Preparing for Management Systems Audit

So you have an audit or your management system arranged and now is you time to prepare your organisation for success. Below we will discuss some tips to help in your readiness to have a successful audit.

Prepare the employees

Effective management systems are a team effort and involve everybody within the organisation. Staff should be aware of and trained in relevant documented processes such as manuals procedures, safe work instructions and risk assessment. 

To demonstrate that the communication processes within your organisation are effective, employees should have awareness of the organization’s quality objectives, and how their role contributes to them.

Once they are ready, help staff gain experience with audits by including them in your own internal audit sampling.  When you are preparing your employees to answer questions, remember this is not a test, auditors are not looking for an exact answer, rather they want to know how employees go about finding information and answers. Do procedures provide information? If the information is not in a procedure, where does the employee go next, do they ask a supervisor?

Prepare the facility

When you are preparing for an audit, your organization needs to be well-organized and orderly. If your facility is a mess, it does not reflect well for your processes and achievement of outcomes. When getting ready for the audit, check bulletin boards, calibrations and test and tag, vehicles, safety equipment, equipment and stock storage areas, environmental drains and quality areas.

Internal Audit

The purpose of an internal audit is to identify weaknesses and areas that need improvement.  The Internal audits should also test that your processes are achieving what is intended e.g. quality specification, and clean waste water and elimination of OHS hazards. Internal audits are also a great way to prepare staff for the external audit interview process.  

Have a professional audit

Remember to act professionally. Auditors are there to help the organisation uncover any weaknesses in order to take action, improve and become certified. They want your organisation to succeed, so be friendly and work together in order to achieve certification.