Getting certified to one or more ISO Management System Standards can be a confusing and overwhelming process, especially if this is a brand new concept for you. What exactly are the ISO Management System Standards, and why are they important for a business? Most importantly, how can a business actually get certified to an ISO Standard?

We get it, the whole ISO world sounds complex, and can seem a bit confronting. But let’s start from the beginning, and clarify all these big questions.

What is ISO?

The International Organisation of Standardisation (ISO) is an independent, global body, made up of an extensive network of individuals that specialise in different areas. ISO is a non-governmental organisation that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. Initially founded in Geneva, Switzerland, its memberships now extend to more than 160 countries.

ISO develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, sustainability and efficacy of products, services and systems. As technology and new markets continue to rapidly develop, new ISO Standards are drafted and implemented by ISO members globally. This ensures that businesses of all size, type and nature can benefit from International Standards.

What are ISO Standards, and how are they developed?

Essentially, an ISO Standard is an internationally proven and recognised way for a business to run its operations aligned with a particular discipline and objective. But how are ISO Standards developed?

ISO Standards are only developed once there is an identified industry need for standardisation. Experts begin working to prepare a draft, including its scope, key definitions and content. The draft is then shared with all ISO National members for review, where the approval process begins in various stages. Once all ISO members are satisfied with the standard, it will be published and available for the public to use, and in some cases, for business to work towards its Certification to that Standard when applicable.

All ISO Standards are then reviewed approximately every five years by the relevant ISO member bodies. This could result in confirmation, revision (resulting in a new updated version published), or complete withdrawal of the standard.

What are the main ISO Management System Standards?

There are over 24,000 ISO Standards available, each one developed to address different aspects or challenges that affect organisations globally. The standards serve as a framework to manage a variety of technical topics and processes throughout a business and achieve set goals and industry requirements.

The most widely-adopted ISO Management System Standards are:

ISO 9001:2015, ISO 45001:2018, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013.

Let’s briefly have a look at each of these standards:

Business needs – Which ISO Standard is recommended?

It can be challenging to know exactly which ISO Management System Standard a business needs, as not all businesses will require the same ISO Standards.

Some businesses will need to be certified as part of contractual or regulatory requirements. This could be imposed by a client, a regulatory body, or for a government tender. In these cases, it’s easy to know which standards a business needs certification to – simply confirm with the appropriate interested party (it could be provided on a document from the requesting party, listing the standards).

If a business needs certification for any other reason, such as business improvement in particular areas, it will then be a different process. The business will need to analyse each standard, and figure out the most suitable and beneficial one for their particular industry to meet the desired objectives. Reading and understanding the actual standards you are interested in will help you understand more to make such a decision.

How can ISO Standards actually help a business?

Not only will the implementation of an ISO Management System Standard benefit a business, but the actual Certification itself will also provide businesses with a number of benefits, including:

How to become Certified to one or more ISO Standards

Once a business decides which ISO Management System Standards to go with, the journey to achieving certification begins.

The entire Certification process can be summarised as follows:

The business will need to define the standards required, and then purchase a copy of the chosen ISO Standards (this is an actual licensed document developed by ISO that you purchase, which contains all the requirements).

If the business already has a variety of things in place that could be used for meeting the requirements (such as established processes and policies), a gap analysis could be performed. This will determine what still needs to be done, to then plan the next steps.

The business will then need to develop all documentation required to meet the requirements of the chosen ISO Standard(s). This documentation is what the Standards refer to as a Management System, and could include business processes, policies, and software or templates to capture records, etc.

Once the documentation is developed, reviewed and published (live and ready for use), the next step is implementation.

Implementing the Management System means actually putting the system into practice. This involves coaching the team on how to use it, following the new processes, populating forms, saving records, and making sure it’s fully embedded in the day-to-day business activities.

Once the system is implemented, the business will need to conduct an Internal Audit and a Management Review, to define the strategy moving forward for the monitoring of the effectiveness of its Management System.

Internal Audits are a requirement of the main ISO Management System Standards. An Internal Audit is a full review of the management system to ensure that it has met all of the ISO Standard requirements, as well as the organisation’s own requirements, before going for certification. The ISO Standards require that an auditor has to be deemed competent to conduct these internal audits. Therefore, if a business does not engage an external auditor, and decides to use its internal resources (employees) to conduct these Internal Audits, they have to make sure these people are trained and qualified to do so.

Our Management Systems Internal Auditor training is a practical eLearning course that teaches how to conduct effective Internal Audits in accordance with the core ISO Management System Standards. In addition to a Certificate of Completion, included in the course is also a competency assessment (and Verification of Competency Certificate) that will demonstrate that your are qualified to conduct internal audits.

When the business is ready for certification, they will need to be audited by an Accredited Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) – also known as Certification Body. A CAB is an organisation that is accredited to conduct audits of businesses’ Management Systems and issue internationally recognised Certifications to the ISO Standards.

The Certification Audits are split into two stages:

If all business activities prove to conform according to the requirements, the CAB will issue the Certification(s) to the audited business.

Note: The Certification Audit is also commonly referred to as a Third Party Audit.

After the business has achieved Certification(s), the 3-year certification cycle begins. During this period, the Certification Body will return to conduct yearly Surveillance Audits to verify that the Business Management System is still meeting the ISO Standard(s) requirements, as well as their own operational requirements.

Note: The business is also required to conduct Internal Audits each year. With our Internal Auditor training, your team can become qualified to conduct these.

Download a summary of the entire Certification process below!

Get your FREE Certification Process Diagram today!

Now that you know what it means to be certified to an ISO Management System Standard, it’s time to decide what your next step is and your role in this journey. Are you assisting a business in achieving certification? Is it for your own business?

The post What Exactly is Certification to ISO Standards? appeared first on ICExperts Academy.

Lately, consumers are looking for more than a transactional relationship with businesses, and are increasingly demanding that businesses take action and do their part to reduce their environmental footprint. In a survey conducted by Deloitte, almost 40% of participants said they would stop buying from a company whose products or services negatively impacted the environment. Businesses that fail to respond to these expectations and motivations will eventually feel the effect on their bottom lines.

Climate change is both a critical challenge and critical opportunity for businesses. Profit and Government incentives, as well as executives’ increasing fears about climate change’s potential negative effect on businesses are giving organisations plenty of reasons to join in on taking action.

But even then, it can be challenging to know where to start implementing change within the business. This is where ISO 14001:2015, the international Environmental Management System standard, is able to support organisations with managing their environmental impacts, responsibilities and initiatives in a systematic manner.

What is 14001:2015?

The ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System standard is an internationally-recognised documented framework for better management control, with the goal of reducing the business’ environmental impacts, and compliance with environmental regulatory requirements.

ISO 14001:2015 helps organisations achieve the intended outcomes of its Environmental Management System, which provides value for the environment, the organisation itself and interested parties. The intended outcomes of an Environmental Management System include:

The ISO Environmental Management System standard, as well as the other ISO Standards we’ve covered in previous blogs (ISO 9001:2015, ISO 45001:2018, and ISO 27001:2013), is flexible and can be implemented by any organisation, regardless of size, industry and nature, and applies to the environmental aspects of its activities, products and services that the organisation determines it can either control or influence through its activities.

What are the business benefits of ISO 14001:2015?

Environmental awareness is essential for all businesses, as we are a part of a society that is becoming increasingly conscious of the impact we have on the environment. Implementing an Environmental Management System can achieve numerous business benefits, which include:

What are the ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System requirements?

The ISO 14001:2015 standard has 10 clauses, as detailed below:

Clause 4: Context of the organisation – The organisation needs to determine its ability to achieve the intended outcomes of its Environmental Management System, and how related internal and external issues can affect these. Understanding and determining the needs and expectations of the business stakeholders and the scope of the management system is also required, along with how the management system will be implemented, maintained and continually improved.

Clause 5: Leadership – Top management needs to demonstrate commitment and support with respect to the Management System. This includes establishing an Environmental Policy and ensuring that roles, responsibilities, and authorities are clearly defined within the environmental context.

Clause 6: Planning – A risk and opportunity action plan should be put in place to ensure that the Environmental Management System can achieve its goals, which include meeting compliance obligations, preventing and reducing undesired effects, and encouraging continual improvement. There needs to be measurable and relevant ways to evaluate the effectiveness of the set environmental objectives.

Clause 7: Support – This clause addresses the requirements of resources, competence, awareness, communication and documentation. The organisation must ensure that relevant employees are consulted and communicated with about the policies and processes of the Environmental Management System, and that they understand their role in contributing to the success of the Management System.

Clause 8: Operation – The business must establish, implement, control and maintain required processes, with consideration of the environmental life cycle stages, including emergency preparedness and response plans. The organisation needs to keep documentation for all processes, to ensure they have been carried out as planned.

Clause 9: Performance evaluation – The organisation must outline how they will monitor, measure, analyse and evaluate the Environmental Management System’s performance, including their compliance obligations. This also needs to include plans for regular internal audits, as well as regular top management reviews, to ensure the ongoing effectiveness, suitability and adequacy of the Management System.

Clause 10: Improvement – The business has to continually improve the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of its Environmental Management System by identifying opportunities for improvement, and implementing corrective actions.

What is the ISO 14000 Family of Standards?

The ISO 14000 Family of Standards is the set of standards related to Environmental Management that was developed by ISO to help businesses reduce their impact on the environment.

The core standard of the ISO 14000 Family of Standards is ISO 14001:2015, but there are also other standards to help businesses implement, evaluate, and improve their Environmental Management System. We’ve listed the six most common ones below, which are applicable to the majority of businesses looking to implement an Environmental Management System:

Your business can only achieve certification to ISO 14001:2015. The other standards in the family are supporting guidelines for the implementation of the ISO 14001:2015 Standard. Therefore, there is no certification to achieve for these.

Where to start with implementing the requirements of ISO 14001:2015?

ISO 14001:2015 is a powerful framework for businesses with today’s growing green culture, and interpreting the requirements and implementing the standard into your organisation can be challenging. Getting help from professional ISO Management System Consultants is one of the best approaches a business can take, resulting in an effectively customised and implemented Management System that will be beneficial for the business.

Even if an organisation decides to implement the requirements of the standard by itself, or with the help from a professional consultant, the business should have a copy of the ISO 14001:2015 document, so the team can get familiar with the requirements and intent of the standard.

Varying factors, such as the size of the organisation, the complexity of its operations, and the current systems that are in place, will impact the costs and timeframes when implementing an Environmental Management System. Once the Management System has been successfully implemented, the business can go for the Certification Audits with an Accredited Conformity Assessment Body (read more about the certification process here).

It’s also important to note that Internal Audits of the Management System are a requirement prior to the Certification Audits. If the business decides to go with internal resources to conduct these Internal Audits, the ISO Standards require that the auditor is deemed competent to do so. You’ll need to qualify your team to conduct your Management System Internal Audits.

References

– https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/deloitte-2019-millennial-survey.pdf
– https://www.forbes.com/sites/deloitte/2020/01/22/reducing-environmental-impact-is-now-a-business-imperative/?sh=646551c6cc69
– https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100372.pdf

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