The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) has released a new and improved version of its Self-Assessment Workbook which has been redesigned to help members, especially smaller companies, evaluate their performance against the RJC Code of Practices (COP) for diamonds, gold and platinum group metals.

The COP defines responsible ethical, human rights, social and environmental business practices. It is divided into six sections, each one detailing a number of provisions that can be independently audited with the help of the workbook to provide a company with objective evidence in support of getting RJC certification.

According to RJC, the new features of the workbook designed to make the self-assessment process easier include:

• Revised format, making it cleaner and more straightforward to use.

• Added guidance to help members understand the requirements in the Code of Practices (COP).
• Streamlining of self-assessment questions depending on the members’ activities.
• A built-in corrective action template to help members close out their non-conformances before their audit.
• Technical upgrade, making it easier to follow the workbook in its Excel format.

Chinelo Etiaba, Director, Membership Services, RJC said, “The revision of the self-assessment workbook is proof that we are listening and are working hard to ensure our members benefit from the support and guidance provided by the RJC. This is just another step we’ve taken to help our members achieve their RJC certification goals.”

The workbook, which is the first step to proving conformance with the COP, is available in English, French, German, Gujarati, Italian and Russian on the RJC website, along with FAQs and a new short video. The workbook is a live document, and changes may be made from time to time, RJC said, adding that the self-assessment is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended.