Beacon Compliance gives 4 tips to ensure your internal auditing is the best it can be!

‘You’re only as good as your internal auditing’ is our motto here at Beacon Compliance. Many people don’t dig deep enough and rest on their laurels when it comes to internal auditing, saying ‘we passed our audit last year, so we will this year’. Other people leave it to the last minute and either copy the previous years’ internal audits (yes, this actually happens) or try to complete them as fast as they can, missing out important changes that have happened over the year. Doing this increases the risk of food safety incidents and gaining unwanted non-conformances during audits.

We on the other hand, don’t do this. We’re not afraid to get to the nitty gritty; We’d rather discover the issues and help fix them before an auditor picks them up or anything bad happens!

Internal auditing is the only way to find out the answers to these two, all important questions:

1) Does your quality management system meet the requirements of the standard? and

2) Are you doing what your quality management system says you’re doing?

If the answer to these questions is ‘No’, you’ll end up with a food safety incident and a non-conformance faster than the rise of fuel prices (*gulp*). To make sure you always answer yes, follow our tips!

· We always have an internal audit schedule. An internal audit schedule listing each section of the standard being followed ensures that no part of the standard is missed, allowing the whole quality management system to be reviewed before the real audit.

· We plan in dates for internal audits with our clients throughout the whole year. Spreading the audits throughout the year makes it easier to focus on one area and leaves plenty of time to implement corrective actions.

· Use independent auditors (like us). Seeing the same problems every day can make you blind to them, so much so, they become normal and you don’t see them as problems anymore. Ensuring the auditor is trained and independent brings in a fresh pair of eyes, which helps identify those problems that you’ve become so used to.

· Report the good as well as the bad. No one likes a Debbie Downer! We like to show what our clients are complying with as well as what they aren’t. This makes people feel more appreciated, so are more likely to work together on the non-compliant issues that have been identified.

Visit our website and social media pages for more tips and tricks or get in touch with us for a free 30-minute consultation. We’d love to hear from you!