Dec 9, 2020
Fail to prepare, then prepare to fail. If you
don’t want to fail an assessment before you’ve even begun, be
prepared.
I’m just going to take you through the top 5 mistakes companies
make that can lead to stress and failure – now this isn’t a
definitive list – there are of course many things that could go
wrong, I’m just going to share with you my 5 favourite blunders
that you can very easily avoid.
Yes – pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised to hear how many
times a Management systems is just kept to one person and a
communications plan has not been implemented to inform all
employees. The best informed employees make the best people
to be assessed.
Imagine – you are an assessor and you rock up only to hear an
employee when asked about their process say ‘What process? What
Environmental Policy?
- Business Continuity Planning – What’s the point in having a BCP
if no one know how to how to respond to an incident?
- By not informing employees – As it triggers bad vibes i.e
nervous, wary, stressed
- Communication plan – CEO, Champions, agenda of meetings,
launch, newsletter updates, online comms i.e. slack
- Not having access to the right people
- The assessor doesn’t need to see every single person.
- Does need to see the key process owners and some
representatives from the leadership team.
- Quality – operations, HR, key process owners i.e. heads of
functions
- Environment – Facilities Managers, an Environnemental
Champion.
- Information Security – IT, back-ups, incident reporting, HR
(starters/leavers) and physical security i.e. Office Manager or if
you are in services offices – give the person on reception the
heads up.
- Make sure you have the agenda for the visits well in advance –
all reputable UKAS accredited certification bodies should send this
to you weeks in advance – if they haven’t chase it.
- This helps you to ensure that the right people are available at
the right time.
- Not having access to your management
system
Sounds silly, but you’d be surprised.
- We’ve even come across cases of rogue consultants where the
Management system is owned (IP and all) by the consultant – not the
company. Scary!
- Make sure you have access to your policies, procedures,
documents and templates
- These can be online, displayed, hard copy or audio/visual
- Nothing more embarrassing than missing a key document or you’ve
got 3 versions of it, and no one know which is the right one.
- Accessiblity is key – Sharepoint/intranet/wiki’s/dropboc
- Not having access to your records.
- Stage 2 Assessment is a ‘Show and tell’ –make sure the right
people and have access to the right records.
- Pre-empt any pitfalls - a disorganised business will have
records all over the place – because there is no structure.
- Also, make sure your supplier records are compliant – one of
the main causes of non-conformities in Environmental management and
Health and Safety is lack of accurate supplier records
- Waste records, Lift maintenance records, FGas records – most of
these aren’t ISO Standards requirements – they are LEGAL
requirements.
- Legal register/due diligence
And last but not least……
- Don’t make any assumptions
- Don’t make any assumptions that that your assessor will know
your business inside out – they won’t understand your culture,
vision, values and USP’s.
- Use this as an opportunity to showcase all the strengths of
your business and how well managed it is. With our clients we’ll
always get the representative of the leadership in the room for the
kick-off meeting –
- Don’t worry the assessor doesn’t need to be glued to the
assessors hip all day every day, 30 mins attendance at the kick-off
meeting max is suffice. This shows the business is serious about
their ISO Commitment and demonstrates that there is full leadership
support and that employees are onboard.
- Likewise – don’t assume that your assessor knows nothing about
your industry – in many cases, if you are in a sector, chances are
that your assessor i.e. construction, engineering, manufacturing
your assessor has seen the good, the bad and the ugly.
- Take notes, so you can refer back to these – as there can be
some valuable observations that an assessor may make which you
could take back to your continual improvement process. Don’t assume
that these will be captured in the report at the end of the
assessment.
So to recap – the 5 mistakes to avoid in an ISO assessment
are……
- Not informing employees
- Not having access to the right people on the days of
the assessment
- Not having access to your management
system
- Not having access to your records.
- Don’t make any assumptions
And don’t forget, these mistakes can easily be prevented if you
prepare well before an assessment.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, By failing to prepare, you
are preparing to fail.
If you need any assistance with ISO standards, contact us!