An accreditation often demonstrates a professional standing and will actually help you to win business as it proves to prospective buyers that your company has taken the time to invest not only money but also time into obtaining this official accreditation.
There are hundreds of standards that your business could be certified in. However, there are a handful of major standards we see public sector buyers referring to time and time again, these include:
ISO9001 Quality Management System
ISO 9001 is the most widely recognised global standard for quality management suitable for industries of any size, across the world. It is a management system that helps you to monitor your processes and control quality throughout your business.
It proves to public sector buyers and customers that your business has put in place the most effective quality management system and that you satisfy all the requirements of the standard.
Holding ISO 9001 certification can open the door to new markets. Often public sector organisations will insist that you achieve this standard before they will do business with you. Other benefits to your organisation of ISO 9001 includecost savings from efficient management, improving staff morale and better customer retention all of which can lead to increased profits.
ISO14001 Environmental Management System
The ISO 14001 standard is applicable to every business no matter what your business activity is; this environmental management framework helps businesses to improve their environmental management performance in the following ways:
- Firstly you will establish a plan for procedures and environmental controls, this will make up your Environmental Management Policy which will be the foundation for this entire standard
- You will be asked to set measurable targets to help ensure your business can meet anti-pollution and legislation requirements
- It is important this standard is communicated across your business so you will be expected to put into place training, communication and documentation throughout your business
- To ensure success, you will need to identify things that could risk orimpact the successful implementation of this standard
- Planning for emergencies or preventions will need to be identified
- Unlike other standards, ISO14001 requires continuous monitoring and measuring
- Proper recording, auditing and management reviews will need to be put into place to monitor performance.
ISO 45001 Health & Safety
The ISO 45001 standard is accepted across the world as a method of assessing and auditing occupational health and safety management systems. Those organisations that hold the OHSAS18001 Occupational Health and Safety Managementstandard, can upgrade to ISO45001, which isthe internationally recognised standard.
By having a robust, recognised management system in place to control health and safety risks, businesses are able to minimise risks to their workforce, visitors or external contractors on their site.
Key areas that are assessed by ISO 45001 certification include:
- Management systems in place
- Planning and risk assessment
- Staff training and awareness
- Communication of safety management systems
- Response to emergency situations
- Monitoring and continual improvement
ISO/IEC27001 Information Security
ISO 27001 is the British Standard for an Information Security Management System (ISMS). It is the only (ISMS) that is auditable to international standards. It is suitable for every organisation worldwide, across all business sectors no matter the size of the organisation.
By implementing ISO 27001 you will identify the type of information that exists within your business and identify the risks and threats. Systems, controls and procedures can then be established to help minimise the risk.
ISO 27001 provides a system for monitoring and maintaining:
- Confidentiality of information
- Availability of information
- Accuracy of information
In these times of increasing concerns surrounding privacy, data protection and information security gaining ISO 27001 certification demonstrates that your organisation is doing all that it can to protect sensitive data and information assets, it willgive your customers confidence that security risks have been assessed and minimised and that you have systems in place to protect and recover information quickly if there is a loss.
More information about the different standards by topic can be found here.
If you would like to chat to us about which standards may benefit your business before tendering please do get in touch we would be happy to advise.