An internal audit is a staple to all of the management system standards most commonly implemented by organizations. Its purpose is to measure the effectiveness of implementation to the requirements of the standard and your organization’s own internal requirements. Often the internal audits have to be completed on an annual basis. Some organizations prefer to have smaller chunks of the audit conducted over the entire year. There are benefits to either of these approaches. The key is to follow a process approach and to be thorough.
The most common issue with internal audits is resources. Either a company’s employees do not have the time to conduct the audit, or there are not enough auditors trained, or sufficient staff to ensure independence of the work being conducted. We at Strategies for the Environment can help by conducting the entire internal audit, leading your audit team providing them with experienced guidance and even training your internal auditors.
