In the realm of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in Canada, the Certificate of Recognition (COR) plays a vital role in ensuring organizations maintain effective health and safety management systems – safeguarding the well-being of their workforce and the communities they serve.
Organizations with COR have been proven to be safer than those without it – highlighting the effectiveness of COR as a valuable assessment mechanism to organizational safety.
COR draws inspiration from the evidence-gathering processes described in ISO 19011, which provides guidelines for auditing management systems. The specific requirements of the COR audit, however, can vary based on the certifying partner and jurisdiction in Canada.
When COR auditors provide both a score and written text findings for audit criteria, they do so for several important reasons:
Below, dive into seven key reasons COR auditors accompany scores with written narratives of their observations:
Clarity and Transparency: Providing only a numeric score may not give a clear picture of the auditor’s observations, especially in cases where context is crucial. Written findings clarify why a particular score was given.
Actionable Feedback: A score alone doesn’t give much insight into what needs improvement. By providing detailed written feedback, organizations can understand specific shortcomings and areas where they need to focus their attention. One of the main purposes of an audit is to act as a continuous improvement tool
Objectivity: While scores provide a quantitative measure, written findings ensure that there’s an explanation to justify that score. This decreases the potential for subjective or arbitrary scoring.
Consistency: Written feedback provides a record of observations, which can be crucial for future audits. If there’s a shift in scores in subsequent audits, auditors can reference previous written feedback to understand the changes and improvements (or lack thereof) over time.
Stakeholder Communication: Often, audit results are communicated to various stakeholders, including senior management, workers, and sometimes external entities. Providing detailed written feedback along with scores makes it easier for these stakeholders to understand the current state of the organization’s OHS system.
Legal and Compliance Reasons: In the event of any legal or compliance conflicts, maintaining comprehensive written records of audit findings offers a more definitive foundation for decision-making compared to mere scores. This documentation confirms that the audit was rooted in tangible evidence, demonstrating a thorough assessment rather than a superficial review.
Trust Building: Detailed findings, rather than just scores, build trust between the auditor and the audited organization. It demonstrates that the audit was thorough, and that conclusions weren’t drawn lightly.
In a nutshell?
While scores offer a quantifiable metric that can be used for benchmarking and quick reference, written text findings provide the necessary context, details, and explanations that make the audit meaningful, actionable, and transparent.
By providing detailed written findings for each audit criterion, auditors can add more value to the audit.
AuditSoft is Canada’s most trusted audit tool for COR. Learn about best practices for streamlining the COR audit process in this on-demand webinar.
