ISO Standards and external certification in your business

Health & Safety should always be at the heart of your business, it is an important factor in keeping you, your employees, your service users, residents, suppliers, contractors safe and healthy.

Managing your impact on the Environment is also a key business driver. Complying with regulations, reducing waste and defects, and protecting the world’s resources for future generations is a key priority.

In addition, Quality is an important part of how you operate to ensure that you will increase customer satisfaction, improve efficiency, and provide quality services – the key to your success.

Why do you need these standards?

  • To reflect the increasingly complex environment in which your organisation operates
  • To provide a more accurate reflection of the needs of your employees, service users, interested parties and other stakeholders
  • To improve quality across your organisation and increase customer satisfaction.

What benefits does it bring?

  • Standards bring quality, environmental and health, safety & wellbeing into the heart of your business
    • Integrated Management Systems are integrated and aligned with your business strategy which will improve performance and drive real value
  • Management of risks & opportunities
    • Will help identify and manage risk more effectively and opportunities that contribute to bottom line improvements
  • Improved Environmental Performance
    • This integrated approach will help identify further opportunities for improved environmental performance savings resources and costs
  • Leadership
    • Greater involvement by the leadership team ensures that everyone is motivated towards the organisation’s goals and objectives

What do you need to do?

In real terms – nothing! Some of the references you might hear during the audit process can be explained very simply. For example, ‘Quality’ is the way you do business. These are the procedures and processes you employ to ensure the service offered delivers to the customer requirements.

Environment means the types of things you do within your business. Do you recycle food, cardboard, paper, electrical equipment? Waste is either recycled or you may ensure the waste contractors you use, have the facility to segregate the waste on your behalf. You might also monitor utility usage and endeavour to reduce running costs. (e.g. light sensors, LED lighting).

Health & Safety should be an embedded part of your culture and as an organisation you are all responsible to keep each other safe. By identifying near misses, you can ensure that potential issues are identified, and major incidents are avoided.

After all this hard work and implementation of an effective integrated system you might want to gain external certifications with an external assessment body. There are many and the recommended route would be to choose one that is UKAS registered. This demonstrates the competency of the certification body and their personnel. Don’t forgetif you are audited – don’t panic! Just answer the questions then keep quiet!

For more information and support on the route to an effective management system then please give us a call now! IMS-SAPIRA have developed a simple system that will reduce costs, save time and cut out bureaucracy