TO BE ISO CERTIFIED OR NOT TO BE ISO CERTIFIED ? That is the question.
At the beginning of Built Water Solutions inception in 2017, it was just me, in the dining room trying to build a business that would pay the mortgage and keep the family fed, these first few years were tough, always on the phone chasing work, long hours on the road, on site and in front of the computer, taking anything that would pay the bills. During this time, we had amazing people and companies that supported us and are eternally grateful to them for the support initially and still to this day (you know who you are).
Over time work increased enough to look at bringing someone in to help, Dr Richard Bentham our Microbiologist and Associate Director Consulting came on board in 2018 and allowed me time to work more on the business than in it, now there were two.
Running a business is all consuming and for me tunnel vision set in mainly focusing on one core thing “survival” and all the intricacies that go with that mindset, although our business processes and direction were clearly understood and recorded within an OPSP (One Page Success Plan – highly recommend this) there were always things not covered in the top priority level of the OPSP, we needed to dig deeper, not just what work do we have tomorrow, next week, next month “survival”, and meeting deadlines as well as delivering good quality services and products. We understood certain areas of the business were not getting the attention they needed and deserved for the business to go to the next level, How do we manage this in a structured form? Who do we talk to that can help us to build the tools to achieve this?
Amongst other ideas floated one was ISO Certification? Was this going to help us? and was the cost of being ISO certified going to give us a return on investment?
We talked to an ISO Auditor who I met whilst working for another company about the process of becoming certified, what this entailed and how to achieve it. TQCSI gave us this advice, some of the initial key things we discussed were:
What are you trying to achieve, and will ISO certification help us?
Which ISO certifications should we do and why?
How are we going to achieve this?
Timeframes?
How much it was going to cost?
After assessing all options, we decided to invest the time and money to proceed with ISO certifications, if it can pull everything together ensuring we are meeting our goals and have a financial or operational advantage moving forward all the better, we needed structure. (Prepare to succeed or prepare to fail as my mentor used to say)
As always, we do not do things by half and proceeded with Quality, Safety and Environmental certification all at the same time, we completed this process start to finish, first and second audit to completion in around four weeks.
So why are we sharing this with you?
We are asked regularly does ISO certification bring direct work to our business, do you get work because you are certified and must answer No, having ISO certification is not the whole advertisement and or marketing campaign for our business, we have not received a job from a client where they stated we are engaging with Built Water over a competing company solely because we were ISO certified. The more important question that should be asked is does your business benefit from ISO certification, for us the answer is most definitively Yes! – this can be the glue that pulls it all together "if" as with any tool you use it to its full advantage.
What we get from being ISO Certified:
Our business has clear and recorded direction, at all levels and consists of:
Integrated Management System & Responsibility.
Resource Management.
Operations – Service Management Processes.
Safety Management.
Environmental Management.
Performance Evaluation Measurement & Analysis.
Safe Work Environmental Method Statements.
Other BWS Policies & Procedures (internal business driven specific documents)
Safe Operating Procedures.
Standard Forms.
Job Descriptions – Duties – Responsibilities & Authorities.
We believe we now provide better structured and recorded services, why?
Our business is safety and environmentally aware reducing client, staff, and business risk.
We have quality driven processes in place so that we provide repeatable excellence in service and products across our field work and documentation.
Our staff are aware of their obligations to themselves the business and our clients through clear policy and procedures.
Our staff feel they know what is required of them from the business.
Our staff know they are part of the business, valued and are informed as we include them in the ISO process.
Our staff can find the information they need easily.
We deliver services exactly to our client’s requirements meeting their own internal and legal obligations.
This is just a small part of what our systems provide overall.
We believe what we do is a big part of why our current clients engage us, we do not win work because we are ISO certified it is because of how we engage with our clients, stemming from how we deliver these services and its core Quality, Safety and Environmental ISO certified processes.
Built Water Solutions in August 2022 completed our Triennial Audit, we initially became certified in August 2019 and although still a small company there are now four of us working toward further growth. Our TQCSI auditor attended for the three-day audit assessing all our records, met with field staff on sites and watched the work processes being carried out asking them questions checking that they know their requirements and ultimately re-certifying Built Water Solutions for another year.
Thoughts on certification:
If you –
Feel your business need’s a structure to base itself from.
Know that you are at risk due to not having any or clear policy and procedure.
Need a recorded and valid road map for your business.
Staff employed without clear job descriptions stepping out their core responsibilities.
Safe systems onsite or within the workplace that are not fully protecting your staff, clients or business.
Your products or services are not repeatable, (reliant on staff knowledge, not exactly reproducible via written procedures)
Legislative requirements not clear, are lacking or out of date.
Equipment not being managed properly, not serviced, compliant or potentially unsafe.
Internal documentation is all over the place and has no structure.
Business is not easily adaptable to a changing environment.
If the above is making you think then maybe ISO certification can help.
Once assessed and you do decide that ISO certification may be right for you then our biggest piece of advice is ring TQCSI and discuss further, once starting this journey insert the requirements of each certification into your everyday paperwork day one, this means you are meeting the compliance needs of your certifications daily as well as review regularly, don’t wait until the week before the audit to check you have been complying, correct staff if they are not completing the required documentation as it happens, then when the time comes for re-certification the audits go without a hitch.
Click image below for link to TQCSI website
Ross Jones
Director
Built Water Solutions Pty Ltd
0457 777 324
Built Water Solutions Pty Ltd are not being remunerated in any way or been asked by TQCSI for the creation of this blog and is solely created from our experiences and honest opinions. We hope that this may help someone think about business continuity and give options to succeed. Not all products are one size fits all and may not be right for your business - but it doesn't hurt to research and decide on what is the right fit for you. We hope that this helps someone in some way - good luck. RJ
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