Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

All descriptions must be agreed with the staff members who perform the process in question or at
least with the head of the subdivision. An approval here means not the approval of correctness of
the process or its effectiveness but a simple approval that at the time of the audit the procedure is
implemented in this particular way. The approval of the audit findings allows avoiding
misunderstandings, which may occur, because of the insufficient qualification of the auditor or
different interpretation of the received information.
Sometimes the auditor may get the answer that no procedures are needed, because the process is
defined in the legal documents. However, in most cases, legal documents only have very broad
definitions of responsibilities, and set general requirements. The more specific regulations are
usually not implemented, because the more specified is the normative act, the more often it should
be changed to reflect the current situation, and therefore many detailed regulations are not
changed when the environment has already changed, and therefore the actual procedure does not
match with the regulation.
So, if told that process is defined by the normative acts, the auditor should examine if the
appropriate normative acts are implemented, and that the normative acts provide enough definition
of the process including division of responsibility inside the organization, criteria for decisions and
does provide guidance in case of non-conformance or cases when the general procedure could
not be implemented.
A management audit is not aimed to provide consultations on how to improve the procedures, but
rather indicates the problem areas, which are influencing the efficiency of the administration.
Therefore, the auditor is discouraged to provide advice how to make the procedure work more
efficiently or evaluate the procedure as “wrong” or “bad”.
Staff recruitment, evaluation of qualification and training
DEFINITION Competence – demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills. 8
What needs to be audited
The main question of interest for the auditor regarding auditing of the personnel related processes
is “does the existing system assure that the work is performed only by the personnel, who have
adequate competence”. The following issues are related to this main question:
• Are there requirements set for the competence of the personnel? In what form? Are the
requirements clear and unambiguous?
• How is competence evaluated?
• How are the personnel training needs identified?
• How is training of personnel planned, organized, implemented and evaluated?
• Is there a formal staff recruitment procedure? Are there criteria for personnel recruitment
established and maintained?
Auditing procedure
The information about the personnel related processes are collected during the interviews with the
heads of the departments (Form Nr.8). If there is a department or other subdivision responsible for
personnel related processes, a longer interview should be planned with the head of this
department with an aim to describe the related processes.
During the interview with the personnel separate set of questions related to the personnel related
processes should be asked as indicated in the form Nr.7.
8 ISO 9000:2000 “Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary”.
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