In the recent months, we have experienced unprecedented events, and many of Mireaux Management Solutions’ Clients have lost valuable resources essential to their business. At first, we saw an overall reduction in force and the people maintaining the management system were asked to do more, however as the challenges continue, we now see a reduction of the very key people assigned to maintaining the management system. What are you supposed to do? Below are a few steps you should take when key personnel leave.
Have you lost your Quality Manager, Document Control person or do you lack resources to maintain your Management System? Do not despair Mireaux is here to help!
5 Signs Your Company Is in Dire Need of Root Cause Analysis & Corrective Action Training (With a Bonus Item for API Holders!)
November 18, 2019Have you lost your Quality Manager, Document Control person or do you lack resources to maintain your Management System? Do not despair Mireaux is here to help!
Conduct Management of Change “MOC”
Depending on the standard you certify, one of the first things you should do at the departure of key personnel is conduct a “Management of Change” or MOC. Conducting an MOC will allow you to organize your thoughts and analyze the risks associated with the change. Whether the person(s) is about to leave or have already left, conduct an MOC to figure out what they were doing that may be at risk of not being done correctly or not being done at all.
Conduct Risk Assessment
As part of the MOC, try to find risks and opportunities to improve the process, simplify it and/or make it more efficient. An inefficient process typically requires more effort and manpower. Aldo don’t be afraid to question whether a certain activity is needed at all. What started as an improvement for a particular goal, may have become an activity that is not required nor necessary, and could be eliminated thus freeing up resources.
Appoint a New Management Representative
Appoint a new person to take over the management system. Whether you are thinking about hiring from the outside or promoting somebody from within, think about appointing an interim person to take on some of the responsibilities. While they may not be ready to take on all responsibilities, they should be able to help or coordinate minor tasks, lessening gaps and out-of-compliance possibilities. Select somebody ready to take on the challenge, and ready to use the opportunity as a stepping stone for their future career. And don’t forget to notify your Registrar of the new contact person to avoid missing key communication or notices.
Provide Training
Provide training to the newly appointed person, even if it’s an interim position. You never know how long this person will be in this position, and for a minimal investment (a few hours or days of training), this person could end up helping your organization more than you think. Training can range from just learning your software, to a formal ISO or API training. Money spent in training is money well spent, and you will end up saving more than if you let your management system go. Having the registrar come and issue major nonconformities, only to have to come back to close those nonconformities will be more costly and stressful that you wish you would have done it differently.
Conduct proper offboarding and onboarding
Typical onboarding/offboarding procedures are used when new employees are hired or fired, however when layoffs, or interdepartmental changes take place, those processes, procedures, and/or forms are seldom used. Your offboarding process should have you check all areas of your management system to make sure that Documents owners are reassigned as needed, Corrective Actions or NCRs are reassigned, permissions to software are redistributed, etc.
HOW CAN MIREAUX HELP?
In recent months, Mireaux has been assisting Clients with their resource challenges bringing continuation to their management systems. Here are a few of the areas Mireaux can assist:
- Provide hands-on Web QMS training to new Web QMS Admin or Web QMS Document Control personnel. We can show them how to authorize users, assign permissions, move CIPs along, add documents and assign approvers, etc.
- Provide On-Demand Document Control Services for Clients who use our Web QMS Software. This allows us to become their extended Document Control resource, using as when needed only, without any minimum hourly quotas or long-term contracts.
- Provide formal ISO or API training, either privately or through our public courses, in-person or Live Stream. We have a myriad of courses ranging from ISO or API implementation to Internal Auditor courses, including Root Cause Analysis and Risk Assessment.
- Conduct Internal Audits in ISO or API management system standards as well as API monograms. Our experienced Auditors will conduct a thorough audit, and provide an in-depth report that you can use as a guide to get prepared for your External Audit.
- Assist with answering of ISO or API nonconformities. If you are still working with API in trying to get your nonconformities resolved, Mireaux can help you not just with Root Cause Analysis, but also with full preparation of responses and implementation of actions, to ensure that they get accepted by API.
Additional Reading
Don’t miss the following great articles with additional tips on what to do when you lose key personnel:
Our ISO Management Rep is Leaving the Company: Should I Call 911?
Do we need to update our Management System procedures when somebody leaves?
