Once the decision to become certified is made, you’ll need to choose a certification body. Choose carefully. You want your relationship to be a long and fruitful one in which your auditor and certification body adds value to your organisation, processes, and people.

Considerations

Reputation – if you want to use your certificate for marketing purposes, then don’t engage a certification body that is known for giving them away regardless of whether the organisation has met the requirements of the standards. Additionally, you or your consultant have put a lot of work into developing and implementing your management system. You don’t want your efforts to be trivialised and made to look unnecessary and unimportant by an auditor who rubber stamps management systems. Choose a certification body with a solid reputation.

Accreditation – this is not a mandatory requirement in many countries, it is done by choice by the certification bodies and they must themselves pass rigorous and frequent audits to maintain accreditation. It’s a way of keeping them honest and ensuring that they adhere to the standards relevant to the services that they supply. Ask the certification body if they are accredited and by whom. In Australia, most certification bodies are accredited by JAS-ANZ (Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand).

Flexibility – what is their cancellation policy should you need to move your audit date (in terms of cost), and what is the process? Being able to ask your auditor directly what other dates they have available is much easier than having to go through a person you have never met who will then have to contact the auditor, get some dates from them, get back to you with the auditor’s availability, see if any of those dates suit you . . . . .

Auditor – you might think it will be much easier to pass the audit if your auditor has little experience in your industry but . . .  it is actually in your best interest to have an experienced auditor. They will have valuable insights and can offer more from a risk management perspective. After all, the management system standards are all about managing risk. Another consideration is reliability. Its good to build a long-term relationship with your auditor as with increasing familiarity they can provide you with great service and consistency. You don’t want to see a new face at every audit.

Maturity – if your organisation needs to get certified quickly because of a commercial commitment for example, and the management system is fairly new, the maturity of your management system could be an issue for some certification bodies. So, ask them about their requirements regarding management system maturity before committing to them.

Language – good communication is extremely important during audits. It is essential that your auditor comprehends what your staff are telling them, and what they read. If they don’t it could lead to unnecessary findings. After the audit you will receive a report and, if you are going to get most out of your audits, then it is important that this document is easy to understand, that it is written in plain English.

Asking for a Quote

The way the certification body responds to your request for a quote will tell you a lot about them. You’ll gain an insight into:

Service – long does it take for the certification body to respond to your enquiry and send you a quote? Are they happy to meet with you to answer your questions?

Price – read the fine print. Each certification body structures their quote differently. Some things to look out for are – is it a fee for service or a fixed price quote, how do they charge for travel time, how do they charge for non-conformances and follow-up audits, what is the audit frequency? Bear in mind that the cheapest certification body could be more costly in the long run if its auditing is below standard, their service is poor, or they audit outside the scope of your certification.

Quality – what do you think of their own internal processes? You’ll gain insight into their level of customer focus and back-office processes during the quoting process.