Think of the gap analysis as an evaluation of your company's existing arrangements. Practical ISO Ltd, begin by reviewing your existing policies & procedures with the view to identifying any gaps that may exist prior to the Certification Audit (carried out by a Certification Body). The gap analysis can be an ideal place to begin when developing ISO management system requirements in your workplace. There are several options you can choose when deciding on carrying out the gap analysis: -
Option 1: Use one or more people within your organisation to carry out the gap analysis, ideally they're familiar with the systems / processes, but should be independent the systems being audited; or,
Option 2: Consider using a consultant; Practical ISO Ltd have experience of carrying out single or multiple system gap analysis, using a consultant has the added benefit of using a company that's independent of the systems/ processes being examined during the audit;
Option 3: Using a Certification Body to carry out the gap analysis; this will usually be offered as part of your contract; however; the Certification Body auditor is not allowed to provide you with advice on how to close any critical or non-critical findings (as they must remain independent of the systems being audited).
Beginning with a stage 1 gap analysis allows your company to quickly identify where the critical findings are; thus allowing you to correct them prior to the stage 2 Certification audit. Doing the Stage 1 this way can save your company money and time, as those companies going straight to stage 2, have later found out to their costs that critical findings are made by the certification body and certification is not granted. It's important to remember that the stage 1 gap analysis is not a conformance audit; the stage 1, is an analysis of how your business's existing management systems meet the requirements of the ISO Standard(s). The stage 2 audit; is carried out to determine if your organisation's processes / management systems conform to the requirements of the ISO Standard(s). With the certification body auditor reviewing the documented information (evidence) and the processes to determine; that you do what you're saying you do! If you choose to carry out the Stage 1 in-house you will need a checklist; this is a list of the requirements written as questions, where you enter your findings; assessing if your system meets the requirements.
Practical ISO Ltd can sell you a gap analysis checklist for ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and/or ISO 45001:2018 Standards. The checklists have been developed to allow the user to evaluate and risk score each section, using a 'RAG' system, the user can quickly demonstrate where the gaps exist and develop corrective actions to close them off.
