Internal Auditor Evaluation Methods

drgnrider

Quite Involved in Discussions
Trying not to be too crass, but my company has decided that I need to start ?evaluating? my ISO auditors since they are going to start getting ?reward points? for their participation as an auditor. This position is an additional duty that they were selected for.

Most of my auditors are fairly new or have limited experience so, annually, I try to attend at least one of their audits. I offer advice and recommendations, ONLY as a means to improve their audit skills. I have never graded them? nor do I wish to.

I am thinking of grading on the following criteria since I have some issues with these and my monthly report requires me to note 1 & 3:
1) getting audits scheduled during the scheduled period (month/quarter),
2) notifying me when audits are scheduled,
3) turning audit write-up in within one week of completion, and
4) (still debating on this one) me attending one of their audits

As I don?t have input into their ?merit reviews?, I don?t want to start rating their abilities.

Has anyone else done something similar? If so, what did you do?
Suggestions/comments on this whole process?
Suggestions on weight of each?
 

LUV-d-4UM

Quite Involved in Discussions
I, too, am doing the same thing as you do. I cannot grade my internal auditors at the moment because I know that chan ges to management can sometimes trigger the gap.
 
B

bi-lo

Trying not to be too crass, but my company has decided that I need to start ?evaluating? my ISO auditors since they are going to start getting ?reward points? for their participation as an auditor. This position is an additional duty that they were selected for.

Most of my auditors are fairly new or have limited experience so, annually, I try to attend at least one of their audits. I offer advice and recommendations, ONLY as a means to improve their audit skills. I have never graded them? nor do I wish to.

I am thinking of grading on the following criteria since I have some issues with these and my monthly report requires me to note 1 & 3:
1) getting audits scheduled during the scheduled period (month/quarter),
2) notifying me when audits are scheduled,
3) turning audit write-up in within one week of completion, and
4) (still debating on this one) me attending one of their audits

As I don?t have input into their ?merit reviews?, I don?t want to start rating their abilities.

Has anyone else done something similar? If so, what did you do?
Suggestions/comments on this whole process?
Suggestions on weight of each?
Internal Audit is an organized and planned activity to verify whether a system or part of a system is working as per specified or expected requirements. In my opinion, the criteria should cover planning, communicating, and documenting verification activity. Internal audit frequency is generally need to be per-defined according to risk associated with the functions to be audited. That is if a function is at high risk, then audit frequency should be more than that at low risk.
 

TPMB4

Quite Involved in Discussions
Forgive me if I misunderstand.

The OP is looking to grade based on whether the internal auditor schedules his bit of internal audit activity within the timescale he has allocated for it according to risk. Also, whether the internal auditor tells you when they audit, whether they complete the write-up within 1 week and whether you were there.

The last poster (bi-lo) suggested that the key skills and competencies are planning, communication and documenting their verifications (could that be evidence?).

If it were my opinion I think bi-lo has it spot on. If you are grading the auditor you need to be there so you can assess how well they plan their audit (more than just scheduling it according to a timetable), their communications (more than just letting you know when it happens) and how well they report the evidence backing up their conclusions (you need to be there to verify the evidence surely?).

Just my uneducated opinion, if you are grading (or evaluating) and internal auditor you have to observe how competent their processes and actions are. If you are not there to observe then you can't spot if they missed a glaring NC in what they are auditing. That of course depends on how well you want to grade them. I wonder if this grading is almost like auditing the internal audit process and could have double value? Does that make it sound any better? Just out of curiosity how have you "Establish competence of personnel at all levels, whose work affects quality, including (6.2.2a)"? Is that partly related? Evaluating the competence of the auditors.
 

AndyN

Moved On
Trying not to be too crass, but my company has decided that I need to start ?evaluating? my ISO auditors since they are going to start getting ?reward points? for their participation as an auditor. This position is an additional duty that they were selected for.

Most of my auditors are fairly new or have limited experience so, annually, I try to attend at least one of their audits. I offer advice and recommendations, ONLY as a means to improve their audit skills. I have never graded them? nor do I wish to.

I am thinking of grading on the following criteria since I have some issues with these and my monthly report requires me to note 1 & 3:
1) getting audits scheduled during the scheduled period (month/quarter),
2) notifying me when audits are scheduled,
3) turning audit write-up in within one week of completion, and
4) (still debating on this one) me attending one of their audits

As I don?t have input into their ?merit reviews?, I don?t want to start rating their abilities.

Has anyone else done something similar? If so, what did you do?
Suggestions/comments on this whole process?
Suggestions on weight of each?

I have an auditor evaluation form. I'll look it out and post it in the "post attachments" link above. Give me a day or so to find the file (it's on a thumb drive someplace)
 

drgnrider

Quite Involved in Discussions
We have two ISO systems:
- 9001 ? 3-years old; all audits scheduled in 4th quarter; checklists
- 14001 ? 7-months old; audits scheduled quarterly, no checklists

?ISO Auditors? are ?additional duty assignments? and all have at least 20 hours of formal internal auditor training by reputable 3rd-party trainers.

With this ?rewards system?, they want me to give them the criteria for the points. I want to be able to grade both sets of auditors the same, because after 2015, they will both be on similar basis. With the auditors being so new, or with limited experience, I am still trying to guide them.

I am in the process of rescheduling the 9001 system audits throughout the year and with the 2015 release, I will be able to do away with the checklists,;) (for now the ?company? insists that they remain). So, the only real ?planning? is reading the procedure and printing the checklist? a no-brainer.

All of the 14001 system auditors, (this cycle is basically their first solo audits), that I have observed so far this year have all had questions written down as starting points and have printed copies of the procedures.

I am trying to spread the audits throughout the year to help keep the auditor?s ?soft skills? from dulling too much. Right now, most wait until the 4th quarter when they ?have? to be completed because of the Management Review or upcoming external audit... rushing through them I am sure, so not really proper audits.

Issues that I see amongst both sets of auditors - some of this is getting better, it?s a matter of their awareness and reinforcement:
- Waiting until the last minute to start planning/scheduling
- Auditing the process from the ?manager?s office? and not where the process is actually happening
- Not following audit trails, some VERY obvious (spill clean-up, major flood) :mg:
- Not noting all the documents reviewed
- Not turning-in their report in a timely manner, but weeks or months later

The auditors are knowledgeable, but lacking the finer skills of auditing, these come with time and practice. :yes:

Some of the results I question because I don?t understand what they have done and I have to confer with them. If they can?t remember their audit from two weeks or a month ago, the reports WILL remain unclear.

I see the start to improving their auditor skills is:
- to keep their soft skills in practice ? at least quarterly will help;
- feedback ? by letting me know when they are auditing, I can attend at least one of their audits and provide them that feedback (I KNOW I could use some feedback).
- timely reports ? summarizing findings while the information is still fresh in their minds generally aids in interpreting the results as well as finding/noticing the NCs

This is where I am coming from, hope it helps clear my question up.
:thanks:
 
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