Maintaining ISO Certification After Separating from a Parent Company many organisations implement ISO management systems and achieve certification at a group or parent level, with a scope that covers all corporate entities.
This has many advantages, including shared compliance resources and a reduction in audit time, based on sampling.
However, when companies separate from the parent company, whether through an acquisition, management buy-out or other reason, maintaining a complete operational management system and the associated ISO certification can be difficult.
At Assent, this is a scenario we are increasingly seeing, and we’ve successfully helped many organisations pull away from a parent with minimal disruption to their compliance frameworks. Here we share some insights.
Understand the New Scope
The first step in the process is to understand the new scope. Depending on the standard(s) involved, this may include: which business processes are covered, how many locations and how many staff across which departments.
This is essential when determining the new external audit timings, but also important for us to build or adapt your management system for the new single entity.
Assent’s expert ISO consultants can help you determine and document this new scope, and also plan for the necessary changes to your system.
Allocate Resources
Having adequate resources available to operate a management system is important at any time but more so during times of change.
Resources not only include financial resources, but also knowledge, systems, software, technologies and other things you need to run the business and the management system.
Engaging Assent to provide consultancy support, internal audits and management of your certification programme is an example of such resource provision, as described in clause 7.1 of Annex SL standards.
Manage the Changes
Whatever direction your management system takes, it will involve significant changes which should be managed under clause 6.3 of Annex SL management systems.
Assent consultants can guide you through a formal change management process including considering the risks.
Speak to your Existing Certification Body, and others
In most cases, your existing certification body will help you navigate the exit, because they have a vested interest in both sides. This will usually involve a change of scope to the parent/group company with an accelerated stage 1 and stage 2 audit for the exiting party.
However, there are some situations where the separating company will take on the existing management system. For example, if the existing certificate is a limited scope and those activities were primarily conducted by the separating company.
In other cases, if the exiting company has to undergo a new registration anyway, it may be beneficial to go to the market for competitive pricing and service.
This is where our certification management team can help you evaluate the options and navigate the process.
See the Separation as an Opportunity
Management systems can easily become stagnant, particularly where the same external auditor visits year after year.
Building or restructuring a management system after a separation is a unique opportunity to drive efficiency and improvements.
Our ISO consultants can help you realise the benefits through gap analysis, internal audit, fractional roles or full outsource support.
