The EMS-OHSAS Audit Checklist

The EMS audit checklist is an indispensable resource for evaluating your company’s compliance with ISO standards. It features department- and clause-specific questions designed to evaluate compliance of both departments and clauses of your organization.

Surety Software can assist in your efforts to achieve more actionable information from inspections, whether that means external ISO 14001 auditing or internal EMS internal audit checklists that meet your unique requirements. Our fully editable checklists offer you full flexibility.

Processes

As awareness of human activity’s impact on our environment increases, many large companies are taking action by creating their own environmental management systems (EMS) and having them audited and certified. Although this can be a challenging endeavor, internal audit processes provide invaluable opportunities to discover areas for improvement within a company.

As part of this process, it is necessary to examine processes. This involves reviewing procedures and any related documentation or records pertaining to each process in question. A process audit checklist features questions about each of the processes running smoothly as well as possible opportunities for improvement.

Following up on any issues discovered during an audit is one of the most critical components of an inspection; it ensures that problems are actually solved rather than just being identified.

Procedures

Internal auditing requires many different processes and steps. These may include reviewing all records, observing how processes operate, identifying flaws within the system, interviewing employees and conducting an effective internal audit that produces a report with areas for improvement and those operating effectively.

As part of any process audit, one of the initial considerations should be whether the process meets its environmental plans. Judging this will often require looking at how well the PDCA cycle is working as well as whether all relevant environmental operational controls exist and are in place.

An audit will ensure that all necessary documents are being stored properly, that their document management system is operating efficiently, and all required documents are available for inspection. Furthermore, near miss accident registers should be kept and actions taken if an incident arises; additionally completion records for work permits issued should also be kept.

Human Resources

An effective human resources audit checklist should include questions that assess employee treatment and commitment levels to the company. Furthermore, employees should be kept up-to-date regarding any changes in HR policies to help maintain morale while showing that management is committed to improving processes and employee satisfaction.

Other sections of a process audit checklist deal with quality planning and inspections, which includes reviewing PPAP forms, quality assurance reports, analyzing trends and checking CTQ characteristics as well as employee training evaluation. Finally, there should be space provided on this process audit checklist for observations and comments.

Once a process audit has been conducted, it’s crucial that any issues identified during it are followed up on. This helps ensure that any fixes made are effective and won’t resurface later. It may also be useful to host training sessions on any new or updated policies identified during the audit.

Training

The process audit checklist is similar to its supplier audit counterpart and uses similar grading criteria – compliant, opportunities for improvement, minor non-conformances and preventive action/OFI measures – as well as asking specific questions related to making sure PDCA cycles work effectively within each process.

Audits provide an ideal opportunity to ensure employees are carrying out the plan to the best of their ability and identify areas for further employee training. Finally, an audit should include a closed loop process to make sure any problems identified have actually been fixed.

Pinnacle Enterprise Group can assist your company with conducting internal audits by offering training for internal auditors, providing assistance when conducting its own internal audits, or simply offering advice regarding them. Reach out today for more information!