Remote Auditing

The COVID-19 crisis, with its travel restrictions and ‘no-visitor’ policies, requires a new approach to the auditing process and its methods. Traditionally, organizations have been reluctant to have their audits performed remotely.

Audits can be performed on site, from a distance, or as a combination of both. The use of these methods should be suitably balanced and based on, among other things, consideration of associated risks and opportunities. Remote auditing means using more technology to gather information, to interview auditees, etc. when ‘face-to-face’ methods are impossible or undesired. A remote audit follows the standard audit process while using technology to verify objective evidence.

Management system audits are performed to verify conformance to management standards through review of objective evidence (following ISO 19011:2018 Guidelines for Auditing Management Systems). These audits are essential in order to:

• show conformance to required processes,
• assess how successfully processes have been implemented,
• judge the effectiveness of achieving any defined target levels,
• provide evidence concerning reduction and elimination of problem areas, and
• to continually improve an organization.

SyRiM can perform audits on site and remotely, for any combination of standards.

A well-known combination is the integrated ISO 45001 and ISO 14001:2015 Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) Audit.