#198 How communication can make or break your Management System

One of the biggest contributors to a stagnating ISO Management System is a failure to communicate.

This has certainly been true in our experience with implementing ISO Standards for over 18 years, and as a result, we make sure to highlight awareness and communication as an integral step of the Implementation process.

It’s a wasted effort only to have your management system gathering dust in a rarely visited folder on your server. If you want to reap the benefits of ISO implementation, it’s in your best interest to make everyone aware of their role in relation to your management system and its continual improvement.

Today Ian Battersby explains what ISO Standards mean by awareness and communication, why they are so integral to a successful management system and how you can effectively communicate your management system.  

You’ll learn

·      What does awareness and communication mean in relation to ISO Standards?

·      Why should you communicate your management system?

·      The benefits of management system awareness

·      How can you effectively communicate your ISO management system?

 

Resources

·      Isologyhub

 

In this episode, we talk about:

[00:30] Join the isologyhub – To get access to a suite of ISO related tools, training and templates. Simply head on over to isologyhub.com to either sign-up or book a demo.

[02:05] Episode summary: Ian Battersby will be explaining what ISO Standards mean by awareness and communication, and why they are so integral to a successful Management System.

[02:30] What is awareness and communication so important?– The success and failure of a management system depends on it’s existence being known and understood within an organisation.

Staff have a key part to play, and they need to know their part in the Management System and how it aligns with the organisations direction.

[03:20] Extra guidance available for awareness and communication – There is a Standard that accompanies ISO 9001, called ISO 9004:2018 – Quality of an Organisation: Guidance to achieve sustained success.

This is a great companion to any Standard, as it provides general guidance on how to properly embed a management system within your business.

It talks at length about people and the need to ensure that they are competent, engaged, empowered and motivated. These are crucial as:

Engagement of people enhances the organisations ability to create value for interested parties.

Empowerment motivates people to take responsibility for their work and the results of their work.

These can be achieved by providing people with necessary information with authority and the freedom to make decisions related to their own work.

People should understand the significance and importance of their role, specifically in creating that value to meet and exceed customer expectations.

[05:30] What should be communicating according to ISO Standards? – Taking ISO 9001 as the example, because it is the basis for most ISO Standards, it has a specifies the following:

5.2.2 Quality Policy - The policy should be available and maintained as documented information, so must be issued somewhere so that people can see it. But it also, quite importantly, must be communicated, understood and deployed within the organisation. It also needs to be made available to other relevant and trusted parties.

5.3 Organisational roles, responsibilities and authorities - Top management have a responsibility here. They must ensure that responsibilities and authorities for relevant rules are assigned, communicated and understood within the organisation. There’s a lot to consider here as this will also take into account for ensuring processes are delivering expected outputs, the reporting of system performance and improvement and the promotion of customer focus throughout the organisation.

6.2 Objectives - The organisation should establish objectives. These will be targeted at relevant functions, levels and processes and should be communicated to the relevant people affected by those objectives.

7.3 Awareness – Includes the specification that anyone working under the organisations control, so this could include indirect workers, must be aware of your quality policy. Also included is the awareness of objectives and staff’s contribution to the effectiveness of the management system. People aslo have to be aware of the implications of not conforming to the requirements of the management system or standard.

[09:30] The implications of not following requirements – You need to consider what happens if someone doesn’t follow a process. For Standards such as ISO 45001 Health & Safety management, following processes could be a matter of someone getting hurt or breaking the law.

[10:00] Clause 7.4 Communication – The organisation shall determine the internal and external communications relevant to the system, and that includes what should be communicated when and to who.

[10:30] When should you deliver ISO Management System awareness and communication training? – If you’re just starting out on your ISO Implementation journey, it’s crucial to communicate at the outset the importance of the process of achieving certification.

The level of awareness will vary depending on people’s roles, i.e:

Top Management: Top management must understand the role of the management system in relation to the strategic direction of the organisation as part of context, they must understand what the management system contributes to the overall business outcomes. While top management don't need to know standards inside out, they must be aware and must have understanding of the overall purpose of the standard and the benefits that standard will bring to the organisation.

To gauge the level of awareness top management need, ask yourself, would you be happy to let them be interviewed in private by a third-party assessor in regards to all of their responsibilities in relation to the management system?

[13:20] General awareness for the workforce– While leadership require a greater level of awareness, there is still a need for general staff to have a certain level of management system awareness.

For those on their first implementation journey, you should bring people in from the very beginning, this includes all staff and those working indirectly under your organisation.

You will want to make them aware of the following:

What is a quality management system? – Define what it is and what it means

What’s important about the Standard? – People don’t need to know the intricacies of standard subclauses, so just select important aspects such as the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle

If you’re integrating Standards, what are some common requirements? – If you’re integrating a new standard, what requirements specific to that new standard need to communicated?

[15:15] Join the isologyhub and get access to limitless ISO resources – From as little as £99 a month, you can have unlimited access to hundreds of online training courses and achieve certification for completion of courses along the way, which will take you from learner to practitioner to leader in no time. Simply head on over to the isologyhub to sign-up or book a demo.

[17:20] General awareness for the workforce continued – You will also need to make sure people are aware of:

What do they need to know in relation to certification? – This can include the date you’re working towards, what might be expected of them during an ISO assessment, what does the certification actually mean for the business?

Accessing the Management system – How can people find your management system? What documents does it hold? How do you use it? And how does this impact on staff’s day to day activities?

Staff’s role in relation to the Management system – How do staff contribute to the management system on a daily basis? How do they contribute to business objectives?

How does the management system benefit them? – Your management system will include tools and guidance on how to carry out certain activities. It explains how improvements can be suggested and made and how audits work. Ultimately it provides a structured approach to ensure everyone is singing from the same song sheet.

The importance of complying with policies, processes and procedures – including the consequences of not complying with them.

Raising issues relating to non-conformity, the effectiveness of the management system and any potential improvements – You can’t have eyes everywhere, and the people working in alignment with your processes can better highlight where something may not be working. This also increases engagement as people will have a real impact on how your business operates.  

[20:15] Specific standard considerations for communication – The focus of elements of your communication will be tied to the specific ISO Standard you’re implementing.

I.e. A Health & Safety management system will include communication of key risks and hazards, how to report safety issues and abiding by Health & Safety law

Environmental management systems may include awareness of the need to protect the world we live in, how each person can help lessen their impact on an individual scale ect.

 

[21:00] Other key roles and related communication – There are other key roles within the organisation which will have specific communication requirements.

These will be people like operational functional managers with key roles in processes they may be involved in, i.e. sales, design, purchasing, calibration ect.

If they've got specific functions in the organisation with respect to the management system, they need to understand them as much as top management needs to know theirs and the general workforce need to know theirs.

[21:50] Communicating key changes to the Management system – You need to continually communicate to the workforce when changes occur to the management system. That communication doesn’t stop as soon as you’re certified!

For first time implementation, you’ll want to communicate when you’ve achieved certification.  

[22:30] The importance of communication within a Management System – If people are aware of their role and importance to a management system, they will be more engaged with its operation.

This can include reporting on objectives progress during team briefs, raising potential issues and non-conformities or opportunities for improvement, highlighting customer complaints, monitoring number of incidents at work ect

All of these contribute to the success of the business and need to be reported on continually.

These can turn into lessons learned, which could lead to major system changes where documentation or processes need to be updated and communicated.

[24:30] What’s the best way to communicate your ISO management system? – Not all organisations are the same, so there is no right or wrong way to do so. A few suggestions include:

·      SharePoint

·      Teams Channel

·      E-mail / internal newsletters

·      Bulletins

·      In-person training

·      Videos

For any of the above you may need to consider how to record who has completed set awareness training.

[25:30] A final thought  – If an auditor stops and asks a worker about your quality policy, what will that person say to that auditor?

We understand that the quality policy must be communicated, but how does each person understand it?

Your awareness raising needs to capture methods of ensuring that that happens, which is a tricky task!

They do not need to know a Standard verbatim, but they should know the importance of complying with it, what a non-conformity within that system means, and what are the consequences are if they don’t follow the rules.

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