ISO Consultancy for Client to Achieve Certification for ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018

In October 2019, HBS Group Southern approached Freebook Global Technologies with a request for assistance with achieving certification under two ISO standards; ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management) for their New Energies Division, and ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety Management) for the Group.

Following initial discussions, HBS Group Southern engaged a certification body who subsequently conducted an assessment audit resulting in a gap analysis.  In late November 2019, HBS delivered the contents of the report to Freebook Global Technologies and work commenced.

Prior to the start of the project, it was ascertained that HBS Group were already operating a quality management system and had a solid health and safety management system in operation.  However, conversations and the results of the gap analysis conducted by the accreditation body, identified that there was a substantial amount of work to do in order to bring both of these management systems into compliance with the requirements of the ISO standards.

Following a tried and tested approach to ISO implementation, Freebook Global Technologies’s consultancy team worked methodically through both standards, enhancing existing policies and processes while creating the required new documentation addressing each clause and sub-clause in both of the standards in terms of the required documentation, while also ensuring that the processes and policies were wholly in-line with the operational reality of the organisation. It was obvious from the outset that the management team at HBS Group were sincerely engaged in the process and, despite a busy work schedule, were able to free up resource to assist in the critical job of defining, mapping, and describing these business processes at play as they related to both health and safety, and quality management.

This was a highly collaborative process, working closely with senior management and other staff members to ensure that the processes and policies were in-line with the operational reality of the organisation while simultaneously making sure that, where necessary, these policies and processes were also compliant with the requirements of the standards. This involved efficiently acquiring a good knowledge of the company’s processes and being able to translate these processes into workable documents that were compliant with the standard and with the requirements laid out in the new policies that were being developed to bring the management systems into compliance.

Several hundred hours of work and just under 4 months after the commencement of the project, on the 18th March 2019, HBS Group Southern and their New Energies division were certificated in ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management, and ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management respectively. This represents a huge milestone for HBS Group and validates all of the hard work and enthusiasm provided by the organisation in collaboration with the expertise, knowledge, and skills from Freebook Global Technologies’s consultancy team.