What is Certification?

Certification is a process where an independent body verifies that your business is meeting the necessary or appropriate standards. These standards might be regionally, nationally, or internationally regulated. Your business or organisation may have a variety of aspects certified –  for example its management system, or products, or both.  Certain products sold in Australia must be certified to a Standard. The purpose of a mandatory standard is to make particular safety or information features on products compulsory for legal supply into the Australian market. It is an offence to supply these goods if they do not comply with [...]

What Can the Yellow Wiggle Tell Us About First Aid Training?

Heart attacks are one of Australia’s biggest killers. Every year, around 34,000 Australians and New Zealanders suffer a heart attack outside of hospital. Without the assistance of a trained and qualified first aid officer, cardiac arrests frequently turn deadly – in fact, only one in ten victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests survive. Would you know what to do if someone at work suffered a heart attack? Is there someone in your workplace that’s trained to help? Maybe you remember a [...]

Does Australia Lead the Way in Safety Management?

What does ISO 45001 say about Australia's Safety Management? Since 2001, Australia and New Zealand have used the AS/NZS 4801 Occupational health and safety management systems as the premier WHS Standard. The majority of Australian businesses that had WHS Certification were certified to this standard, with a minority certified to OHSAS 18001, originally a British standard but used in many countries. All this has changed with the adoption of ISO 45001:2018, which is now the accepted WHS standard worldwide, and [...]

Would the Trump Administration Pass an ISO 9001 Audit?

If asked the question “should Donald Trump be certified?” I think many people would answer with an unqualified “YES!” But what about a slightly different question: “Would the Trump Administration pass an audit to be certified to ISO 9001?” Let’s have a look at that question from an auditor’s perspective, and see if we can give an educated answer… Clause 5 Leadership Clause 5 of the ISO 9001 standard calls for “leadership and commitment...by taking accountability…ensuring resources are available…and supporting [...]

ISO 45001 is finally here! Now what?

ISO 45001 is the new Occupational Health and Safety Management Standard. If you're not sure what the changes are and how to implement them, take a look at GrowEQ's plain English answers to commonly asked questions.

Quality Management System dating lessons (that’s right!)

From romance to dynamic resources... no matter what business you're in, you may learn a thing or two about the market value of Quality Management Systems from the first Asian dating service to achieve re-certification to ISO 9001:2015.

The Time to Transition is Now!

The deadline for transitioning to the latest versions of ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems is September 2018. Don't be caught out by leaving it to the last minute.

What is a Gap Analysis? Do I need one?

All organisations have a management system of some sort, documenting some of the ways they do things (processes/procedures) and their rules (policies), as well as keeping certain records.  A Gap Analysis identifies how much what you do already will meet ISO Quality Management System requirements, and where different or additional information is needed. So don't waste time and money reinventing the wheel.

The 7 Major Changes to ISO 14001

The standard ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems is being revised. The International Organisation for Standardisation’s working group met in early February this year and has produced a draft. The revised ISO 14001 standard will be published in 2015. Once published, it is likely to remain unchanged well into the 2020s. The 2015 version of ISO 14001 will be significantly different from the current 2004 version. But don’t be afraid. You definitely don’t need to chuck your existing system out the [...]