Employee / Subcontractor auditors

There are many pros and cons about our certification auditors not the least being whether they are an employee or a subcontractor of the certification body.  Here are a few thoughts.  In the first instance, make sure you know whether they are an employee or not.  Why?  It is just good to know, especially with regard any conflict of interest process.  If you don’t know, then ask.  Ask if there are any potential conflicts of interest.  There is nothing quite so wrong that your auditor is also a consultant for the auditees biggest competitor.  A little checking via LinkedIn and Facebook would also help.  Employee auditors very rarely have control of their forward planning.  This means that you cannot plan an audit 1, 2, 3, 6, 12 months in advance.  For project management focused people like me, this is very important.  If they cannot do it, you best find out who in the back office is the keeper of the calendar and try and book that way.  But of course, if you are one of the smaller players in the certification town, don’t be surprised that you get bumped as time approached.  Just keep the communication up to the operations people and cross your fingers.  Sub contractor auditors can at times drift into consulting more than our employed ones.  Why?  They just do.  Does this help or hinder.  It is very situational.  Just be aware and temper ‘advice’.  The employee auditor tend to have a little less customer service.  This is because their billing machine back office does not like idle days.  This means they do not have planned customer relations time which results in no coffee chats, update phone calls, etc.  They turn up on the assigned day.  Sub contractor auditors normally have more flexibility with their time and as a consequence have a little more flexibility when it comes to rescheduling and at no extra cost.  Employee auditors are normally blissfully unaware to schedule changes and any forward planning.  But if you want the specific date, that normally means a new auditor.  Consequently if you hold out for the desired auditor, that normally means a change in date to suit them, not you.  Subcontractor auditors also get a break from auditing.  If you audit full time, you can become a little stale and a little cynical.  If you are exposed to the rigors of designing, implementing, consulting in quality management system, it will keep you keen, keep you flexible in the auditing phase.

I wouldn’t pick a certification body based on the employee status of your auditor, but you should take it into consideration as part of the overall process.