Achieving ISO certification is a big milestone, but it isn’t the finish line. To keep your certificate, your certification body will come back each year to carry out a surveillance audit.
If you’ve got one coming up, there’s no need to worry. Here’s what to expect, what the auditor will look at and how to make sure it goes smoothly.
What Is a Surveillance Audit?
A surveillance audit is a regular check carried out by your certification body to make sure your management system is still working as it should. ISO certificates are valid for three years, and during that time you’ll usually have a surveillance audit once a year.
In the third year, a recertification audit takes place instead. This is a fuller review that renews your certificate for another three years.
How Is It Different from Your First Audit?
Your initial certification audit looked at your whole system in detail. A surveillance audit is shorter and more focused. The auditor won’t necessarily review every part of your system each time. Instead, they’ll sample different areas across the three-year cycle, while always checking a few key elements.
For most small and medium-sized businesses, a surveillance audit takes around a day. The exact time depends on the size of your organisation and how many standards you hold.
What Will the Auditor Look At?
While every audit is different, the auditor will usually want to see:
- Internal audits: evidence that you’ve been checking your own system throughout the year.
- Management review: records showing that senior staff have reviewed how the system is performing.
- Previous findings: proof that any issues raised at your last audit have been dealt with.
- Complaints and problems: how you’ve handled customer complaints and things that have gone wrong, and what you’ve done to stop them happening again.
- Objectives: progress against the goals you’ve set for your business.
- Changes: any changes to your business, such as new sites, services, staff or equipment, and how you’ve managed them.
They’ll also talk to members of your team to see how the system works day to day.
What Happens After the Audit?
At the end of the visit, the auditor will hold a closing meeting to go through what they’ve found. Findings usually fall into three groups:
- Opportunities for improvement: suggestions that could make your system work better. You don’t have to act on them, but they’re often worth considering.
- Minor nonconformities: small gaps or one-off lapses. You’ll need to put together a plan to fix them, which is usually checked at your next audit.
- Major nonconformities: more serious issues, such as part of the system not working at all. These need to be put right quickly. If they aren’t closed within the agreed timescale, your certificate can be suspended.
Most well-run businesses come away with a few minor points at most, and plenty pass with no findings at all.
How to Prepare for Your Surveillance Audit
A little preparation goes a long way. In the weeks before your audit:
- Check your internal audits are up to date and any actions from them have been closed.
- Hold your management review if it’s due, and make sure it’s recorded.
- Review last year’s findings and gather evidence of what you’ve done about them.
- Update your records, such as training, supplier reviews and calibration, where relevant.
- Brief your team so they know the auditor may ask them questions about their role.
The best preparation, though, is to keep your system ticking over all year round, rather than leaving everything until the month before the audit.
How JR Consultants Can Help
At JR Consultants, we help you keep your certification as well as achieve it. Our ongoing support can include internal audits, management review support and audit preparation, so you go into every surveillance visit with confidence.
As a friendly, family-run consultancy that has worked in ISO since 1992, we keep things simple and practical. Your system should work for your business, not the other way round.
If you’ve got a surveillance audit coming up and want some support, contact our team today.
Request Call Back.
If you need to speak to us about a general query fill in the form below and we will call you back within the same working day.