The fear often in the eyes of business owners and team members when they hear that an auditor is coming in to review a business is an all-too-common sight. Their private world is about to be intruded upon by a stranger who will ask a lot of questions, dig through documents and systems, be very quick with the red pen, and write a non-conformance report longer than the waiting list for the MCC.
Yet I have had the pleasure (yes, pleasure!) of auditors in a variety of settings and have found the experience mostly to be positive and beneficial. Financial auditors for company accounts that needed to be submitted to ASIC. Compliance auditors for pharmacy accreditation through QCPP. Health and safety auditors on work sites. Accreditation auditors for ISO9001, AS/NZS4801 and ISO14001. (And I’ll send a bottle of wine to the first person who jumps on my website and sends me a message via the Contact button, explaining what the three accreditation numbers relate to.)
The misconceptions regarding auditors continually perplex me.
The first thing to address is that auditor is not there to “catch you out”. That attitude creates an adversarial atmosphere that feeds mutual suspicion. The auditor will wonder what you are hiding from them, and all the time you are trying to distract them from the things you think they won’t like seeing. It’s like a child pushing all their crap under the bed before mother comes to see if their room is clean. It’s obvious, and generally doesn’t work.
The second thing to address is the ramifications of a non-conformance issue or shortcoming being found. Unless it is a critical safety issue, or a deliberate criminal action, most audits do not have the intent of identifying short comings for punitive reasons. They identify the issue, then ask the client to put a plan in place to rectify these. And even if it is a critical safety issue, or a criminal act, addressing it immediately is better than letting it create a larger problem later, when someone is hurt or dies, or your business has been defrauded in a critical way.
The core purpose of auditing lies in the concept of Continual Improvement.
This is the desire to continually look at what you do, and find efficient, faster, more effective, and better understood ways of doing things. It is just making your business stronger.
The ISO Standard for Quality Management Systems (one of the accreditation numbers above, but I’m not going to tell you which one) specifically refers to the seven quality management principles
1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Engagement of People
4. Process Approach
5. Improvement
6. Evidence-Based Decision Making
7. Relationship Management
These are all critical in every business. And a good auditor will keep these in the front of mind when undertaking the audit process.
They will identify the short coming (non-conformance) and then suggest ways in which it could be rectified. Not in an operational way, that’s your job, but in a contextual manner that demonstrates it’s importance to your organisation.
Because of this, businesses who embrace the process for its opportunities, see growth.
Good businesses read the audit report, analyse why non-conformance happened, and get on with fixing it. Fixing it the right way, and for the right reasons. It will be better for their business.
Businesses who see audits as a ‘tick n’ flick’ process, just to keep a certificate, will fail to see any benefit other than a vague regulatory or marketing concept that gets in the way of doing business every year. And they will dread the auditor’s footsteps every day.
So next time you are scheduled for an external review of your business, embrace it. Make the auditors feel welcome. Get them a coffee and give them your time from the start. Answer their questions promptly, and in an honest and open manner. You’re paying a lot for their experience (and boy, have they seen plenty and can tell some tales!). Use that to your advantage and learn.
Your business, your profitability, and your long term viability will benefit.
Videre Consulting is experienced in navigating procedural development for businesses, and can assist in creating and documenting procedures, reviewing and preparing for audits, and managing the audit process for your company. Contact us today to find out more.
Michael Schuller
Director