It is a requirement at audit to prove you and your team have been trained in and know the standards that you are seeking to be certified to. That is what an auditor does, checks to see if your company knows and understand the standards. So, an important first step here is to be guided workshop style on a discovery journey. It is both training for your people and an exploration so that you can be advised what does and does not apply in your business. At the end, you will be empowered to make decisions as to how whether you’re ready, the work you may need to do with your suppliers, what you need to do to get certified and can accurately determine the scope of your certification.

Once you know the standards, you can be in a position to know which Hikari Solutions set of Procedures you could start with to make certification quick and easy. They will need to be adjusted to your business and you can choose to do this yourself  or get some help. Our pricing is here.

Once you have your procedures, you then need to train any staff in your business and ensure that their work processes change. An auditor will ask questions of your people to check their knowledge, so passing audit requires this step to be done well. You can do this yourself using our PPT presentation as a guide or we can do it for you.

This is the point that you call one or more of the Accredited Certification Bodies for the certification scheme you’re looking to be assessed against. They will be able to more accurately quote you AND we have made sure you don’t commit a rookie error – asking an auditor what it is that you should do. All contact with Certification Bodies should be done carefully, understanding that their role is to assess whether you understand the standard you’re applying to be certified against or not.

It is usual after audit to have some Non-Conformances that require closure, no matter how good your procedures are. Different schemes have different requirements in terms of closing them before a positive certification decision can be issued.

Each certification scheme has a chart prescribing the fee that is paid to them to be certified. Your Certification Body can provide you with current information as to what the license fees are.

Certification is not a one-time assessment. Most schemes require annual audit, with a re-certification audit occurring every 5 years.

You will need to remain current with changes to the Standards you are certified to, ensure that new starters are trained and that suppliers are continuously validated. We provide an update service in relation to FSC and PEFC for a low monthly fee that will help you keep updated.