Real hard work starts, once you get certified !
A lot of companies believe that obtaining their ISO certification is the difficult part of the certification process. They think that once you’ve achieved their ISO, they can kick back and relax. In reality, however, now is when the hard work truly begins.
Obtaining your ISO certification is truly an amazing feat. But, to ensure that your products and services are in line with the level of compliance required by the standard, then you need to monitor and periodically reassess your Management System and make any necessary adjustments along the way. Keep in mind that continuous improvement is one of the basic principles of getting ISO certified.
Maintaining your ISO Certificate
To maintain ISO certification also means that you will have to track the activity of your organisation. As time-consuming as it may feel right now, this task will eventually bring lots of valuable data that you can use during the management review phase and help you identify the corrective actions required to improve your procedures.
To do it you need to conduct following regular activities:
TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES
Policies, Procedures and SOPs are probably already part of your employees’ daily tasks and they know how to perform them. But, others may require additional training until they become accustomed to them and manage to integrate them into their routines with ease.
Therefore, you need to conduct the Training need analysis and put a training plan in place for your employees and evaluate their competency and maintain records.
PERFORM REGULAR INTERNAL AUDITS
A thorough internal audit will enable you to collect valuable data regarding the operations of your organisations. That way, you can identify how compliant your procedures are with the standard, how your entire system is performing, and what you can do to improve your processes.
EVALUATE CORRECTIVE ACTIONS AND CONDUCT ANALYSIS
The best way we know to monitor the effectiveness of action taken is to create a record using a form and for this to be a documented part of the Corrective Action Process.
MAINTAIN A LEGAL & REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
Regulatory compliance can be broadly defined as the adherence to laws, regulations, and guidelines created by government legislations and regulatory bodies applicable to an organization based on the industry and jurisdiction in which it operates.
A regulatory compliance policy is a blueprint based on which an organization draws its compliance practices. It is a declaration of a company, usually in written format, wherein the establishment affirms its compliance and commitment to relevant laws and regulations.
ACHIEVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Defining and implementing the procedures that will make your company ISO compliment isn’t enough. You also need to know how you will determine the level of customer satisfaction. By knowing how happy your customers are with your products or services you can work towards improving them.
MAINTAIN RECORDS OF ACTIVITIES PERFORMED
Records management consists of several fundamental activities that each program must undertake in order to ensure an effective Management program in place. Records must be clearly identified, organized into series, and stored in offices using file plans that document the method used to organize the records.
CONDUCT REGULAR MANAGEMENT REVIEWS
A management review is a regular evaluation of the performance of management systems based on their purpose and goal, as well as whether they are producing desirable results aligned with the organization’s needs. Often, an organization’s top management conducts management reviews to continuously improve processes and standards toward proactively addressing concerns and issues.
