, ICT-assisted evidence-gathering with an in-person site visit — normalised across certification and social-compliance schemes after COVID-19.
Definition
A hybrid audit is an audit that combines remote methods — typically desk-based document review, video interviews, and ICT-assisted verification — with in-person on-site inspection, either within a single engagement or in sequence, with the site visit used to verify what remote review cannot establish. The approach expanded rapidly during COVID-19 travel restrictions and has been retained where it cuts cost without materially reducing assurance.
References
definition and terminology landscape
Overview
What it means
Hybrid design is a trade-off: remote stages handle records and interviews efficiently, while physical presence remains essential for what auditors must see — working conditions, safety controls, and unscripted worker interviews. In social-compliance auditing, schemes differ on how much can be remote; unannounced and fully on-site audits remain the benchmark where deception risk is high.
OECD work on remote audits notes the terminology is still inconsistent across schemes.
How it is used
Used in management-system certification, food-safety auditing, and supply-chain social audits as a cost- and access-management tool.
Why it matters
Assurance credibility underpins every claim in this dictionary; understanding audit design is understanding how much trust a certificate deserves.
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