ISO 9001 competence training and awareness procedures

Managing a business needs more than ensuring that the processes run smoothly and the outputs adhere to quality standards. It also requires considerate and careful supervision of your personnel. After all, it is only because of your personnel that you can run your processes, create desirable outputs and meet your benchmarks.

As the competence of your employees can impact your organisation, it becomes necessary to provide appropriate quality awareness training to your team. Through the creation and distribution of ISO 9001 training awareness material, you will be able to ensure that your employee’s efforts comply with the requirements of the standards and that the risks associated with human errors are reduced. In this article, we will talk about ISO 9001 competence training and awareness procedures. We suggest that before starting this article, you must read the article on how to prepare for iso 9001 certification. Human resource training is one of the prerequisites for obtaining ISO 9001 certification.

Clause 7.2: ISO 9001 competence training

As per the standard, competence can be categorised into three stages, namely:
1. Determining the competence of individuals who regularly interact with the Quality Management System (QMS). This level of competence is the bare minimum, and reducing the level of work would negatively affect the performance and efficiency of the QMS.
2. Ensuring that the individuals controlling deviations from quality are competent. Competency is based on the individual’s education, training and experience.
3. If any deficiencies or gaps exist between stage one and stage two, an action plan should be created to mitigate these gaps.

Most ISO consultants utilise a skill matrix to guide business owners through these three stages. This matrix is an elegant and powerful tool that categorises the skillsets needed for the smooth functioning of the QMS. In one axis of the matrix, the consultant or the business owner can describe the skills required for the effective functioning of the QMS.

On the other axis, a list of people and their positions within the company can be created. Based on this graph, you can assess your people against their skills. By utilising this matrix, you will find a gap between the skills and the positions in your company where people may not possess adequate skills or, conversely, not all skills that your employees would have been adequately utilised.

Through a gap analysis, this matrix neatly highlights the areas in which your personnel is lacking or is weak. It also exposes the strengths of your employees. At this point, the action plan to reduce deficiencies almost writes itself. So, in other words, the ISO 9001 consultant is a valuable compliance tool that does all the heavy lifting for you. if you want to learn more about gap analysis please read iso 9001 gap analysis article. 

Clause 7.3: ISO 9001 awareness procedures

In ISO 9000 quality management systems, a sister standard of ISO 9001, the fundamental vocabulary of awareness is defined as the process through which people understand their responsibilities and how their actions contribute to achieving organisational goals.

Therefore, as a business owner, you must ensure that your staff is fully aware of their responsibilities. Here, awareness can take place through various means, such as:
• Assessments
• Meetings
• Training sessions
• Documented policies and procedures
Once your employees know their responsibilities, the next step is to ensure that they are conscious of how their responsibilities intermingle with their actions to contribute to the company’s progress. So, as a manager, you must define the operational procedures and break them down into more uncomplicated documents. These procedures must be discussed in every staff training session. in how many clauses are in iso 9001, you can learn everything about iso clauses.

You must conduct management meetings every month to re-evaluate how your employees have assimilated the procedures. These monthly meetings would help dispel misconceptions about task descriptions, roles or responsibilities and assess their awareness level.

ISO 9001 competence training and awareness procedures takeaway If we have to summarise how managers can amalgamate clauses 7.2 and 7.3 of ISO 9001 to conduct competence and awareness training, we would recommend that you begin by:

1. Determining the competence level required to complete a specific job/task. After determining the level of competence, assess the staff for their current competency levels. Do not make the mistake of only incorporating the training programmes that have occurred in your organisation. Include prior training, previous experience and the educational background of the individual.
2. Make your staff aware of the gap between the desired level of competence and the actual level through documented policies, procedures, team meetings and additional training sessions.
3. Here, follow up with assessments to understand how much the staff has assimilated.
4. Skills must be updated within the skill matrix so that business owners and managers have an accurate snapshot of the organisation. In an ideal situation, the update should be made every month, but quarterly will do in a pinch.

Conclusion

Without the proper competence, your employees will not be able to appropriately perform the tasks related to your QMS. Additionally, without the proper awareness, they will not understand the implications of their actions. Clause 7.2 of ISO 9001 guides managers in identifying their employees’ competence levels, and clause 7.3 helps them enhance their awareness. If you need  iso9001 certification australia, call us at +61280056444.