Have you ever:
- Dreaded a certification audit
- Uttered the words “the auditors are coming” and not in a positive way
- Found that a month before the certification audit there is a mad flurry of activity and increased workload to get the quality system up to date
- Found your printing costs go up exponentially in the run up the certification audit
If you have answered yes to any of these questions then you my friend have an inefficient quality system that is not giving you a return on your investment.
Many organisation leaders that I work with tell me that they feel preparing ‘for the auditor’ takes up resources they don’t have. This preparation usually involves gathering evidence into either printed hard copy folders or electronic folders labelled with the numbers of the standards criteria
There are a number of reasons why people do this, here’s my top three:
1. To make it easier for the auditor to find the evidence (and get them in and out)
2. To stop the auditor ‘digging around’ in the system and finding things the organisation doesn’t want them to find
3. To stop them asking too many questions of too many people (who won’t know the ‘right’ answer).
Obviously, I’m not talking about you here, you have an open and transparent approach to quality; but let’s just consider the organisations that I am talking about.
Get them in and get them out
Honestly, I have known auditors who like all of the evidence in neat folders on a USB so they can copy and paste information straight into their report, they like to get in and get out, some are even happy not to talk to people, but really, what’s the point? What benefit do you get for the money you are paying to have them come and look at your systems?
Remember you are paying for this privilege.
Whatever the motivation for audit preparation I am here to tell you that it’s not necessary and is an indication that your quality system is not working effectively.
If you think the preparation is a form of self-assessment, my answer would be that you need to strengthen your internal audit system.
If you have a quality management system that is integrated, understood and effective there is no need to prepare.
A client of mine was explaining how busy they were in the run up to their certification audit.
“I have to upload all of the evidence onto the database” she said.
” Why?” I said, “does that help you prepare?”
“No” she said, “it’s just that we bought it to make it easier for the auditor.”
“But how much extra work is that for you?” I asked
“Well” she said, “it normally takes me about two or three weeks but the old CEO liked it that way because it stops the auditor having to interview staff.”
After some discussion we discovered that there was really no benefit to the organisation, it simply meant that the quality manager was off-line and unable to do any of their normal work which meant that by the time the auditor came they were completely stressed out.
To me this is like cleaning the house before the cleaner comes. I’m happy for you to move your knick knacks so that they can get to your surfaces, but I don’t want you scrubbing the grout in the bathroom.
My new book explores the need for the leaders of the organisation to be involved in the design of the quality management system so that it meets the needs of the organisation and doesn’t create extra work. This supports appropriate delegation of tasks meaning there is no need to prepare for audit.
The audit should be business as usual.