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Effective Recruiting for the Auditor Position

help wanted Effective Recruiting for the Auditor Position

Stop begging people to help you audit. Learn how to recruit auditors more effectively.

This blog shares thoughts related to effectively recruiting for the auditor position. One suggestion may surprise you.

Nearly 100% of the people I train as auditors were not hired specifically to be auditors. Instead, auditing is something extra that they were asked to do, in addition to their regular job. This situation creates three problems for the audit program manager:

  1. You have difficulty getting enough people to perform the audits.
  2. Most auditors will come from your department, so who is going to audit you?
  3. Auditors have little or no motivation to develop their auditing skills.

Stop begging for “volunteers” from other departments and start recruiting.

When I am recruiting someone to audit, I always get asked two questions:

  1. Who/What will I be auditing?
  2. What will I have to do?

You need to motivate people to become auditors because it requires extra work. The answer to #2 should be specific. I recommend creating a “sell sheet” that explains the process of performing an audit. I also like to develop educational sell sheets. Therefore, I recommend adopting the flow chart in ISO 19011:2011 (Figure 2 on page 15). I would add time estimates for each step of the process (6.2 – 6.7). This will serve as a training tool for future auditors and will eliminate the fear of an unknown time commitment for your potential recruit.

In order to answer #1, I recommend you assign the recruit processes that are upstream and downstream. I have recommended this concept in previous postings, but essentially you are assigning the person to audits of internal suppliers and internal customers. By doing this, utilizing the process approach will be more natural to the auditor and they will have a vested interest in doing a thorough audit. This also creates a situation where the auditor is typically assigned to at least two process audits per year.

The next question is one that your potential recruit will never ask, but they are always thinking…

Why should I become an auditor?

The biggest reason why you want to be an auditor is that it will make you more valuable to the company.

Auditors are required to interview department managers and ask tough questions. This gives the auditor a better understanding of the organization as a whole, and it gives them insight into how other managers work. This insight is pure gold.

If you want to be effective and get promoted, you need to demonstrate value to your boss and top management. If you don’t understand what other departments need, how can you help them? No manager will promote a selfish, power-hungry hog. They promote team players that make others better. Auditing gives you the insight necessary to understand how you can do that.

Auditing other departments will also give you insider information as to where new job openings will be. Sometimes you can’t wait for your boss to get promoted. In that case, you might want to know more about other departments in your company.

Each corporate culture is different, but the audit program manager needs to “sell” the recruit on volunteering to be an auditor.

Where to find recruits

Due to the cross-functional nature of auditing, I have found that my own personal experience working in multiple departments was invaluable. I have a better understanding of how a department functions than other auditors because I have worked in that department at another company. Operations, engineering and research experience are extremely valuable for auditing, but I believe the experience that transfers best to auditing is any position where you are addressing customer complaints and returns—such as technical support or service.

If your company is large enough to hire full-time auditors, I recommend searching for potential auditors at your suppliers and their competitors. These people will bring unique knowledge that is critical to a successful supplier selection process, and these individuals will increase the diversity in your company—instead of duplicating knowledge and expertise.

Posted in: ISO Auditing

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Auditor Job Responsibilities: The Toughest Thing to Do

The author reveals his thoughts related to auditor job responsibilities and what the toughest thing to do is.

Today was my last day as an external resource for BSI,  and tomorrow will be my last day as an independent consultant. On March 1st, I begin a new job as Sr. Regulatory Affairs Manager for Delcath Systems, Inc. in Queensbury, NY. I am grateful to everyone that I had the pleasure of meeting during the past two-and-half years as a 3rd party auditor, instructor, and consultant. I have learned so much from you all. Your parting wishes were very kind and supportive. I sent out emails to as many of you as I could to notify you of this change. Instead of brief acknowledgment and “Good Luck!” I received genuine words of thanks and compliments that made me feel very lucky that we have had such an unusual relationship for an auditor and auditee—very much like cats and dogs that learn to live together in the same house.

One of you described the typical relationship with an auditor quite well, “Having an auditor come to your place is always a somehow stressful time. You are always afraid of failing somewhere.” This same person sent me an email last night saying, “I feel like you are one of my friends.” Another auditee walked by another team member and me a few weeks ago while we were waiting for a ride. Instead of avoiding eye contact and walking right on by, he stopped and thanked us for really helping to bring attention to areas that need improvement. This same gentleman had endured a tough interview by me, where I pointed out mistakes in drawings, procedures, and his own QC inspection of incoming raw materials. This person has the right attitude.

Auditor Job Responsibilities

As an auditor, we must come to a conclusion as to whether the evidence we collect demonstrates conformity or nonconformity. When we identify nonconformities, we must explain our findings. The toughest part of the job is how to “break the news.” If you do it well, the auditee will agree with you and thank you for helping to improve the quality system. If you do it poorly, the auditee will resent you and may even toss you out on your ear.

In my first-ever ISO certification audit, I was the auditee, and the auditor that interrogated our team was horrible. Not only did the auditor “break the news” poorly, but the conclusions were also wrong in several instances. To make matters worse, the CEO and the regulatory consultant I had hired were so upset with our auditor that I had to play referee just to keep them from killing the auditor. We received a recommendation for ISO 13485 certification at the end of that audit, but I learned a valuable lesson: “Always look at an audit as an opportunity to improve.” The worst that can happen is that the auditor will require you to implement corrective action. The best that can happen is that you will need to perform internal audits to identify opportunities for corrective actions on your own. Who cares who finds the opportunities to improve?

Auditors and auditees maybe cats and dogs, but we should learn to help each other get better without getting upset or feeling anxious.

My third-party auditing days may be done, but I will continue to share my thoughts through this blog, and I hope you will share your feedback too.

Posted in: ISO Auditing

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