10 Tips on How To Prepare Employees for ISO Audit

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What every employee should know during an ISO 9000

registration or follow-up audit. Below are ten tips on how
to prepare employees for an ISO audit:
1. Every employee should know the Quality Policy (at a minimum
in their own words).
Example Quality Policy: We are committed to the continual
improvement of our processes to ensure that we provide our
customers with solutions that add value.
2. Every employee should know the Quality Objectives and how
they relate to them in their work.
Example Quality Objectives will include measures of
performance and may be related to customer requirements;
financial/production/safety/environmental goals; increase
efficiency and effectiveness, and enhance personal &
professional development.
3. Ensure that employees can demonstrate how they fit into
the organization in which they work? Ensure that employees
know and can explain how they have been trained or qualified to
perform their job tasks?
Examples include going over Job Description, Training
Requirements and Records, Contribution to Quality
Objective(s) and a process he/she follows and supporting
records demonstrating compliance.

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4. Contact and ensure all personnel are trained on the

appropriate processes for that job function. Many processes are
defined in procedures or work instructions. However, employees
should also know other job related process that may not be called
out in a documented procedure (i.e. how receive work, how to
manage, how to fund a project, how to write a proposal, etc.). Note:
Some processes do not need formal documentation, because all
employees who perform the function are competent on that
process.
Follow Your Procedures!

Say What You Do, Do

What You Say!

5. Verify that appropriate records are being maintained as called
out by the procedures and records lists. For example, most
procedure have a section titled "Records", these "Records" should
be maintained every time that process occurs and should be
available for the audit.
6. Make sure all forms are controlled and all forms/records of
work activities are properly completed. Make sure all blanks are
filled in, with proper signatures and dated, and can be retrieved
quickly if an employee needs to use them or show them to an
auditor.
7. Ensure that Nonconformances and Corrective and
Preventive Action processes are being performed and records are
current. For more details refer to the Quality Manual,
Nonconformance, or Corrective and Preventive Action procedures.
8. Do not show an auditor any classified information! The
auditors are typically not cleared at any level. Therefore, you must
keep all your discussions with them at the unclassified level. Also,
you cannot take the auditors in any classified area.
9. Document and Record Control typically have the most findings.
Verify that you are working to correct revisions of documents
and records follow the requirements defined in document and
record control procedures:

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Check to make sure your Document and Record List are

accurate.

Make sure you have access to appropriate documentation and

records.

Verify documents have been properly reviewed, approved, and

followed.

Make sure no obsolete documents are in use.

Make sure all external documents effecting processes are

controlled.
10. To ensure a successful audit, here are some Audit Dos and
Donts:
Dos:

Make a positive first impression

Remain courteous, prompt and professional

Clean up your work area

Eliminate or minimize distractions (phones, pagers, etc)

Know where to find documents and records you need for your

job

Be brief in response

Keep your management and supervisors involved

Listen attentively to questions; When in doubt, ask for

clarification of the question. Still in doubt? Say: I dont know. Let

me find out or contact someone who knows.

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Donts:

Bluff

Argue

Ramble

Criticize

Use acronyms

Allow distractions to the audit

Keep obsolete documents and records

Take short cuts with procedures

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