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Choosing a certification body can sometimes be difficult. You are inviting an auditor in to your business to asses your processes and decide whether or not your company should be certified to ISO9001, 14001 or whatever standard you have chosen. What if this person doesn't understand your business? What if they want to impose their own opinion of how you should do things? What if they are completely unreasonable? All these issues and more can and do occur regularly. Its not all bad news though. There are a number of certification bodies out there so if you are not happy theres always another option. Heres a few tips to help choose the certification body that's right for you:
1. Check they have JAS-ANZ Accreditation. This is mandatory if you want the certification to be accepted by your client. You can check this on the JAS-ANZ website.
2. Don't just go for the biggest certification body. Often larger certification bodies are more expensive, do not provide the best service, are less flexible and have a lower standard of auditor.
3. Ask who the auditor is (it most likely won't be the flashy salesman that comes to see you), what is their experience, ask for their CV, ask to meet them. After all the auditor is who you will mostly deal with. If they don't fit your business, ask for another one.
4. Ask how frequent your audits will be and what the duration will be. This can range from 6 months to 12 months. Some certification bodies increase the time between audits after a period of time, some will just go straight to 12 months. 12 months is the maximum JASANZ will allow between audits.
5. Try to avoid making the decision just on price and also avoid just going for the easiest auditor. Having an auditor that doesn't audit your business properly might sound like an easy run, but it comes crashing down if you suddenly get a client audit you or you have an incident.
For help with certification to ISO9001:2015 (ASNZS ISO9001:2016), ISO4001:2015 (ASNZS ISO14001:2016), AS4801:2001 and ISO45001:2018 feel free to call or email us!
