What is the Importance of Accredited Certification?
Organizations go through a great deal of work, time and effort to implement management systems such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and many others. These management systems are implemented and certified for many reasons, and one of these reasons is recognition. Organizations want their clients, customers, consumers and other interested parties to recognize that their management systems follow specific standards and comply with certain requirements.
When a certification body is accredited, it means that an accreditation body has verified that it follows a series of standards and requirements that guarantee that their service is impartial, consistent, reliable and recognized internationally. These strict and regular checks that certification bodies undergo provide trust and credibility to the certification. Thus, accredited certification can provide confidence to clients, customers, regulators and other interested parties that the organization is complying with the specific standard, code of conduct or requirement.
Additional to having a certification recognized by all the interested parties of an organization, there are other benefits of accredited certification. These are:
Ensures competency
Accreditation can guarantee that the certification body is competent in assessing specific standards. Organizations want to make sure that auditors are knowledgeable, experienced and that can provide an impartial assessment in the management system being certified.
Provides legitimacy
This legitimacy is based on the participation and recognition of public authorities in the structure of the accreditation body, which follow strict international regulations.
Ensures equality of criteria
The regular checks of the certification body can guarantee that over the years the organization’s management system will be assessed by the same criteria. This equality of criteria will assist in the maturity of the management system, by supporting its continuous improvement, innovation and internal prestige. It can also support organizations in focusing on the achievement of proposed goals.
Reduces risks
Organizations rely on the outcome of their certification body’s assessment to make important decisions regarding their management system. Thus, it reduces the probability of making bad decisions regarding the management system and misallocating resources.
In general, with accredited certification it is possible to ensure legal compliance, guarantee objective and impartial assessments, ensure confidence and credibility with interested parties, focus on activities that add value, focus on what is important to the interests of the organization, and improve the assessment of the management system that will consequently support decision making.
These are the main reasons for choosing accredited certification, however, there could be others. There could be the case that a client or a regulatory body requires an organization to have an accredited certification. Thus, before choosing, organizations need to consider the above benefits and any other that could apply to their particular situation and their specific goals.
There are many accredited Registrars’ listed on the ISO Update Registrar Directory. Fine one here: http://isoupdate.com/registrar-listing/
ISO Terms Explained
To the novice quality manager, ISO jargon can be extremely overwhelming. What is an NCR? What do you mean by OFI? Are we certified or accredited? But before you go and pull out your hair, let’s take a moment to go over some of the most frequently used terms and their definitions with regards to ISO and Management System Certification.