ISOsafe's top tips for managing your subcontractors

Every business owner expects their subcontractors to uphold the same standards as their staff, but maintaining subcontractor compliance onsite is another challenge altogether.
Many businesses rely on subcontractors to meet high-demand or fill a geographic need. When you hire subcontractors, they represent your company, so it’s important to make sure they have the same information and guidelines as your staff.
Having in place carefully considered and planned agreements are a must for any business looking to better manage their subcontractors. ISOsafe’s simple and straightforward contractor management system allows business owners to manage multiple subcontractors, across all projects. ISOsafe’s solution will help your project managers identify, engage and share feedback on subcontractors. 

Why subcontractor compliance matters:
• It’s your responsibility to make sure your subcontractors carry out work in line with Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety Laws
• Aside from legal requirements and safety codes, you want to make sure your subcontractors maintain the high company standards you’ve set for your staff.
• You set Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for a reason and it’s your responsibility to communicate those customer agreements and expectations to your subcontractors.
• If you enforce strong standards across your organisation and the subcontractors you work with, you’ll prove yourself as a reliable, trustworthy company to work with, helping you attract new business.

It’s clear there are many reasons to enforce compliance across your team of subcontractors, but how do you actually do it? Here are 5 strategies, from ISOsafe’s contractor management system:
• Quality Control
One way to verify subcontractors are meeting your company’s standards is to send project managers into the field to verify jobs by inspecting the subcontractor’s work. Depending on your organisational structure, you may find that instead of sending project managers into the field to check subcontractors’ work, you could have customers sign off on the subcontractor’s job form, affirming they were there and did the job to the customer’s satisfaction. 
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Not only does this help you see whether your customers are happy with the subcontractors’ work, it also gives you (and the subcontractor concerned) data over time to guide how you improve customer satisfaction. 
• Customised Inspection Forms
To standardise the inspection process, you could have subcontractors complete an inspection form onsite to check their compliance and ensure they’re living up to company standards. This may be accompanied with photographic evidence. 

Consistent and positive customer experience is pivotal to your business’ growth. 
Not only do you want to make sure your subcontractors are meeting safety codes and legal service requirements, you also want to ensure your customers each receive the same quality experience every time they work with you. If your subcontractors are under performing or failing to take advantage of their time onsite, it reflects poorly on your company. 

Customer satisfaction is arguably the most important measurement of a strong service organisation. By demanding consistent, quality service from subcontractors by holding them accountable, you’ll make sure you exceed customer expectations every time instead of just hoping your team of subcontractors follows your guidelines.

Grow your business with an ISO 9001 certification

Many smaller businesses grow very slowly with the capacity to serve a limited customer base, delivering limited volumes and operating within a defined area.

Potential customers outside this immediate demographic are sceptical when higher value contracts are on the line.

For any business to grow, it must offer it’s customers consistent, reliable results.

Keeping existing business, is as important as, winning new business. It has been tried and tested millions of times over, an ISO 9001 Quality Management System is the best way to grow confidence among your customers.

What is ISO 9001? It is the international standard that defines the key parameters that demonstrate the certified organisation is capable of consistently delivering on its stated customer promises. It is the language that businesses and the supply chain understand. It gives confidence to those who deal with your business that you can deliver.

What does ‘certified’ to ISO 9001 mean? This means a recognised independent and accredited organisation has assessed your business against the requirements of the standards and verifies that the organisation meets those requirements.

What is the process for ISO 9001 certification? It is a 3 stage process; the use of an experienced consultancy can make this a painless and seamless process.
1. Gap Analysis– This is an assessment of the current position of the organisation against the requirements of ISO 9001
2. Implementation of ISO 9001– This process involves a range of activities to close the gaps identified in the gap analysis.
3. Certification Audit– An accredited certification body will conduct an onsite audit to independently verify that your organisations’ operations meet the requirements of ISO 9001. An (annual) regime of surveillance audits will be put in place by the certification body to verify continuing compliance.
Following certification, your business' newly acquired credentials should be at the heart of your sales and marketing strategy. It is important that everyone in your supply chain is made aware that your business is certified.

With an ISO 9001 certification your business can confidently apply for both public and private sector tenders/contracts directly, rather than as a subcontractor.

ISOsafe is Australia’s leading supplier of ISO consultancy services supporting SMEs in their effort to be more competitive; by improving quality performance, customer satisfaction and, ultimately, their market share. Get in touch today on 1300 789 132 to learn more about our services for your business. 

Transition to ISO 9001:2015 - What to expect

Preparation is key when it comes to avoiding non-conformances. So we’ve collated the top three questions auditors ask during ISO 9001 transition audits, as well as, some suggestions on how your quality management system could address each of these questions.

1. How have you determined the external and internal issues that are relevant to your business and its strategic direction? (Understanding the organization and its context – clause 4.1)
Big businesses will typically have a strategic business plan. It is important to refer the auditor to the sections of your plan that cover the external forces, internal strengths and weaknesses.
On the other hand, small businesses should refer to their Vision and Mission statements to demonstrate where the business is heading – its strategic direction. Further, a SWOT analysis is a simple and effective tool used to identify the external and internal issues. “SWOT” stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. With Strengths and Weakness being internal issues and Opportunities and Threats being external issues. 
Useful tip: ISO 9001:2015 does not require any of this to be documented the term it uses is “determined”, however, we’ve found that many auditors want written evidence. Remember, we are here to help with SWOT analysis and all other ISO 9001 transition requirements – get in touch today.

2. How have you determined the quality risks and opportunities that need to be addressed? (Actions to address risks and opportunities – clause 6.1)
Many big businesses already have a risk manager or risk department, and it is quite common for them to be fixated on the big picture risks to the business. Further, they may not be concerned with the opportunities for the business – where it could be growing. And because quality is about the customer, some of these risks and opportunities will need to be related to the customer. The quality management system should include all identified risks and opportunities, so any actions and quality objectives should be aligned. 
For small businesses we recommend the use of a risk register. If your business has a safety system, you almost certainly will have one. If you don’t have one – create one (or leave it to ISOsafe). Your risk register should identify quality risks and opportunities, this involves looking at your business through the eyes of your customer - what you would not like if you were a customer (risk), and what would you like the business to be doing if you were a customer (opportunity). Once you have a list of customer risks and opportunities, identify how you can reduce the negative risks and build on the opportunities.
Useful tip: ISO 9001:2015 requires documented information as evidence of management reviews and these reviews should include the effectiveness of actions taken to address risks and opportunities.

3. How have you determined the inputs required and outputs expected from your quality management system processes? (Quality management system and its processes – clause 4.4.1)
Any organization that is certified to ISO 9001:2008 should have the interaction of processes already described in their quality manual. ISO 9001:2015 requires more detail on process interaction, calling for the identification of all inputs and outputs relating to each process. 

Large businesses, managing a number of different projects should have process maps in place. This could be an arduous task identifying the inputs and outputs of each of these individual processes. Warning: Auditors could have a field day here! Simplify and streamline your processes to make identifying inputs and outputs easier. 

Small businesses will also need to draw up a process map. However, ISO 9001:2015 does not require a quality manual. This is a good thing. Many small business can meet the requirements without bulky, and impractical manuals.

Useful tip: There is a lot of talk about the process approach in this version of ISO 9001:2015 however, it was very clearly spelled out as a requirement in ISO 9001:2000 so it’s been around for at least 15 years. If your consultant, quality person or auditor doesn’t know this – get a new one!

Court imposes $150, 000+ fine on labour hire company

The South Australian Industrial Court recently imposed a penalty of $150 000 plus court costs to a Queensland based labour hire company for failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment.
On 22nd October 2012, a contracted employee of the labour hire company was working on the South Road Superway project, when his head was crushed between a lifting arm and welding table, suffering life threatening injuries.
Following investigation by SafeWork SA, the labour hire company was charged with offences under the then Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1986 (SA), for failure to ensure its employee was safe from injury and risk to health whist at work, as far as was reasonably practicable.
SafeWork SA executive director, Marie Boland said it is the responsibility of the labour hire company to ensure hazard identification and risk assessments are completed at the host workplace before employees commence work. Boland added “this conviction reinforces that a labour hire company has a work health and safety duty to employees which cannot be delegated to others including joint venture partners”.
Don’t risk noncompliance. ISOsafe’s services will protect your labour hire business. We will prepare all safety documentation, including risk assessments on your behalf, to demonstrate compliance. Call us now 1300 789 132 or email us at enquiries@isosafe.com.au, to learn more about our services for businesses and their owners.

ISO 9001:2015 - How we can help you get there

ISO 9001 is the internationally recognised standard for Quality Management Systems (QMS). It is the most widely used standard in the world, with over 1.1 million certificates issued to organisations in 178 countries.

ISO 9001 provides a framework and set of principles that ensure a common-sense approach to the management of your organisation to consistently satisfy customers and other stakeholders. In simple terms, it provides the basis for effective processes and effective people to deliver an effective product or service time after time.

ISO 9001:2015 was released on 15th September 2015. Organisations currently registered to ISO 9001:2008 will have 3 years to make the transition to the 2015 version. In support of the transition process, we wanted to answer some of the more common questions that we have received.

 Why was ISO 9001 revised?

All ISO standards are revised every five years to keep them current and relevant to the marketplace.

When should my organisation start the transition process and how will ISOsafe assist me through the transition?

Immediately! The first step is to contact ISOsafe – we’ll work with you on the transition timeline. The next step is to sit back while our expert consultant prepares all the necessary documents and delivers the ISO training your staff require. We will run the ISO project, on your behalf, through to issue of certificates.

Can our organisation upgrade in 2016 during a re-certification or surveillance audit?

Yes, providing your quality management system meets the requirements of ISO 9001:2015. Organisations may transition during a surveillance, recertification or special audit.  Transition audits will take place in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

My organisation is thinking of getting certified to ISO 9001 in 2016, what version should we be using?

We suggest you consider ISO 9001:2015 but this is your decision and ISOsafe will support an initial certification to ISO 9001:2008.

If you are seeking ISO 9001 certification for the first time, you can expect the following benefits: operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, process improvement, product improvement, reduced wastage, enhanced risk management at all levels in your business and new business / contracts – as this globally recognised certification will give your business a competitive edge in the market.

How can I get a copy of the ISO 9001:2015 Standard?

ISOsafe recommend purchasing Standards from an Australian supplier, such as SAI Global.

What are notable changes when transitioning to ISO 9001:2015?

The new ISO 9001 standard aligns with high-level organizational structure, requiring all new ISO management system standards to be aligned on a high-level structure with a set of common requirements. Additionally, there is a greater emphasis on risk-based thinking as a basis for the management system, more focus on achieving value for the company and its customers, increased flexibility regarding use of documentation, and a more approachable structure for service businesses.

ISOsafe have helped many organisations seamlessly transition to the revised Standards. Don’t wait till its late call us today on 1300 789 132