Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By Craig Cochran
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* Unstated by the customer but necessary for intended use
* How does the organization ensure that correct versions are available?
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* How do employees communicate their improvement ideas?
This question probably won't apply to all personnel. It's especially relevant
to top management and employees responsible for gauging customer
perceptions. The question is significant because most organizations
manage fairly well to capture perceptions but usually fall short of actually
doing something with the information.
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problem statements with all relevant facts included, determination of
problem causes and actions that address the causes. Specific examples of
complaints must be sampled, of course. The link between the complaint
process and corrective action also requires special scrutiny.
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* Are all required inputs and outputs addressed by records?
* How does the rest of the organization learn of actions and decisions that
are determined during reviews?
This might seem like a strange question on a list of most important audit
questions, but it's very significant. Developing human resources is one of
the keys to organizational success. This audit question attempts to probe
the degree of planning that goes into developing these resources. Is
training performed as a knee-jerk activity without any underlying
objectives? Or is it geared toward empowering each employee with the
skills and knowledge needed to propel the organization forward? During
the audit, make sure to probe the training needs that have been
determined for all levels of personnel: hourly, salaried, temporary, highly
skilled technicians and top management. Training is an activity that
applies to all personnel, not just a narrow slice of the organization.
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Here are some related questions:
* How are personnel made aware of the organization's mission, values and
measurable objectives?
This question requires a great deal of skill on the auditor's part because
the information may or may not lead to any logical conclusions. The
auditor must have the experience and maturity to know when an issue is
worth exploring in detail. In other words, don't allow this question to
become an endless fishing expedition. Explore the important elements of
a job, compare what you learn against the controls in place and cross-
check the facts with other personnel doing similar jobs. It can produce
powerful insights.
* What are some things you'd like to change about your job?
* What should your manager know that he or she currently doesn't know?
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matters most to your organization and focus your audit process on those
things. There isn't enough time and energy to focus on everything. An
audit process that monitors the organization's key success factors will
always be relevant and always produce powerful results.
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