How to Establish and Document Competence of Employees in a Small Company

[howste]

Jumping into this thread, because of concerns I have going into 9001:2015, and improving how we document competence. One thing I noted in the ISO guidance document that Sidney referenced for us is "Periodic Review of Competence of Persons" and the associated "Maintenance of Competence". I understand what c and d of 7.2 are directing, but is ISO also saying that it is implicit within c and d that there WILL be periodic monitoring of individuals performing work under the qms, once the organization has documented them as competent to perform their work?

I guess I'm asking; is the standard telling us to do some formal, periodic review of competence, such as an annual performance review, for example? I'm not seeing that spelled out in 7.2, personally, but this guidance document seems to be spelling it out that way.

Thank,

Joe

What the paper said is that organizations will "typically need to do several things" and then "periodically review competence of persons" is listed as one of the activities that they believe are typical. It certainly doesn't make periodic review mandatory, but there should be some way to determine ongoing competence.

What they say in the last paragraph of the guidance is more in line with my thoughts.

The auditor needs to verify that some form of effective monitoring process is in place and being acted upon. Ways of doing this include a continuing professional development process (such as the one described in ISO 19011), regular appraisals of persons and their performance, or the regular inspection, testing or auditing of product for which individuals or groups are responsible. Ongoing changes in competence requirements may indicate that an organization is proactive in maintaining persons performance levels.

This implies that there are several ways to do it, only one of which is periodic performance evaluations. The "regular inspection, testing or auditing of product for which individuals or groups are responsible" is something the organization is already doing and can also serve as a method to evaluate production-related competencies.

 

[Joe Cruse]

This implies that there are several ways to do it, only one of which is periodic performance evaluations. The "regular inspection, testing or auditing of product for which individuals or groups are responsible" is something the organization is already doing and can also serve as a method to evaluate production-related competencies.

I agree with you here.

We have never really performed anything resembling formal, periodic employee evaluations here, once an employee has been evaluated/judged to have demonstrated the competence to perform their job, because of training given and/or demonstrated competencies in the hiring process.

From recent feedback by our registrar auditor, it felt as if we were going to be held up on 2015 registration if we did not incorporate a formal, periodic competency evaluation of our employees, and I'm not seeing that requirement in the standard. As you'd suggested, existing monitoring/measurement activities within our core processes are already looking at current competency as well, and with our business. I suppose evidence of this activity could be captured in Mgt Review, per 9.32.d, among other things.

Thanks!

 

[qusys]

A certification activity with documented information for the interested people could be ok.
Certification can be done by an expert people and based on the observation while the job is done and the correct application of established correct procedure for personnel.
Certification can be supported by check list of questions that can help in ascertain the competence .

 

[Golfman25]

Jumping into this thread, because of concerns I have going into 9001:2015, and improving how we document competence. One thing I noted in the ISO guidance document that Sidney referenced for us is "Periodic Review of Competence of Persons" and the associated "Maintenance of Competence". I understand what c and d of 7.2 are directing, but is ISO also saying that it is implicit within c and d that there WILL be periodic monitoring of individuals performing work under the qms, once the organization has documented them as competent to perform their work?

I guess I'm asking; is the standard telling us to do some formal, periodic review of competence, such as an annual performance review, for example? I'm not seeing that spelled out in 7.2, personally, but this guidance document seems to be spelling it out that way.

Thank,

Joe

Does someone who is competent loose competence? If so, then review. If not it's a waste. Usually competence needs to be upgraded when something changes. That would be a good time to review.