You’ll find no two days will ever be the same in a day in the life of a quality auditor.
You’re going to participate in regular – often daily – audits of processes and compliance with ISO. Additionally you’ll be involved in process mapping and improvement methodologies and writing complex audit reports.
And yes, a great auditor will also need to get down into the thick of things within the organisation.
Winning hearts and minds
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 be meeting with many people, finding out what they do and how they do it. You’re going to 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, no matter what their 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 the development of processes that will impact them. You will feel the pride they experience in providing a consistently high-quality product to their customers.
Educator and leader
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.
Prepared for quick changes
You’ll be involved in as many zero waste strategies as you will in zero error strategies. Such is 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.
There will be times you will need all your 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.
Quality is culture change
Every organisation adopting Quality Management will require a significant culture change. You’ll need to become the best example of your Quality stand – from your commitment to team advocacy through to always 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, and your contribution will be key.
An extraordinary future
Expect every day to be fast-paced. There’ll be no time for boredom here. You’ll be working vigorously and diligently to strict milestones and meeting often tight audit deadlines.
You can look forward to global opportunities, and you’ll find that as you grow your experience across industries and working in many countries, you will strengthen your ‘quality muscle’. Every day will be a new opportunity to learn and develop.
Every new day in your life as a quality auditor, you will need to be motivated and proactive 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.