Right for the job?

Some individuals are just not the right people to become auditors. And as a result, the auditor competence requirements of ISO 19011:2002 are now often gauged with the help of information technology. John Broomfield, president of US-based Quality Management International Inc., finds out about the new personnel standard ISO 17024:2003 and sees if personal attribute profiling is the way forward

In the US, customers of certification bodies are becoming more informed about standards and certification. Consequently, these increasingly knowledgeable auditees have become more demanding, and find it harder to accept service failures from the auditors that represent their independent, accredited certification bodies.

There are also changes in the certification industry. Under the previous standard, EN 45013, the difficulty, according to the Quality Society of Australasia (QSA), was that the approach relied on experience, number of audits, analysis and audit report which does not comprehensively examine the application of acquired knowledge.

People measurement

The new standard for organizations certificating people, ISO/IEC 17024:2003, aims to define and objectively measure competence. It states clearly, for the first time, the industry’s expectations of performance and specific competences, which has meant that, according to QSA: ‘The alignment of the competence of the person to defined business outcomes is now the essential first step in the certification process.’

Indeed, 90 per cent of formal and informal complaints that QSA receives each year relate to the auditor’s conduct on site, not knowledge or skill. Common failures, according to QSA, are:

• issuing statements of claimed non-conformances (see ISO 9000:2000, which lack a requirement or evidence of failure of the system to fulfill a requirement
• advising - instead of auditing - on how to improve the system (when contrary to the documented audit objectives)
• lack of care for the customer’s property, as evidenced by the willingness of the auditor to give away information that belongs to his or her other audit clients
• behaviour that is contrary to the required attributes of an auditor

However, this new challenge of examining skill and personnel attributes and how they are applied is a difficult one. Sometimes the wrong people are choosing (or being chosen) to become auditors. Competence as defined in ISO 9000 means demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills’. Therefore, most learning processes tend to focus students on acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary for them to do a good job. So how can certifiers objectively deny unsuitable auditors accredited certification?

Bring in the technology

The Registrars Accreditation Board (RAB), a not-for-profit organization based in the US which provides certification for auditors, has recently formed a partnership with QSA, and establishes RABQSA International on 1 January 2005 . The organization aims to ensure that applicants have obtained an objective and standardized verification of their attributes or aptitude to audit before certification. The goal is to avoid the situation in which an incompetent auditor’s certification is removed.

To do this, RABQSA is using the personal attribute assessment system (PAAS Master) as part of its new accredited certification process. The software covers the attributes detailed in ISO 19011:2002 that all management system and process auditors should be capable of demonstrating. These are shown in the box below. The online examination comprises 85 psychometric questions to measure personal attributes.

It is not a straight pass/fail evaluation. The software analyzes each answer to determine whether the candidate may demonstrate the required attributes. Attributes beyond those required are included to indicate the potential of the applicant to add value to their performance - most usefully to guide his or her ongoing professional development.

The model tells RABQSA and not the candidate where he or she may not be able to demonstrate the required attributes considered in relation to the other competences of skill and knowledge. Accordingly, RABQSA will invite any applicant to an interview with the scheme examiner where test indicates weakness in one of the required attributes. The examiner will first validate the result and may recommend appropriate professional development or may decline certification.

Psychometric models may not be to everyone’s taste and do not, of course, replace training and qualifications. But it could be that they come to increase the value of the audit process for well-informed auditor customers, and in turn make their hard-earned certificate just that little bit more meaningful.

Personal attributes required of an auditor - as published in ISO 19011

Ethical
Fair, truthful, sincere, honest and discreet

Open-minded
Willing to consider alternative ideas or points of view

Diplomatic
Tactful in dealing with people

Observant
Actively aware of physical surroundings and activities

Perceptive
Instinctively aware of and able to understand situations

Versatile
Adjusts readily to different situations

Tenacious
Persistent, focused on achieving objectives

Decisive
Reaches timely conclusions based on logical reasoning and analysis

Self-reliant
Acts and functions independently while interacting effectively with others

About the author

John Broomfield is the president and chief executive of Quality Management International, an RAB-accredited training provider and firm of management system consultants based in Pennsylvania, US. He has worked as a management, systems and process consultant since 1986 to develop process-based management systems for organizations from a wide variety of industries and government agencies. He established www.aworldofquality.com in 1997 as a global open resource for system development teams.