Do your internal auditors work in teams or individually?

RoxaneB

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#11
here the auditors like to go in teams to protect themselves from the auditees.
:lmao:

Having had my daily giggle and chuckle, seeing as how we have one system audit a year, we use the team approach. However, as there are multiple audits occurring concurrently, some of my more competent auditors are flying solo while the newer ones and those being assessed are paired up.

The number of auditors is also impacted by the type of audit. ISO internals have the approach mentioned above. 5S are typically pairs (safety issue and more eyes to look around). Standard audits (i.e., documents and process adherence) are solo'd by the supervisor. Safety Hours are in teams of 2-4, but my team branches out on solo adventures and gets back together later to compile notes.
 
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tyker

#13
My auditors work as part of a team until they develop the confidence and competence to go solo.

Working as individuals makes it easier to incorporate the audits into our schedules and, as some of the audits are at our overseas plants, it's cheaper.

If any of the auditors experience problems they come to me. I'm not as big as Randy but I can still do a lot of damage.
 

Coury Ferguson

Moderator here to help
Staff member
Super Moderator
#14
Because I'm about 270+ and big enough to be 2 people I guess I'm a Team all by myself.:lol:
Randy don't exaggerate. :cool:

Gidget,

It really is the preference of the Lead auditor and the capabilities of the other auditors. Teams work well, but I have used teams and individuals. Teams work well, because a lot more can be accomplished in shorter time frames. But the individual has a more personal flare in my opinion.
 
C

chergh - 2008

#15
I assign two auditors to each audit but typically they both end up saying they don't have time to do it and I go and do it myself to keep to the schedule.

Thats going a bit off topic so, based on previous jobs where my audit teams have been better, I would definitley recommend assigning more than one auditor to an audit.
 
G

Gail Former - 2008

#16
Our company is small, with less than 20 employees. Most of the job tasks are only performed by one person, with some cross training to provide coverage for emergencies and vacations. We provide technical documentation for client companies. At the moment, we have one team of two auditors to do quarterly internal audits. We are working towards training most, if not all, of our employees to be additional auditors for two reasons: 1) to ensure that ALL functions are audited by someone who does not perform that task even as a backup, and 2) to improve employee "buy-in" to the audit process. We have always been fortunate to have a company culture that applaudes and encourages process improvement, but are new to formalizing it. It is felt that training and using the entire staff to audit will enhance that culture. It will also spread the auditing burden so that audits will not be delayed due to current auditors fighting tight deadlines for a project.

sheeplady
 

GStough

Staff member
Super Moderator
#17
I assign two auditors to each audit but typically they both end up saying they don't have time to do it and I go and do it myself to keep to the schedule...
Well, this is exactly what happened in our situation last year, and we definitely do not want to fall into that rut again. :nope:

I think our auditors work better as a team at this point. Hopefully, they will gain experience and confidence enough over the next couple of years or so to go solo if necessary. :cfingers:

Thanks, everyone for sharing your stories. I love to see how other companies do things and sometimes get ideas from them for improving our own system. :cool:
 
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C

chergh - 2008

#18
In contrast to what others have said I usually try and encourage the more inexperienced auditor to take the lead as I feel they benefit more from this and the more experienced auditor is there to make sure everything is covered, provide support when needed and ask any questions he thinks is pertinent.
 

GStough

Staff member
Super Moderator
#19
In contrast to what others have said I usually try and encourage the more inexperienced auditor to take the lead as I feel they benefit more from this and the more experienced auditor is there to make sure everything is covered, provide support when needed and ask any questions he thinks is pertinent.
That was part of the logic behind our decision to allow the auditors to work individually last year, but the results were not what we had hoped for and expected.
 
J

Jgryn

#20
I have found teams work best for the following reasons:

Audits can be repeatitive enough, especially if you have performed too many in your own company. If you have sister facilities close by it is even better to switch auditors with them. So having a partner to bounce ideas off of is great.

Easy training for newbies, or even people that may never be comfortable auditing on their own, but have good insight into the processes.

The audit is more likely toget completed if two people have schedule it than if you assign it to one person to be completed 'sometime this year'.
 
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