procedure 11 recruitment and training -...

Procedure 11 Recruitment and Training

Recruitment and Training

Proc 11 / Issue 19 Page 1 of 13

Table of Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 2

2 Head Office Personnel ................................................................................................... 2

3 Auditors and Technical Expert Recruitment ................................................................... 4

3.1 Flowchart of Recruitment Process .......................................................................... 4

3.2 Auditors and Technical Expert Recruitment ............................................................ 5

3.3 Risk Evaluation ....................................................................................................... 6

4 Training .......................................................................................................................... 7

5 Internally Trained Auditor Programme ............................................................................ 8

5.1 Auditor Levels/Grades ............................................................................................ 8

5.2 Training Course Requirements ............................................................................... 9

6 Witnessed Audits ........................................................................................................... 9

6.1 Evaluator .............................................................................................................. 10

7 Competence Assessment (Scope Reviews) Process ................................................... 10

7.1 Auditor Competence Requirements ...................................................................... 10

7.2 Certification Officer/Decision Maker Competence Requirements .......................... 11

7.3 Contract Reviewer Competence Requirements .................................................... 11

7.4 Competent Personnel Reviewer Competence Requirements ................................ 11

7.5 Allocation of Audit and Certification Personnel ...................................................... 11

8 Document Revision History .......................................................................................... 12



1 Introduction This document sets out the procedure for the recruitment, training and competence of all personnel involved with the assessment and certification activities of IMS International. This includes both employed and contracted staff. The process detailed within this procedure will also be applied for the recruitment and monitoring of Technical Experts, as required. Technical Experts will be required to meet the technical aspects of the competence review for auditors. However, the requirements relating to completion of an auditing course and to completion of observed audits will not be required.

2 Head Office Personnel When recruiting management and/or administration personnel to be involved in certification activities, the Certification Director or delegated representative will prepare/update a job description (Doc 17) setting out the duties for the post. Applications will be invited using appropriate mechanisms, e.g. advert in papers or trade magazines, recruitment agency, known contacts etc. Applicants will be asked to provide a C.V and any associated certificates. Applicants not previously known to IMS will be interviewed by Management staff. For senior posts, and at the discretion of the Certification Director, a member of the Impartiality Committee could be invited to join the interview panel to offer advice. A review of risks will take place prior to commencement of work and will be carried out as per section 3.3. The induction programme for successful applicants will cover, as a minimum:

IMS structure, background and working practices;

Introduction to relevant personnel;

Training in relevant procedures associated with the job role;

Issue of relevant documentation appropriate to the post;

Copy of the Employee Handbook (Doc 27)

Any other training as relevant. The induction process will be recorded on Form 19 and will be maintained in the personnel file. All new employees will undertake a probation period of three months. A member of the management team will be assigned as line-manager, and will monitor performance during this period. The probation period may be extended if considered necessary by the Certification Director. Once probation has been successfully completed, this will be



recorded in the staff file. Any negative performance issues shall be recorded on the training record and communicated to the employee Appraisals will take place if considered necessary by the employee or Certification Director. Training needs will be identified at appraisal and on an on-going basis including by the following mechanisms:

Observation;

Internal Audit results;

Knowledge of the individual's performance;

Personal request to the Certification Director;

Changes in procedures. Training undertaken will be evaluated at appraisal meetings or within the Management Review Meetings. Scope review forms (Proc 18) have also been developed for administrative tasks and shall be completed by office personnel before performing any duties without supervision. The forms shall be completed and saved within the personnel file; the Skills Matrix (Doc 10) will be updated.



3 Auditors and Technical Expert Recruitment

3.1 Flowchart of Recruitment Process



Inform auditor that

skills not suitable

for IMS’ needs

Yes

Responsibilities Supporting Inputs

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

New Scope Area

Shortage

Unsolicited

Discuss with auditor to

establish

understanding and

experience in auditing

and IRCA approved

course

Review to ensure

adequate experience

in relevant scope

areas

Review to establish

Skills and experience

of Auditing and

industry experience

New auditor

identified

Suitable?No

Issue auditor with

Form 30

Issue Contractor

or Confidentiality

Agreement

Complete

Witnessed Audit

Complete Related

Bodies Risk

Declaration

Ensure auditor is

aware of information

to be included on form

Form 40 will detail any

actions to be taken

See Section 7

Evaluator must be

competent as per

skills matrix

Suitable?

Establish general

experience

Request copy of

up to date CV and

Certificates

Save CV in CV

File

Suitable

experience?

Inform auditor that

experience is not

suitable for IMS’

EA Codes

Save CV, Form

30 and Observed

audit in CV File

No

Implement any

Appropriate

Preventive Actions

Identify suitable

Audit for

Observation

Inform auditor that

Knowledge is not

suitable for IMS’

Complete Scope

Reviews

Update Skills

Matrix (Doc 10)

Save CV, Form

30 in CV File

No

No

Yes

Ensure course

certificates are from

and Approved Course

such as IRCA

Doc 12 or 13

Form 40B; Utilise CV,

Form 30 and

discussions with

auditor

Section 6

Scope Reviews,

Through Observation

and Interview

Excel spreadsheet

Yes

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Certification

Director/

Operations

Director

Implement

Training?

Identify and

perform suitable

training as per

scope review

Yes

3.2 Auditors and Technical Expert Recruitment



C.V.s are received unsolicited or by request and are assessed to determine whether the person has the required experience and qualifications for the role to which is being sort. Other mechanisms will be used, for example seeking recommendations, referring to the Register of Assessors such as IRCA or OASIS, or by placing adverts in appropriate professional publications. Auditors will need to have attended an IRCA Registered (or Equivalent) ISO Lead Auditor Course. If they have not attended a Lead Auditor Course then they will either be helped to identify a course or they can attend the IMS Internal Course (see section 5). After the review of the CV, the auditor shall be issued an auditor competence evaluation (Form 30) which will further identify the relevant scope areas they have experience within. This form will need to be returned to IMS for review. They shall also be issued with a Related Bodies Risk Assessment Form as per section 3.3. Suitable candidates not previously known to IMS will be interviewed by members of IMS International’s management team or delegate. If accepted, and terms and conditions agreed, the new auditor will sign the Contractor Agreement (Doc 12) if they are a new organisation, or the Confidentiality Agreement (Doc 13) if they are employed by an organisation who has already signed the Contractor Agreement. Copies of all relevant certificates, references and other relevant documentation will be obtained and kept in the Staff File. The Auditor Handbook (Doc 32) will be issued. If they are to be employed by IMS directly they shall also complete the Induction Process as per section 2 of this procedure. Scope review forms (Form 31’s) shall be completed prior to any auditing activities taking place, these shall be completed as per requirements highlighted in section 7 of this procedure. New auditors will be required to undertake at least one satisfactory witnessed audit (see section 6) before being accepted as an IMS International Auditor. The auditor information shall be added to the skills matrix (Doc 10). Auditor Grades are assigned as per section 5.1 and recorded on the Auditor Pre-requisites form (Form 31A). However, if an auditor is attended an IRCA Lead Auditor course and has a number of years’ experience, they can receive a single Witnessed Audit as per section 6 instead of going through the full system audit review requirements.

3.3 Risk Evaluation As an organisation, IMS needs to remain impartial to ensure that trust can be placed within the schemes we provide. Each related body (including personnel) has the potential to influence the certification decisions and must be managed to ensure that certification decisions remain impartial. A review of risks will take place prior to commencement of any work being performed by a related body and will be carried out on the Related Bodies Risk Declaration (Form 40B).



Each body will be required to complete one of these forms and identify any known conflicts of interest which could potentially jeopardise our impartiality as a Certification Body. Upon receipt of the Risk Declaration, the Certification Director shall review the information and identify any preventive actions as well as identifying a risk level/rating to the body. The Risk Declaration Forms shall be placed into the Impartiality Committee folder so they can be checked and reviewed on a regular basis. The Auditor Risk Review Form (Form 40B) shall be maintained on a regular basis to monitor the risk controls in place. The Risk Review Form shall also be used to identify the Witnessed Audit frequency (Section 6), the identified frequency shall be highlighted on the internal audit schedule.

4 Training Where a training need is identified, the Certification Director will discuss the need with the auditor. For external training, e.g. related to changes in national / international standards or sector developments, it will generally be the responsibility of the auditor to arrange and fund the training. However this will be discussed on an individual basis and IMS International may arrange and fund the training at the discretion of the Certification Director. The Certification Director will arrange for any relevant internal training to be carried out as deemed necessary but will consist of at least one training course each year. The training course material shall be approved by the Certification Director and must be pertinent to the role of the auditor but can include items such as lessons learnt from previous audits, new scheme requirements, new legislation etc. The Regional Management Representative shall be responsible for delivering the training course to the auditors and obtaining their signatures of attendance. When the training course has been delivered, the attendee register shall be given to Head Office who will prepare training certificates to be held on file and to be issued to each attendee. Auditors will also be expected to keep their knowledge up-to-date, particularly with regard to changes to standards, schemes, and industry sector practices. AS9100 auditors are required to be approved by the industry scheme; compliance will be checked via the OASIS website on a regular basis. On-going performance of auditors will be undertaken through Certification Reviews, customer feedback, and feedback from audit team members. Feedback will be given to auditors on a regular basis via emails and the records maintained in their auditor file. Formal Witnessed Audits will be performed as per section 6 of this Procedure. Any examples of audits not being conducted in line with the requirements will be dealt with as necessary depending on the nature of the issue. For minor issues within reports; an email communication record will be maintained within the auditors file, repeated issues will result in formal non-conformances being raised. For non-conformances against the audit; the non-conformance procedure shall be followed (Proc 10).



5 Internally Trained Auditor Programme From time to time depending on location of the auditor, it may not be possible for the auditor to attend an IRCA Registered Lead Auditor Course (or Equivalent). In such cases, IMS shall provide internal training to the auditor. The auditor will need to have the correct knowledge, education and experience for auditing roles within the sector/EA code areas they will be used within before IMS decides they are suitable for attending the course. As a minimum, candidates will be required to have secondary education, four years full time experience or three years and education to degree level within the relevant field. At least two years full time experience will be within the relevant sector/EA code area. The IMS Head Office within the UK is responsible for approving all internal training courses used to train auditors to Lead Auditor status and approving internally trained auditors. Each Regional Management Representative is authorized to identify suitable training courses and internally trained auditors but the documentation must be sent to IMS UK for review and final approval.

5.1 Auditor Levels/Grades The internally trained auditors are categorised as Provisional Auditors, Auditors and Lead Auditors. Whilst attending the Lead Auditor training course, the applicants can register to be a Provisional Auditor and can be used within an audit team under the supervision of an already approved Lead Auditor. After the candidate has passed the training course they will remain as a provisional auditor until they have completed four full system audits (Initial or reassessment) consisting of at least 15 onsite man-days in total. Once these audits have been completed they can be categorised as Auditors and can perform audits as part of an audit team unsupervised. In order for the auditor to become a Lead Auditor, an additional three full management system audits (initial or reassessment) consisting of 10 onsite man-days in total are required to be performed but acting as a Lead Auditor. Another Lead Auditor must be part of the audit team. At least one of the audits will be witnessed by an already approved Lead Auditor.

Should a Lead Auditor want to obtain approval within another scheme (ISO 14001 etc), an additional three full management system audits (initial or reassessment) consisting of 10 onsite man-days in total are required to be performed but acting as a Lead Auditor or team member. At least one of the audits will be witnessed by an already approved Lead Auditor.

If the certificate of one auditor who approved by an auditor registration body has expired, this auditor can registered as the same grade internally trained auditor before the conversion of the relevant manage system standard.



The audit evidence and records of training are recorded on the Auditor Pre-requisites form (Form 31A) and will require the Certification Director or their delegate to authorise all stages and progression to the next auditor grades.

5.2 Training Course Requirements The Tutor shall be an already qualified lead auditor (IRCA or Equivalent) and will have auditing experience of at least one year. Any Tutor shall be approved by IMS Head Office. The content of the course shall be prepared by the tutor or provided to them and will at least cover the requirements of ISO 19011 and the relevant Management Standard (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 etc). The course content must be approved by IMS Head Office Management Team prior to any course taking place. The training course shall last at least 5 days in length, where an interpreter is needed, the course duration shall be increased by 20%. If the candidates have been trained previously on the management system and can provide the relevant certificate; the course duration can be reduced by 20%. If the auditor is already approved to one standard and they wish to expand into another scheme; the course duration can be reduced by 40% due to ISO 19011 requirements already being covered previously. The course content in that instance should only consist of the Standard elements (ISO 14001 etc) The training course shall contain an examination at the end which will require a pass of 70% or more, if they should fail the test, they shall be permitted one re-take. If they should fail the re-take, then they shall be required to attend the full course again. Successful candidates shall receive a certificate which is valid for three years. After three years, the candidate does not need to attend another training course if they have been performing regular audits and can demonstrate this through audit logs. If audits have not been performed before the expiration date, they will need to attend the training course again. A fee shall be charged to candidates for attending the course, this fee shall be determined by the local office providing the training course.

6 Witnessed Audits IMS maintain a skills matrix (Doc 10) which identifies auditor information and a record of when their last witnessed audit was performed and when the next one is due. Each auditor is required to have at least one witnessed audit every three years. Individual witnessed audit plans are highlighted on the internal audit plan, the witnessed audit frequency shall be based on the risk evaluation process within section 3.3. New Auditors and Auditors in training may be part of the audit team but the evaluator must not take part in the audit and shall take over the audit duties should it be necessary. The evaluator shall have final responsibility for the activities and findings of the auditor in training.



Auditors who will be carrying out aerospace audits shall be AEA’s according to the oasis database. Auditors for the AS/EN 9100 or AS/EN 9120 scheme will be witnessed by an AEA prior to full approval onto the IMS approved auditor list. The General Evaluation form shall be completed for all auditors (Form 14A), if performing Quality Management System audits; the Quality Evaluation form shall be completed (Form 14B), if performing Environmental and/or Health and Safety Management System audits; the Environmental & HS Evaluation shall be completed (Form 14C). After each Witnessed audit, the Certification Director or a delegated representative will review the completed Auditor Evaluation Forms and discuss the audit with the Evaluator. The Certification Director or delegated representative may restrict the auditor to undertaking only certain types of audit (e.g. only surveillance visits, or team member or initial audits) for a specified period, and this will be indicated on the Skills Matrix (Doc 10). When satisfied with performance, the evaluation forms shall be signed by the Evaluator.

6.1 Evaluator The Evaluator of any witnessed audit shall be a Lead Auditor identified within the skills matrix (Doc 10) as being competent for that clients’ EA scope area. The Evaluator shall receive training for the role and also complete the Scope Review for Auditor Evaluation (Form 31) before performing the witnessed audit.

7 Competence Assessment (Scope Reviews) Process Although each auditor may have undertaken a training course and have a number of years’ experience, they will be required to complete the scope review/competence assessment for each sector/EA code they are to be auditing against. Form 30 identified in section 3.2 of this procedure will have identified the possible sectors/EA codes that the auditor has knowledge in, the relevant Scope Review (Form 30) shall be issued to the auditor and completed before they can be used for any auditing activity. The person performing the technical review of the completed Scope Review shall be an already approved Lead Auditor within the Skills Matrix (Doc 10) and have already been deemed competent for that EA code as per the Skills Matrix. The development of these competence assessments is performed as per procedure 18. Should the auditors knowledge fall short a decision shall be made by the Certification Director in conjunction with the technical evaluator as to the corrective actions that can be put in place, this may result in additional training, witnessing or self-learning as per the Scope Review document. This may also result in the auditor not being approved for the EA code. Competence requirements for auditors, contract reviewers and decision makers for each of the schemes will be defined within their respective scheme documents.

7.1 QMS Auditor Competence Requirements



Each auditor must be able to demonstrate at least one of the following:

6 months experience within a supervisory position or 1 year in an operative role;

Consultancy experience (minimum of 20 days covering sector/EA code);

Auditing experience (minimum of 10 audit days covering sector/EA code);

Relevant qualification (level 3 or above in the sector/EA code).

7.2 QMS Certification Officer/Decision Maker Competence Requirements Each Certification Officer must be able to demonstrate at least one of the following:




Relevant qualification (level 3 or above in the sector/EA code). And they shall also have received training Procedure 6.

7.3 QMS Contract Reviewer Competence Requirements Each Contract Reviewer must be able to demonstrate at least one of the following:




Relevant qualification (level 3 or above in the sector/EA code). And they shall also have received training on Procedure 3 and 5.

7.4 Competent Personnel Reviewer Competence Requirements Each person who is assessing another person against a Scope Review must be able to demonstrate competence for the scheme they are reviewing someone against, they shall therefore already be approved as per the skills matrix (Doc 10). And they shall also have received training on this procedure (Proc 11).

7.5 Allocation of Audit and Certification Personnel Due to the nature of the controls within IMS, personnel are only required to understand the process of reviewing the skills matrix (Doc 10) and assigning personnel who are deemed competent on that document. Personnel are only entered onto the Skills Matrix once they have already been deemed competent by IMS Management. These requirements are detailed within Procedure 4.



8 Document Revision History

Date Amendment Revision

18th April 2013 Major revamp due to UKAS non-conformances. Made system much easier to follow, clarified the procedures. Added in the signoff for each auditor as being competent on the Evaluation forms. Added in reference to form 71 for annually reviewing the scope reviews.

17

24th October 2014

Added to new standard IMS template Updated General Manager to Certification Director Removed reference to TickIT Extracted information for Competence Identification (Scope reviews) and placed into Procedure 18 Changed Governing Board to Impartiality Committee Changed Risk Assessment to Risk Declaration Introduced internal training courses Highlighted the witnessed audit process and made more defined. Introduced at least one internal training course each year requirement Identified the evaluator role in more definition Improved the definition of the competence assessment process and included each of the roles as extracted from the scope reviews. Highlighted the risk evaluation process Introduced an induction process

18

26th February 2015

Changed the competence requirements within section 7 for the specific roles and made reference to individual scheme documents.

19

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