How to Train Your Employees for the ISO 14001 Implementation
Training employees is one of the most important things to do for better implementation of the ISO 14001 standard within your organization. Before you start the implementation process, you should inform your employees that what the standard is why you are implementing it, and what benefits it will provide to the employees. Once your employees are sure that this implementation is beneficial for them, they’ll surely take an active part in the process.
Below, you can find some effective tips regarding how to perform a perfect training program for ISO 14001:
Assessment
First, you should assess your training needs before you start conducting the training program. It’s more than important to assess your training needs in order to identify the gap present between the requirements of the ISO 14001 and your employees’ current competence. Once you know this gap, you’ll be able to find out how much training your employees need to meet the requirements of the standard.
Objectives
Once you have a rightly performed assessment, the next step should be related to determining the training objectives to achieve your desired results. You are supposed to create clear and transparent objectives, which should be achievable, smart, time-bound, measurable, and most importantly, realistic. The standard is all about environmental management and different employees work in a different environment. So, the objectives you design should be specific to all departments within your organization.
Training Method
Choosing the training method is also as important as the above two steps. You may come across many ISO 14001 consultancy and certification companies offering different training methods and modalities that can help you achieve your training goals for the ISO 14001 EMS. Training is quite easy for disciplined and experienced workers. However, it can be complex for the people who are a little undisciplined or new in your company.
Training Plan
Once you have identified the training method, your next move should be to design a designated training plan to train your employees in truly a professional manner. The plan you made should clearly indicate how, when, where, and what your employees will achieve through the implementation of the standard.
Implementation
It’s the right time to start some action and implement the plan you have made. Implementing the training program while keeping records will help you measure the results for the objectives. The records may include test results, questionnaires, written reports, records of attendance, and other related things.
Monitoring
Monitoring and measurement of the effectiveness of training will help you know whether you are moving in the right direction or not. The best way to monitor the effectiveness is to check the work of your employees. If there is an improvement, it means that you have done the right job. Otherwise, if they still do the same mistakes, it means that you should change your plan.
Improvement in the Training Program
Continual improvement is an integral part of all ISO standards and it should be included in your plans also. If you see that a plan isn’t working well, you shouldn’t be bothered in bringing improvement in your training program!
Establishing Process Validation in the ISO 9001 QMS
Confusion remains there in the process validation when a company takes initiatives regarding the implementation of the ISO 9001 Quality Management System. Many businesses aren’t able to understand the difference between design validation and design verification, and both remain complicated for organizations, especially small and medium-sized.
What is validation? How does it work? These are a few questions that you must get answers to. Validation is something that can help you make sure that your work processes are working exactly as you intend to. In simple words, process validation is all about controlling a process while performing multiple necessary tests that can ensure that the process is being performed exactly it is designed to be.
The Clause 8.5.1 of ISO 9001:2015 standard states,
the validation, and periodic revalidation, of the ability to achieve planned results of the processes for production and service provision, where the resulting output cannot be verified by subsequent monitoring or measurement.
It shows that any process should be validated in case you aren’t able to perform checking of a product or service whether it is complying with your input requirements or not. For example, you can’t check the strength of every weld in a welding or soldering process between your regular production until or unless you damage or destroy any parts.
It’s true that not every process is supposed to go through validation as per the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 standard. However, you can still choose to validate your work process to reduce costly or complex inspection of your product or service.
How to Validate a Process?
The best way is to hire a professional individual or company to do the job for you. If your business is in Dubai, you can easily find ISO 9001 consultants in Dubai online to perform the best process validation for you.
How actually is it performed? Well, the best way to validate a process is by simply performing it. First, you must go through a trial to ensure if the process parameters are being met. After that, you can go through a full check on your products or services to confirm that the process is being performed exactly as per the requirements.
There come many businesses where you can’t ensure validation without breaking or destroying parts. The best example is of welding-related work where you have to cut something apart to ensure welding is done correctly.
You can also use process validation to bring lots of improvements in your business. Validation, sometimes, becomes complex but it does give multiple benefits to your process. It makes your process more reliable, safe, error-free, and cost-effective. Moreover, it gives soothing feelings to a businessman when he finds that his work process is performing well.
Process validation can also make the audit process and reduction of nonconforming products better than ever for your business. Most importantly, it can help you bring consistency in your process and maintain a perfect environment of continual improvement within your organization!
