Internal Auditor Professional Development

The Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB) requires me to have a certain amount of Professional Development time in order to maintain my certification. The reason for this is that professional development helps keep me current, and ensures my auditing skills are well maintained and ready for use. Internal auditors must also ensure their skills remain honed and do not deteriorate over time. This especially necessary with the changing of so many requirements such as; ISO 9K2K, ISO/TS 16949, the death of QS and the like. As standards and requirements change, internal auditors must also ensure their skills keep up with the changes. 

Professional development for internal auditors can be rather difficult. Most internal auditors wear other hats (have other responsibilities). They often don't have enough time to audit, let alone develop themselves professionally. So what is an auditor to do? The real question is closer to: "How professional do you want to be?" There are many considerations in what type of development, or how much professional development is needed. Some of the considerations are:

• Frequency of audits
• Auditor background

Frequency of audits:

If an internal auditor audits every day, then some level of professional development occurs every day. The important task then is to make sure the auditor is practicing the right thing correctly. However, if an internal auditor audits once a year, then there is risk for deterioration of skills. Here in Michigan, we change our clocks twice a year because of a thing called Daylight Savings. Twice a year, I must refer to my owner's manual so I can change the clock in one of my cars. I don't change the clock often enough to remember the sequence or steps of the process. If I had to change the clock on cars on the assembly line every day, then I probably will retain the information and not need a work instruction. Internal auditing is similar. If we don't use our skills often enough they will get rusty.

Auditor background:

Our backgrounds play a significant role in our professional development needs. Our past training and experience in the particular QMS help define our capabilities and weaknesses. This extends to our experiences with the organization and its processes as well. We must also not overlook our educational background. How much education, and what type of education we experienced could impact our ability to discover and communicate our findings.

Internal auditors need to determine how important internal auditing is to them. They need to take into account how often they audit and what the audit is like. They must also consider the processes they audit and their experience with those processes. From there, internal auditors need to determine which type(s) of professional development will best fit their needs. 

When considering development types do not be afraid to include communication and team involvement. Professional development needs to include all aspects of internal auditing. Specific subjects such as; report writing, conflict resolution, public speaking, statistical analysis and powers of observation are valuable tools in the internal auditor professional toolbox.

Excluding actual audit experience, there are four typical delivery methods an auditor can develop professionally:

• Classes
• Participation
• Books/journals
• Certification

Classes:

Taking classes is usually too difficult once you get past a couple of hurdles. First, is who is going to pay for them? I would hope the employer would, but that might not always be the case. The second hurdle is when is there time? With the advancement of Computer-Based Training (CBT) and Internet-Based Training classes can be offered "on demand" and rarely will travel be necessary. A recent check on Google ® using "ISO, internal auditor training" as key words listed over 19,000 links (Internal-Auditor.com was number 10). 

Also, do not rule out teaching classes! Teaching is one of the best ways to determine just how much you know. Most technical experts that turned to training will tell you until they became trainers, they had no idea how much they did NOT know about the subject. (I'm in that category, too!) Teaching requires a level of understanding that is much deeper than normal technical expertise. Teaching can be as simple as working one-on-one with a less experienced internal auditor, to teaching a formal internal auditor class.

Participation:

One of the best ways to develop professionally is to participate in groups, forums and associations that are focused on internal auditing. Participation in such venues will challenge you, encourage you, equip you and recharge you enabling you to remain (or gain) knowledge and skills required to perform effective audits. Regular dialog with others provide you with varying opinions and insights that will prove valuable as time progresses. 

Typical groups you can participate with are organizations such as ASQ , or perhaps your local trade association, such as the Michigan Tooling Association. Another participative program would be an on-line discussion group, such as the Elsmar Forums , or the email-based list serve at University of Wisconsin, Stout. I participate in the Elsmar and UW programs and have often found them to constantly look at auditing and the standards from different angles. This has helped me to understand the point of view of others. It has helped me, on more than one occasion, to explain the requirements to another in terms they could understand. Do not underestimate their value!

Books/journals:

Another method of keeping up with the times is through reading. A recent check on Google ® using "ISO, internal auditor books" as key words listed over 41,000 links (Internal-Auditor.com was number 1!). These links contain literally thousands of books. There are many good periodicals out there, like Quality Digest, Inside Quality and Quality Progress. Read them. Study them. Apply what you learn.

Certification:

Although we will be addressing internal auditor certification next year, I want to spend a little time on the subject today. Internal auditor certification, or even auditor certification, require the candidate to study a thorough body of knowledge. Even if the candidate does not become certified, studying the body of knowledge is often an eye opening experience. It exposes the internal auditor to aspects of internal auditing that might not be experienced otherwise.

Summary:

Auditing in today's volatile workplace requires internal auditors to be knowledgeable, alert and equipped. Professional development is the method internal auditors use to ensure their skills and abilities are capable of meeting the challenges facing them. Regardless of whether our employer fully supports our professional development, or if we have to develop strictly on our own time, we must continually strive to develop ourselves in order to perform at a high level.

As always...Good Auditing!

Publications such as Quality Digest are key components of internal auditor professional development. Here are some links to such publications:

• Quality Digest:  This publication is both on-line and in print.
• Quality Online:  Various aspects of quality. Published by Quality Magazine.
• Inside Quality:  On-line publication and links]
• Quality Progress: Official publication of American Society of Quality [Notice: If you do not belong to this organization. You should!]

Q – Is it permissible for us to use vendors that are not on the approved vendor list?

A –First of all, there is no requirement to have an approved vendor list (AVL). Even ISO/TS 16494 does not require an AVL The requirement is that you select, control and evaluate your vendors. The rules you make determine how you deal with the AVL. Some organizations use the AVL only for high impact items, and that is okay. Remember however, that if you use a vendor not on the AVL, you need to demonstrate how you chose that vendor, and that must be consistent with your QMS.

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www.iso9001compliance.com

ISO 9001:2000 Clause 6.4 Work environment

"The organization shall determine and manage the work environment needed to achieve conformity to product requirements."

A lot gets read into this clause. But basically, all it is saying is that the work environment must not cause a problem with product conformity. My favorite example would be if you paint your product and the customer has a paint finish requirement, you would not want to paint the product outside where dust, dirt, bugs and other things will become stuck to the paint. 

Other items that get attributed to this requirement, such as ergonomics, safety and cleanliness can only be cited if the situation interferes with the organization's ability to make conforming product. 

I think it might be harder to find a nonconformance here without finding nonconforming product first. And then, only if the nonconforming product was the result of the work environment.

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November 2001's question:

 You are the HR clerk performing an audit of production. According to procedures, all production employees involved in machining operations are required to have mandatory SPC training twice a year. The last session was just two weeks, and previous was about six months earlier. As you review the attendance records, you notice one name in particular. This individual's name was on both lists, yet you know (being the HR clerk) that this person was hired only two months ago. When the production manager was questioned about this, he simply states that you should not have that information and accuse you of using illegally obtained information to bias the audit. He abruptly ends the audit stating that if you "write him up", he will turn you in for misusing confidential information.

The answer: 

Internal auditing is not a police activity. It is a common practice for external auditors to compare hiring dates with training records. There is a strong possibility that the training records were "fudged". Individual training records would confirm this. Internal auditors must be careful. One could question if the auditor was truly independent, but no one could argue that hiring dates cannot be used to verify training records. A nonconformance was generated and nothing came about from the auditor being 'turned in'.

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I run into many internal auditors that become auditors because they 'have to'. They do not request to be an internal auditor, but become one because they are chosen by management. Other auditors I meet volunteer, but only when the need for internal auditors is revealed. The smallest group I meet are those internal auditors that seek out, on their own, the possibility of becoming an internal auditor. 

Regardless of which category you fall into, one thing you need to remember is to always do your best. Internal auditors don't always have the easiest, or most respected tasks. Yet, we need to always display only the highest level of professionalism. Professional development helps in keeping our professionalism at our peak.

Dave

...Good auditing!

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Because this site uses information from many different sources, it must be pointed out that any advice, tips, information, etc., provided should be regarded as opinion and not fact! What works well for one company may be a disaster for another. Also, what one registrar, or auditor may allow, another may not. As always, reflect on what you read, see if it fits into your own quality system, and if it conflicts with your auditor...you've got to make a decision