30 Tips to Audit Well

Things that were observed and/ or could have been done differently.

Audits are stressful enough so knowing what to do, what not to do, what to say, what not to say can prove to be challenging. There are audit etiquette tips that need to be adhered to, but the thing is, what are those audit etiquette tips? Some audit etiquette tips are common sense, but some are not. ?Some audit etiquette tips are not plain as day, so here are some that might provide “light bulb” moments. These are in no particular order, and there might be some audit etiquette tips that you may want to add to the conversation.

1. Don’t whisper around the auditor while on the production floor. When you whisper to another staff member it makes the auditor look around to see what you’re whispering about. It makes the auditor think that you’ve seen something that is out of place.
2. Desk audits generally take place in an office or in a conference room. If members of your management team are in the room, please keep side conversations to a minimum. Keeping side conversations to a minimum allows the auditor to concentrate, and you don’t want the auditor to interrupt your conversation(s) to request documentation. From experience, most of the side conversations are personal and not work related. If the auditor has to keep interrupting side conversations this prolongs the audit.
3. When the auditor requests specific documentation, give him or her what he or she asks for. If HACCP training for the HACCP Team is requested that is what you need to provide – not HACCP training for all employees. Here’s a tip; separate out HACCP Team training from that provided to the all employees. The auditor might ask for HACCP training for all employees, later on.
4. Some Standards require that the auditor interview employees. Please make this a successful venture. Laminate “business” pocket cards for employees with a short list of training they’ve received, place what to do on the cards on how to report a food safety concern, and to whom to report the concern. Give these cards out on audit day, and better yet ask the auditor if it’s ok for the facility to choose the employees that would better be suited to answer questions – you don’t want the auditor to corner a “newby.”
5. Audit time in the audit room should be a quiet room, so place a sign on the door stating, “Quiet Please, Audit in Session.” Have this sign even for those unannounced audits. Laminate this sign, file it away for future use, make it colorful if you have to.
6. On the first day of the audit, please don’t ask the auditor about the closing meeting. Really?
7. You and your team members knew you were having an audit so don’t ask the auditor to end the audit early. GFSI audits require the audit to be a certain length, and if you and your team cannot comply then cancel or stop the audit and reschedule. If you do this, this is costly for your company. On the second day of the audit, I had the Safety Manager, who was leading the audit, ask could we wrap up at 9AM because he had a prior engagement, and of course my answer was “no.” Especially if the audit is announced, you knew you were having it, it’s your responsibility to be at the audit, if required. If you or your staff have to arrange for someone to pick up the kids then do so.
8. Some GFSI Standards require backups/alternates, so if there are backups/alternates, these backups/alternates need the same training as the person he or she is backing up. So, when asked for training for the backups/alternates don’t look surprised.
9. Don’t hand the auditor a huge binder to look through or a policy to read to find the answers in which he or she asked for; that’s your job to find the answer(s) for the auditor, not the auditor to hunt for the answer(s) in your binder. Doing this is a red flag to the auditor that staff is not familiar with facility documents.
10. Bring all applicable binders into the room so staff will not have to run and bring them in each time the auditor asks for documentation. You and your staff having to run and get binders is a waste of time and inefficient. Shows unpreparedness on the facility’s part.
11. Ensure staff have all passwords to log into the necessary software used for the audit. I don’t know how many times the audit lead or required staff have excuses on why they don’t have or don’t know, or just received passwords for software needed for the audit. This is just so uncalled for, and this happens a lot for entry into the pest control portal.
12. Let’s talk laboratory accreditations. If your facility uses several labs to perform different tests, i.e., water, finished product, environmental swabs, then have the accreditations for each lab used on hand. Attach the accreditations to the final lab results for the tests performed.
13. Print out the facility schematic for the auditor.
14. Review records before you hand them to the auditor, if you can. You just might be handing the auditor a non-conformance which can be in the form of incomplete documents, scribbling out of information, missing management verifications, pre-filled in information.
15. Know your documentation, i.e., know where to find the answers within your documentation.
16. No pets allowed. This is a true story. Had just finished an audit and was walking out of the building, and a lady was walking toward me and she had a large golden retriever that was not on a leash. The dog was skittish and began to bark at me, and the lady said, “Oh, he’s just nervous,” but I’m thinking, “I know that dog is not going to enter the building,” and sure enough, the dog entered the building as the lady opened the door. Going through my mind was the following:

a. Where does this dog reside during the day?

b.?Employees who pet this dog do go back to work, and hopefully they wash their hands after petting the dog.

c. Dog hair on employees’ clothes if dog jumps on them, then employees go back to the production floor.

d.?Dog hair going through the exhaust system of the facility.

I did not go back into the building to address this – don’t know if I was wrong for not going back. If you want to comment on this, be my guest.

17. Have printed examples of new equipment installations and/or modifications to answer clause question for procedure of new equipment that has been recently installed.

18.??If you know you will be having an audit, please show up and don’t take vacation. I had a Director of Quality, who was my facility contact, take vacation when the audit was scheduled, and he was supposed to be at the audit. There was a Quality Supervisor left to handle the audit who was not as well versed with the Standard and with locating documents – I would say something, but not within this article.

19.?When it’s your turn as a member of management to answer auditor’s questions, please don’t walk into the room empty handed. At least bring your laptop or be able to log into someone’s laptop to get the answers you need to present to the auditor.

20.?The auditor is looking for objective evidence, stop talking/explaining and show the auditor the evidence – audits are “Show & Tell.”

21.??A real audit is NOT the time to train a “newby.” Training a new person to one day take over the audit process is to be done at later dates. Training the “newby” should have been done way before the audit. For example, athletes don’t train on game day. Doing this prolongs the audit because teaching the “newby” where documents are located or telling them who has them, or even explaining a concept takes up audit time. Don’t do it, not a good practice, frustrates the auditor.

22.?As auditors and consultants, we’re very appreciative when facilities bring in breakfast and lunch. I thank those facilities that send out an email to the auditor asking if he or she has any dietary restrictions. Please consider a Diabetic auditor. If facility enjoys, candy, cookies, pastries, etc., by all means bring those in, but please have alternative eats for an auditor that is trying to avoid sweets.

23.?Please be honest. If your facility has not complied with a clause in a Standard by not having the required documentation, don’t attempt to create the documentation during the audit, then pretend later it was found. Spoiler Alert! There is a way to see when a document was created in Microsoft Word. Just take the probable minor non-conformance, and keep it moving.

24.?Compile a list of suggestions you’ve gained from the knowledge of different auditors. Take and implement the ones that will improve your processes.? Don’t leave an audit with knowledge on the table.

25.?OMG! That pest control binder can be a “hot mess.” If you have a pest control binder, please place your pest control pesticides’ SDSs in alphabetical order, and not only that please don’t have them tabbed together. Place dividers for each with each divider having the name of the pesticide. The auditor will then be able to reach for the divider labeled, for example, Termidor SC, or Contrac Blox.

26.?Please ensure you have a copy or copies of your pest control keys. Some Standards do require opening of bait stations.

27.?Please do what the facility says it’s supposed to do. Here’s an example. One manager said that the CCP was being monitored twice a day. So, I said for us to take a look at the HACCP plan as well as the monitoring records. Well, the HACCP plan stated that the CCP was to be monitored three times a day. The monitoring records indicated CCP monitoring was taking place twice a day which was not in line with the HACCP plan. OOPS!

28.?Let’s continue with CCP monitoring. Something I like was that some facilities used colored paper, e.g., yellow, orange, pink, to distinguish the CCP records.

29.?Have a list of individuals who own what piece of the Standard/audit to eliminate guessing. You won’t be wondering who to call for what documentation. You want to know who to contact within your facility/company.

30.??It’s a good idea to have a management signature log to ensure/recognize authorized signoffs for your documents.

Food Safety Advisor LLC