We just recently completed our 3rd year with our TS auditor. We will be interviewing a new auditor. What type of questions should we be asking potential candidates during the interview process? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Larry - sorry you haven't gotten a response. Are you looking to interview a new registrar, a new registrar auditor, or a new internal auditor?

For an outside (registration) auditor, I would ask the following:
1. How long have you been auditing TS? I ask this just to understand, not for exclusion.
2. What was your work experience prior to becoming a TS auditor? I ask this because I want to understand their depth of knowledge and experience. I honestly do not want someone who has little or no real world experience.
3. What is your approach to "one-offs"? By this I mean what if the auditor finds one document out of dozens with an error.

For an internal TS auditor, I would ask:
1. How do you handle being told you are "too picky"? This is because I want an internal auditor to be tougher than my external auditor.

For an internal TS auditor, I would ask:
1. How do you handle being told you are "too picky"? This is because I want an internal auditor to be tougher than my external auditor.
Why should an internal auditor be "tougher" than a CB auditor? What if an internal auditor is being too picky? It seems to me that the objectives of the two types of auditors are fundamentally different (or should be), but both of them should call 'em as they see 'em without regard to being "tough." You're setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It has been my experience that a well-trained internal auditor knows the internal procedures better than the CB auditors, even good ones. They are more likely to audit to the exact wording in those procedures than a CB auditor who (again, in my experience) tend to audit more to the standard they are auditing against. This is likely to end up in discussions about the wording in the procedures and accusations of being "nit-picky".

Right or wrong, I have seen this play out time and time again. Therefore I want to ask the question partly to signal the auditor that this might happen and partly to find out how they have handled it in the past.

Oops, failed to answer all your comments. Sorry.

I want my internal auditors to hold us to the words in the procedures because that helps us find the stupid stuff that should be removed and for the good stuff, because that what we wrote and I want it checked. Again, my experience is that many CB auditors audit mostly against the standard and might miss these nuances.

We are going to interview a new external auditor from the same registar. We had the same auditor for QS and TS and we will be assigned a new TS auditor for our re-certification auditor.

Thanks

Imho, i would not bother with interviewing the newly assigned auditor. If you have been satisfied with the value you have gotten from this registrar, should not be a problem.

If there are issues, they can easily be addressed though the client manager.

Good luck going forward,