Introduction

In this article, Denis Ives, our newly appointed UK Manager explores some of the issues facing certification today.

There’s been much discussion in the industry press recently over the nature of 3rd party certification including the way in which the industry is regulated and controlled. Calls for reform are nothing new. The certification industry has often faced vociferous calls from its critics for change with solutions put forward as diverse as nationalisation, large procurement bodies and corporates organising accreditation or just simply total market reform.

The criticism has ranged from a question mark over the validity and value of the standards themselves through to the ability of certification bodies to provide meaningful assessment services.

This has been further complicated by the rise of non-UKAS accredited certification bodies who now have a growing part of the SME market and those accredited bodies offering consultancy under the same umbrella.

There is little doubt that certification faces testing times over the coming years as business demands more and our ability to really deliver the goods comes under the spotlight.

In this article, I look at some of the issues facing our industry today and what it really means for you as a user or purchaser of certification. I also outline what we stand for as a company and our vision of ‘business assurance.’

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Why accreditation matters

Our client-facing people are sometimes asked by prospective clients: who audits you? What controls are in place to ensure you give us a good service?

As a certification body, we carry out assessments to make sure that the client has the processes, procedures and controls in place to meet the requirements of their chosen standard. In much the same way, we’re also assessed by accreditation bodies who regularly audit us to review our processes to make sure they are effective, that we meet agreed standards and rules, and are offering a professional, impartial assessment service. In the UK, this is carried out by UKAS, the United Kingdom Accreditation Service.

However, there is nothing stopping anybody in the UK setting themselves up as a certification body and issuing ISO 9001 certificates. And it’s becoming big business. In the UK, a significant number of certificates are issued from non-UKAS accredited bodies. In some cases, these companies claim to be accredited by accreditation bodies other than UKAS, however potential users should question if the accreditation is independent of the certification company or do they share common directors, offices etc.

It is increasingly common to see companies offering consultancy and certification being accredited by organisations whose management team is made up by representatives from the companies they accredit.

As a potential purchaser or user of the certificates from these companies, ask yourself: if a certification body isn’t under the jurisdiction of the national accreditation body, what guarantee of independence, impartiality and capability do you have?

Most major purchasing organisations in the UK recognise the need for independence and impartiality of assessment and therefore reject tenders and goods from organisations who don’t hold UKAS accredited certification. A good example of this is the MoD. They prefer to use suppliers with certificated management systems and only recognise certificates from certification bodies accredited by UKAS or who are signatories to the International Accreditation Forum – Multi Lateral Agreement (IAF-MLA). *

LRQA has always supported accreditation. We were the first to sign up to UKAS in 1985 and still the only certification body who are authorised by UKAS to deliver accredited assessment services for both ISO 9001 and the environmental management system standard, ISO 14001 across all industry sectors. However, that doesn’t mean to say we’re a blind follower; there are issues that the market needs to grasp. And this is why, later this year we will be launching a new initiative to raise the profile of accreditation further to allow all companies to make an informed choice...watch this space.

* ‘Selling to the MoD’ 13th edition. Available on: www.contracts.mod.uk

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Consultancy and certification

The point of an assessment is to make a judgement. LRQA assessors are trained to give critical analysis. To feedback on system effectiveness. To give informed opinion. Our assessors do not give the solution because then it would be our solution, not the clients. And it’s here where consultancy differs to certification.

LRQA do not – and have no intention of – offering management systems consultancy. We support the use of professional independent consultants, so therefore don’t see the need to employ our own, believing it important for a certification body to have independence from the solution provided by good consultancy.

However, we do feel that with some certification bodies, this line has become blurred. If an assessor is auditing a system that their company has helped establish or implement, will they provide the same level of objectivity or be constrained by company loyalties? The principle of auditor independence is a requirement of all the main assessment standards for internal audit. Therefore following the same line of argument, shouldn’t the same principle apply, but even more so, for 3rd party audits?

The implications are clear. To ensure that real value is gained from assessment, we believe that consultancy needs to be independent from the assessment process. The solution must lay in a well informed marketplace which has the confidence to ask the difficult questions needed for informed corporate decision making.

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Value through people

As formalised management systems have matured to become an integral part of well run businesses, so companies are demanding more than just a certificate confirming compliance. What does delivering ‘value’ mean to you?

Our take on ‘value’ is a meaningful assessment delivered pragmatically. Talking to our clients, they tell us that most of the value from assessments comes from the skills, knowledge and understanding of our assessors. This means we need experienced auditors trained well beyond the basic IRCA registration requirements. Any UKAS accredited certification body should be able to confirm compliance but to provide feedback that can help improve the business and ultimately a company’s bottom line needs investment. It requires a commitment to train auditors to understand the industries in which they will work. People with an ability to communicate with top management in language they understand, and to accurately pinpoint the key areas that need to be improved.

In selecting a certification body, companies looking for more value from the assessment process should ask about the qualification and training of the auditors used. LRQA auditor training is based around recognised professional qualifications and many years of experience.

In addition to auditor development LRQA has made a major investment in new technology over the last few years which now means that the majority of our clients now receive their reports electronically. And it isn’t just the method of delivery that’s changing – it’s the content too. Our aim is to make a measurable difference to a client’s business. It’s about our assessors looking at and reporting on an organisation’s management systems and using time to build bridges between meeting standards and the business processes that go to making the organisation more competitive and more successful.

This is our approach to business. It’s a philosophy that underpins and informs everything we do. It’s going beyond compliance and a tick-box exercise. And we’ve called it ‘business assurance.’

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Assurance for your business

The market is changing and there is a general recognition that management systems are now more central to the running of the business than ever before. This was recognised by the standards makers who in 2000, published a radically altered ISO 9001 which signalled a dramatic shift in the profile of the standard. Its increased visibility to top management, closer alignment to the running of the business, less rigid emphasis on documented procedures resulted in broadening its appeal to all types of business.

We recognise the world is changing. To meet these challenges, we’ve built a business model and staked our reputation on giving substance to the concept of value. It’s our answer to increasing confidence and creating more certainty for both users of certification and purchasers.

But what does it mean in practice for you and your business?

It means our people are trained to provide insight, to think outside the confines of compliance with a standard and to identify and measure the effects of the management systems on the business. As an LRQA client, you will notice changes over the coming months including the way in which we carry out our surveillance visits, and the way in which we assess and report on the effectiveness and efficiency of your management systems. Information on this will be made available both here on our website, in other communications and from your assessor and account manager.

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Conclusion

In the twenty one years since LRQA was founded the certification market has changed considerably and so have the demands of both users and customers of certification.

Users of certification demand that they should be able to rely on a certificate issued as part of an assurance of a company’s ability to deliver on their promises. This will only be bought about by strong independent accreditation of certifiers and not by purveyors of ‘quick fix’ solutions for implementing and certifying systems.

Customers of certification are now demanding more than just a confirmation of compliance with the assessment standard; they require insight and feedback from the assessment process to help them improve their businesses. This value can only be achieved by a free market where customers can make an informed choice of certifier who’ll provide well qualified, experienced assessors to help make a difference and ultimately increase profitability.

The key question that all certification bodies need to wrestle with is how best to provide its client base with ‘value’ in a dynamic marketplace that has increasing expectations.

Our solution has been to re-think the value we offer to clients. It has been to put into play a new way of thinking, a strengthening of our service delivery and to back this up with ongoing training of all our people. This will take time and continued investment but we feel it’s our opportunity to show that we’re moving beyond compliance, and challenging the assumptions made of our industry.

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