Reliable Audits, Faster Certification,
Actionable Data

Case Study: Transforming Certificate of Recognition (COR) audits for the Alberta Association for Safety Partnerships.

Time To Onboard
0 Months
Membership Growth
0 %
Training & Support
0
AASP logo

The Alberta Association for Safety Partnerships (AASP)

Founded in 1996, the Alberta Association for Safety Partnerships (AASP) is a Canadian, government-approved health and safety association and a COR certifying partner. It is the second-largest association of its kind in Alberta, serving 2,925 members and covering over 200,000 workers.

The Certificate of Recognition (COR)

The Certificate of Recognition (COR) is a voluntary, audit-based employer certification program in Canada. It is intended to motivate employers to take a proactive role in occupational health and safety.

Key Features of the COR program:

  • Follows prescriptive auditing processes
  • Includes Documentation, Interviews, Observations (DIO)
  • Widely used across Canada in addition to, or instead of, ISO 19011:2018
  • Requires an external audit for certification and an internal maintenance audit in years two and three

Challenge

COR audits ensure an organization’s Occupational Health & Safety Management System (OHSMS) meets the high standards required for COR certification. Organizations receive COR certification only after passing an external audit of its OHSMS.

Typical COR audits can take up to 45 days to perform, and up to 21 days to write the report. Once submitted, the audit will be reviewed, and ultimately returned with a number of recommendations for improvements, which auditors will then need to implement.

A growing number of corporations in Alberta, and now in fact across Canada, expect contractors bidding on projects to hold a valid COR. Even when COR isn’t listed as a pre-qualification bidding requirement, businesses that possess COR are still often viewed more favourably.

Companies that have taken the necessary steps to create a safe and healthy workplace will continue to miss out on contracts until they receive a COR. As such, time is of the essence when it comes to certification; it can have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line.

As part of its commitment to serving members the best it can, AASP partnered with AuditSoft in March of 2020 to streamline and enhance COR auditing, review, and analysis.

Solution

✅ Streamlined Auditing

AuditSoft has transformed the COR auditing process into a single application and seamless workflow – saving AASP auditors time and effort, whilst improving audit reliability.

“The AuditSoft software is so easy to use and the efficiency that it brings to the auditing process is great. I have been able to provide a faster service and completion to my clients. I recommend AuditSoft to Auditors and the Associations that haven’t yet signed on.”AuditSoft User

Automated Scoring

AuditSoft automatically calculates scores – saving AASP members time and ensuring the final report sent to AASP audit reviewers is accurate.

Notifications & Tracking

AuditSoft tracks audit progress and flags any missed sections – ensuring the final audit report sent to AASP is 100% complete.

Standardization

AuditSoft generates professional PDF reports in one click – saving auditors time and ensuring the final report is well formatted for review.

Electronic Submission

Auditors can now easily send the final report electronically – AASP audit reviewers no longer have to sift through 100+ pages of paperwork.

✅ Faster Certification

AuditSoft has streamlined the COR auditing process and improved audit accuracy and reliability.

AASP auditors can now upload and append supporting documentation to corresponding questions. This further simplifies review and is saving AASP audit reviewers substantial time during quality assurance.

"The fact that once the auditor has reviewed and inputted all the data, all they need to do is click a button to generate what can be up to a 100+ page report – that’s well laid out, easy to read, and scored properly – it’s making things so much easier for auditors and audit reviewers at AASP."

AASP now delivers industry-leading turnaround times for COR audits:

  • An average of 11.4 days in total
  • 9.3 days for Certification audits
  • 13.1 days for Maintenance audits

✅ Actionable Data

Transforming all audit data into one consistent, standardized format means it can now be aggregated and analyzed by AuditXchange.

The resulting data provides AASP member organizations with a deeper, more contextualized view of performance, and helps AASP understand where members need more support.

"From an organization's point of view, you can really understand how well you are performing. AASP also analyzes the data on an annual basis to identify where organizations are needing extra support - and whether we need to add additional training or services. It's a great tool for driving continuous improvement."

AASP View

The AASP can track and measure member performance and identify areas for improvement.

AASP Member View

AASP members get a scorecard to visualize performance against an anonymized pool of industry data.

Results

The AASP is seeing increased adoption of COR via AuditSoft and believe the positive attributes are helping to attract new members and grow its association.

“AuditSoft is a leader in the safety and compliance auditing space and is helping us deliver excellent customer service and results."

Members in 2020
2500
Members in 2024
2700

Transform Safety and Compliance Auditing