Sometimes in organizations you see a great variety of policies, procedures, work instructions, guidelines, templates, etc., stored in different places and on different platforms, without any model at the base of this work capable of defining how they are used and how they add value to the company's work.
Another characteristic of some organizations that would like to approach the world of management systems but do not fully understand its dimension is that of having audit reports that have taken place internally but have not been able to provide any added value, having served only to satisfy the requirements of the reference standard.
All this does not happen because of the people who find themselves, sometimes against their will, managing the company's documented information or internal audits, but due to the fact that these collaborators have not completed any type of training and have simply been invited to take care of the documentation or to carry out internal audits in order to have the reports to show to the external auditor when he visits the company to verify that the certification issued can be confirmed.
What companies sometimes don't seem to realize is whether:
- they have been able to plan the structure of the management system and the schedule of internal audits so that they provide effective feedback on how they work;
- they have provided effective training to the people in charge of carrying out these activities;
- they are focusing on the areas of activity in which improvements are really required
We must not forget that a management system that works adequately and the process through which internal audits are carried out must provide a model for the continuous improvement of processes and work in general, otherwise they are completely useless and simply cost the company time and resources!
To have a tangible advantage from the implementation of a management system, it is better to do things well the first time, without thinking of creating something to the exclusive advantage of the external auditor who will have to verify if our system is compliant but having in mind what we really want to improve thanks to this work.
When an organization decides, in fact, for the first time to set up a more structured model so that its business processes work more intelligently and harmoniously, to train people adequately, to seriously rely on management principles that have proven effectiveness, and to put in place effective control mechanisms under which to work, the results never take long to appear.
It is only by proceeding in this way, in fact, that a certain clarity and a systematic approach will tend to prevail, which will be able to keep the project on track, with clear results from which to start to implement any improvements in the presence of critical issues.
Let's think, for example, of internal audits. In order for them to be truly useful for continuous improvement throughout the company, the internal auditor must be competent, so as to be able to assist the team of audited people in achieving the expected continuous improvement and in managing the necessary change, focusing the work on the problematic areas and helping people to identify all the opportunities for improvement of the examined area.
Among other things, an inadequately trained auditor can do more harm than good within an organization. If this collaborator, in fact, has not received the necessary training and has not acquired the appropriate skills, he could end up identifying as a problem what is not at all and wasting, in this way, time, effort and resources of the company.