Certification Process
Discover the 3-year certification cycle (initial audit, surveillance audits and recertification audit)
Certification steps
Application
You complete a questionnaire, in consultation with us, to understand your business and requirements, we use this information to build a contract proposal for your review and approval.
Initial Assessment: Stage 1
This audit is planned and conducted to verify and ensure that the information submitted is accurate, the management systems and processes are implemented and confirm the scope of application reflects the business activity.
There are no gaps in meeting the requirements of the standard(s) and there will be sufficient evidence of conformance and compliance to achieve a successful outcome at Stage 2.
Any areas of potential nonconformance are brought to your attention in the report and the Stage 2 is agreed and planned.
Initial Assessment: Stage 2
This audit is planned and conducted to gather evidence of conformance and compliance, through sampling of all procedures and processes, to verify that the management system is effectively implemented and achieving the desired outcomes consistently and coherently, at all sites and locations where the scope of certification activities are conducted, in accordance with the requirements of the standard.
Any areas of nonconformance (minor and major) or opportunities for improvement are identified and reported and the appropriate recommendation is made for certification, subject to corrective action within a defined period or sooner.
Certification
Following the above, a certification review is conducted to determine that the applicable standard(s) requirements have been met and this results in a certification decision being made. A positive decision results in the issuance of a certification to the required standard(s).
Re-Certification
The certificate issued has a validity for three years and is maintained through annual surveillance audits. At the end of this period a recertification audit is undertaken to ensure that all requirements of scope of certification have been fully reassessed.
We make sure that the management system performance demonstrates continuous improvement in meeting the requirements of the management system standard and most importantly the business needs and objectives.
All requirements being met, the certification is renewed and a certificate reissued for three years.
Suspension, Withdrawal, or Reduction of Scope of Certificates
Certification may be suspended if an organisation :
- Fails to maintain its management system or it contravenes the certification scheme regulations.
- Does not allow for surveillance or re-assessment audits to be perfomed in the prescribed time.
- Voluntarily requests suspension
Procedures are maintained for the withdrawal and cancellation of certificates in these circumstances.
Withdrawal will normally be considered if there is no resolution to the issues raised that resulted in suspension and suspension has been in place for 6 months.
Alternatively, where an organisation has failed to adequately maintain its management system or it contravenes the certification scheme regulations in a part of its scope, SOCOTEC Certification Philippines, Inc may reduce the scope of certification accordingly.
Maintenance, Renewal and Extension of Certificates
MAINTENANCE OF CERTIFICATION
Recertification audits have critical schedule timing requirements. If surveillance audits are delayed such that they are outside of the required tolerances then additional audit time may be required to compensate for the delay.
RENEWAL OF CERTIFICATION
Reassessment audits also have critical schedule timing requirements:
- +/- 2 months from the target date
- No less than 3 months before the expiry date of the certificate
Conversely; it may be necessary to bring forward the recertification audit to meet client needs such as seasonal demands etc.; in these cases, the RA should ideally not be brought forward to more than 6 months prior to certificate expiry. However; each case will be considered independently based on the justification given.
EXTENSION OF CERTIFICATION
Additional audit time may be required when a standard is updated to a new version or the client requires an extension to their current scope of certification.
A tailor-made accompaniment
Throughout the certification process, we’ll check in with you to make sure your management systems are kept up-to-date and any required changes are identified and addressed at the earliest possible opportunity.
