ISO 9001 Awareness Training as Part of QMS Implementation

When you are implementing the ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS), it is necessary that everyone in the organisation should know what you’re doing and why are you doing it. The process may start from the top management, however every single employee should be on board. If you do not involve your employees in the implementation of your QMS and make them aware of their role, the QMS will fail or be very inefficient. ISO 9001 awareness training should be conducted by the organisation and will help the employees to understand their respective roll in order to maintain the quality. ISO 9001 awareness training doesn’t mean that the employee of the organisation need to know every single point about the QMS, the training should be conducted in such a way that they can understand the purpose of the QMS and why they are doing it. The awareness and training will help to implement the QMS which then will be more effective and successful. Now, how would you do that? The employees working under the organisation should be aware of these three things.

• The quality policy and relevant objectives.
• Their contribution to the effectiveness of the QMS, including the benefits of improved quality performance.
• The implications of not conforming to the QMS

Content of ISO 9001 Awareness Training Material

Here is the list of the materials that should be included in the ISO 9001 awareness training.

• Why are you implementing a QMS system? That is the most common question that would pop-up in any employee’s mind. They will wonder about it and letting them know will help them in the way they need to help you in implementing it.
• What is QMS system? Again, that’s another common question which will arise. Give them the definition about the QMS; inform them about the benefits of it which would help them to better understand.
• What is ISO 9001 Standard? A brief introduction should be given about the standards which are applicable to QMS which goes a long way towards explaining that you want to make your QMS recognizable to regular industry practices.
• What are the general requirements for the ISO 9001 standards? Even for the employees who do not need to know the standards of ISO 9001, understanding the structure will be enough for them to know how far the QMS reaches within the organisation. This is the best way to let them know that everyone is involved in implementing and maintain the QMS.
• How would you expect your employees to use the QMS? This is the most important factor of the training. After informing the employees about the QMS, standards and requirements, what do you want them to do? They need to understand the procedure and the process to maintain the QMS which is to be practiced consistently. Moreover, they should bring feedback on improvements when they see it. Employees are an integral part of the processes to make sure they work and help the QMS improve.

Creating ISO 9001 Awareness Training Materials

How do you conduct the ISO 9001 awareness training will depend on you. Most of the organisations give awareness through a power point presentation, however there are other methods which are great and effective. The awareness training can be given in Lunch and learn discussions, department meetings, orientation sessions or even available written documents. The important part of the awareness program is if they understand. So, make sure you’re training your staff in the language which is understandable for them. Make sure they have enough time to listen to you which will help them to better understand and they will ask more question to clear the doubts.

For many of your employees, this might be the only ISO 9001 training they need to focus on their job-specific processes which is a more relevant way for them to understand what is it they need to do to support their QMS. It’s important for your QMS expert to know which part of the training should be given to which employee. Not all the employees need to know about each and every standard of QMS. They only need to understand the processes which are complaint to their department.

If you are interested in using our ISO 9001 consultants to support you with the ISO 9001 implementation or awareness training, please contact us for a free quote.