You’ll find no two days will ever be the same in the life of a quality auditor. You’ll participate in regular – often daily – audits of processes and compliance with ISO. Additionally, you’ll be involved in process mapping, improvement methodologies and writing complex audit reports. And yes, a great auditor will also get down into the thick of things within the organisation.
Quality auditors are qualified professionals who evaluate a business on their quality processes and standards and recommend improvements and changes to be made. They are either employed independently or considered independent of the company to ensure they can properly audit the business operations and processes.
Much of what you’ll be doing at an interpersonal level is winning the hearts and minds of every person at each level of an organisation. You’ll meet with many people, find out what they do and how they do it. You’ll need every ounce of your ability to put people at ease and communicate what you need. You’ll find out people are generally proud of what they do and happy to be a part of the process.
Quality management emphasises that every team member, regardless of role, is ultimately responsible for their final product. It can be hugely satisfying to see each team member become empowered to speak up and contribute to developing processes that will impact them. You will feel the pride they experience in providing a consistently high-quality product to their customers.
You’ll be involved in as many zero-waste strategies as you will in zero-error strategies. Such are the rapid changes impacting every level of the quality model, which must continue to respond to the demands of an increasingly informed and educated customer base. As a result, you’ll need to work efficiently and manage and prioritise your time well across projects.
You’ll need analytical and problem-solving skills. Zero errors will always be the ultimate outcome and sometimes you’ll be asked to oversee a critical detection process. At times, the future operations of a company can be completely reliant on the outcome. The final product – whatever the nature of the deliverable – can mean the difference between dissatisfied and upset customers or customers who become the company’s greatest advocates.
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QUALITY AND COMPLIANCE CAREER PAGE
A day in the life of a quality auditing professional or compliance officer varies greatly depending on the industry. In general, professionals in these roles can expect to:
Quality auditors in certain industries, such as manufacturing, may need to visit different plants or locations. A skilled quality assurance professional in the healthcare sector may need to visit different practices. You can look forward to global opportunities and you’ll find that as you grow your experience across industries and locales, you will strengthen your ‘quality muscle’. Every day will be a new opportunity to learn and develop.
Expect every day to be fast-paced. There’ll be no time for boredom here. Every new day in your life as a quality auditor, you must be proactive and motivated to be better than yesterday. Every day will be an opportunity to use your skills and knowledge to advance the quality message for companies everywhere.
When companies decide to become ISO compliant, they may need to be reminded more than once that it is a ‘bottom-up’ process. The full cooperation and participation of every level in the company will be required and keeping the vision in clear sight will be essential for the process to be successful. Your ability to communicate, educate and lead to achieve this can be both supremely challenging and ultimately rewarding.
Quality is something that nobody can do alone and why you need to ensure that people know creating better quality is an integral part of business success.
Every organisation adopting quality management will also require a significant culture change. You’ll need to become the best example of your quality stand – from your commitment to team advocacy to honouring your integrity with all levels of your reporting and recommendations. You are governing a profound shift in how each employee begins to see their role and their importance in the complete scheme of the business. Your contribution will be key.
Our Diploma of Quality Auditing (BSB50920) is the ideal auditing course for professionals who want to get qualified and lead successful quality audits within a variety of industry roles. With this qualification, you’ll learn how to:
