ISO Audit and Certifications

What Is an ISO Audit?

An ISO audit is an audit of your organization’s compliance with one of the standards set forth by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). ISO is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, which develops standards and control frameworks that guide industry best practices in fields from information security to car-seat safety. An audit measures your company’s systems against any ISO standard; beyond compliance, a few standards can be ISO certified via third-party audit.

Why Is an ISO Audit Important?

ISO audits are important for a few reasons; an audit can tell you whether you are meeting requirements for ISO compliance and can expose the weak spots in your organization’s operations, so that you can develop the strongest risk management strategy possible. An ISO audit can be a part of the initial phases of a risk assessment plan, but it can also assist you in developing new systems or approaching new customer bases. The right audit schedule can also launch you towards ISO certification.

Types of ISO Audits

There are four types of ISO audits: internal, external, certification, and surveillance. Your choice of audit type will alter depending on your compliance and certification goals, your scope, scale, and budget.

Internal Audits

An internal ISO audit can be conducted by a designated auditor within your company — if ISO compliance is your goal, an internal audit may be satisfactory for ensuring your company is adopting ISO standards as a model for best practices. Using an internal audit checklist to see how your organization’s systems measure up to ISO guidelines. Internal audits are also important preparation for certification, surveillance, or recertification audits.

External Audits

External audits are conducted by third-party auditors to assess an organization’s ISO compliance. There are a few types of external audits, including audits of customers and suppliers, since many ISO standards require compliance by all members of the supply chain. Certification and surveillance audits also fall under the umbrella of “external audit.”

Certification and Recertification Audits

ISO standards that offer certification require a special certification audit — when you seek certification for a standard like ISO 27001, a certification body will conduct an audit and issue a certificate of compliance that is good for three years. In turn, your organization guarantees to keep up the processes, product controls, and systems that are covered by that certificate. For ISO 27001, you would be bound to maintain your information security management system for three years.

Surveillance Audits

Once your organization has achieved ISO certification, you must schedule surveillance audits with the certification body at least once per year. A surveillance audit includes reviews of management, any steps the organization has taken to mitigate or correct prior nonconformities, and a review of how the organization has responded to recommendations from internal audits.

5 Tips to Prepare for an ISO Audit: A Helpful Checklist

Create an Audit Schedule

Create a schedule for your audits, including a timeline for certification, if that is your goal — and stick to it. Start with your schedule for internal audit, build in flexibility for time to complete projects or mitigate problems, and progress towards an estimated timeline for engaging a certifying body.

Compile Audit Checklists

Audit checklists walk you step-by-step through the audit process applicable to the ISO guidelines you are using. In broad strokes, the audit checklist ensures that you understand how the audit fits into your business’ overarching goals and context.

Determine Your Goals

If your goal is to achieve certification, it is best to keep that goal in mind when you create your audit schedule. Certification can take time, especially as you conduct a gap analysis and mitigate nonconformities. Being aware of your goal to certify will help you to streamline your energies and save time and money during ISO audits.

Get Organized

If you are inviting a third-party auditor into your work environment, it helps if that space is well-organized and clean. Having your documents ready for review will shorten the time it takes to conduct the audit, and help your auditor streamline the work to provide the best possible feedback for improvement.

Conduct Internal Audits First

Again, an internal audit is your best preparation for external, certification, or surveillance audits. Auditors want to know about your progress towards your goals and improving your systems to align with ISO standards. An internal audit will start that process and demonstrate to your auditors that your organization is serious about ISO compliance.

System Certification Courses

ISO 9001:2015

ISO 9001:2015 is the world’s most widely recognized Quality Management System (QMS). It helps organizations to meet the expectations and needs of their customers, amongst other benefits.

An ISO 9001:2015 quality management system will help you to continually monitor and manage quality across all operations, and outlines ways to achieve, as well as benchmark, consistent performance and service. Internationally, it is the quality system of choice!

KEY BENIFITS OF ISO 9001:2015

Allows you to become a more consistent competitor in your marketplace
Better quality management helps you meet customer needs
More efficient ways of working will save time, money and resources
Improved operational performance will cut errors and increase profits
Motivate and engage staff with more efficient internal processes
Win more high value customers with better customer service
Broden business opportunities by demonstrating compliance

OHSAS 18001:2007

OHSAS 18001:2007 sets out the minimum requirements for occupational health and safety management best practice.

KEY BENIFITS OF OHSAS 18001:2007?

Create the best possible working conditions across your organization
Identify hazards and put in place controls to manage them
Reduce workplace accidents and illness to cut related costs and downtime
Engage and motivate staff with better, safer working conditions
Demonstrate compliance to customers and suppliers
Win more high value customers with better customer service
Broden business opportunities by demonstrating compliance

And if work-related road safety is a concern, OHSAS 18001 can be easily combined with ISO 39001 Road Traffic Safety to make sure you address the increasing risks presented to your employees in all work related activities.

ISO 14001:2015

ISO 14001:2015 is an internationally accepted standard that outlines how to put an effective environmental management system in place in an organization. It is designed to help businesses remain commercially successful without overlooking environmental responsibilities and impacts. It can also helps to grow sustainably while reducing the environmental impact of this growth. ISO 14001:2015 standard provides the framework to allow you to meet increasingly high customer expectations of corporate responsibility, as well as legal or regulatory requirements.

Benefits of ISO 14001

Better environmental management reduces waste and energy use
Improve efficiency to cut the cost of running your business
Demonstrate compliance to expand your business opportunities
Meet legal obligations to win greater stakeholder and customer trust
Prepare for the changing business landscape confidently

ISO 22000:2018

ISO 22000 is a truly international standard suitable for any business in the entire food chain, including inter-related organizations such as producers of equipment, packaging material, cleaning agents, additives and ingredients. ISO 22000:2018 is also for companies seeking to integrate their quality management system, for example QMS and their food safety management system.

The standard combines generally recognized key elements to ensure food safety along the food chain, including:

Interactive communication
System management
Control of food safety hazards through pre-requisite programs and HACCP plans
Continual improvement and updating of the food safety management system

Key Benefits of ISO 22000:2018

Introduce internationally recognized processes to your business.
Give suppliers and stakeholders confidence in your hazard controls.
Put these hazard controls in place across your supply chain.
Introduce transparency around accountability and responsibilities.
Continually improve and update your systems so it stays effective.

ISO 45001:2018

The occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system, ISO 45001, is a new international standard that provides a framework for an organization to manage risks and opportunities to help prevent work-related injury and ill health to workers. The intended outcome is to improve and provide a safe and healthy workplace. ISO 45001 is intended to help organizations, regardless of size or industry, in designing systems to proactively prevent injury and ill health. All of its requirements are designed to be integrated into an organization’s management and business processes.

Key Benefits of ISO 45001:2018

ISO 45001:2018 implements the Annex SL process and structure, making integration of multiple ISO management system standards easier, such as QMS, EMS etc., It uses a simple plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model, which provides a framework for organizations to plan what they need to put in place in order to minimize the risk of injury or illness. The measures should address concerns that can lead to long-term health issues and absence from work, as well as those that give rise to injuries. ISO 45001 enables an organization to identify OH&S hazards, risks and opportunities to proactively manage to support worker wellness/well-being. The ISO 45001 standard calls for the organization’s management and leadership to:

Integrate responsibility for health and safety issues as part of the organization’s overall plan
Demonstrate engagement with employees (and where they exist employees’ representatives) to create an organizational cultural that encourages active participation of workers in the OH&S management system
Ensure the OH&SMS is integrated into an organizations business processes

ISO 27001:2013

ISO 27001:2013, Information Security Management Systems, is applicable to all types of organizations, including commercial enterprises, government agencies and HGOs. It describes the requirements for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining and improving a documented information security management system. ISO 27001:2013 encompasses an organization’s overall business risks and specifies requirements for the implementation of security controls.

Key Benefits of ISO 27001:2013

As your business grows, the security risk to your information assets also grows. ISO 27001:2013 describes the internationally accepted model for managing information security management systems (ISMS). A certified ISMS is a business tool that reduces risk to your information assets by:

Systematically examining your organization’s security risks, including impacts, threats and vulnerabilities
Integrating your organization’s information security/information technology programs
Providing one platform to manage the security compliance of regulations (such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and Department of Health and Human Services privacy rules (HIPAA))
Aligning information security with your overall business objectives

ISO 20000-1:2011

ISO/IEC 20000:1 is an international IT standard that allows companies to demonstrate excellence and best practices in IT service management. To certify, companies must set and achieve goals that show continuous improvement in their delivery of IT services. Certification does not focus exclusively on technology and the internal organization, but also considers the quality of services and client/customer relationships.

Key Benefits of ISO 20000-1:2011

Certification can provide a competitive advantage and access to new business as some companies now require compliance as a contract condition. ISO/IEC 20000:1-compliant firms may also recognize increased internal efficiencies from applying best practices.

ISO/IEC 20000:1 certification is proof that your IT organization can:

Identify and respond to customer needs
Deliver services that can meet defined quality levels

ISO 22301:2012

ISO 22301:2012 specifies the requirements for a management system to protect against, reduce the likelihood of, and ensure your business recovers from disruptive incidents.

Key Benefits oF ISO 22301:2012

dentify and manage current and future threats to your business
Take a proactive approach to minimizing the impact of incidents
Keep critical functions up and running during times of crises
Minimize downtime during incidents and improve recovery time
Demonstrate resilience to customers, suppliers and for tender requests