Did you know that you can use the ISO 9001 standard to help you manage processes related to your company’s staff? Its requirements can help organizations streamline the management of your team through performance evaluation, training, effectiveness, among others.
There are several requirements of the Standard that relate to the process of managing people within an organization, let’s go over them.
Requirement 7.1.6 – Organizational Knowledge
The standard emphasizes that the organization must first determine the organizational knowledge required to operate its processes in order to achieve product and service compliance. When talking about people management we also talk about company know-how. It is important to remember that each team member is a resource and a key piece within the organizational knowledge, be it through experience, procedures and/or training.
Furthermore, ISO 9001 suggests that organizational knowledge can be obtained from internal and external resources. It also cites internal resources as “sharing undocumented knowledge and experience”, and and for managing people effectively this flow of sharing must be continuous and constant in order to increase organizational knowledge.
Requirement 7.2 – Competence
When it comes to managing people it’s almost impossible to neglect competence. In this particular requirement, the Standard describes that the organization must “determine the necessary competence of people who perform work under their control”, i.e., what sort of competence the company wants and needs for distinct functions in the organization.
One way to assess and ensure competence, as the standard itself emphasizes, is through education, training or experience, and when determined, the organization must take action to acquire that predetermined competence.
The Standard even cites a new term: mentoring, helping and/or paring up someone with more experience with a beginner or less experienced.
Requirement 7.3 Awareness
Last but not least, awareness is the basis for managing people in an organization. The Standard establishes as a requirement that the organization must ensure that people are aware of quality policy, quality objectives, their contribution to the effectiveness of the management system and implications of not meeting such requirements.
Moreover, in the process of awareness, you can cover other important items of your organization, such as the company’s mission, vision, values and organizational context.
ISO 9001 is the tool, but the management is done by you.
To receive more information about how ISO 9001 can help your company, write to us at contact@qms-certification.com.
