'Demonstrated quality with CMSA certification'

How do you determine the quality and experience of an auditor? For that, DNV now offers the CMSA personal certificate. "An auditor with training is entry-level competent, but not necessarily skilled," DNV said.

DNV is expanding its services with the CMSA personal certification. CMSA stands for Certified Management System Auditor. Bianca Heij-nen, manager personal certification at DNV, explains, "We heard from the market that there is a need for an independent quality certificate for auditors. Larger organizations with their own auditors may have established their own qualification system for this, but organizations looking to hire an external auditor are faced with the question: who am I going to hire and how skilled is this auditor? The CMSA personal certification allows auditors to demonstrate their quality."

Two profiles

The CMSA certificate is for auditors of first and second party audits. The certificate is based on ISO standard 19011 for conducting management system audits. In this regard, the ISO standard distinguishes two profiles: Internal Audit Team Leader and Audit Program Manager. The Internal Audit Team Leader conducts internal audits and prepares the audit report with areas for improvement, while the Audit Program Manager determines the areas to be audited. He then delegates this to the Internal Audit Team Leader. These profiles are both reflected in CMSA, but it is also possible to choose the combined profile.  

Skilled

"The certification offers great advantages for parties who need an auditor," says Heijnen. "Whoever holds this certificate has demonstrable quality and has been independently audited by DNV. So you see immediately that someone is skilled and has the required experience. A training certificate says that someone is competent to start with, but is he or she also competent? A training course says nothing about the amount of experience the auditor has. Professionalism and experience we now test with this certification." The certification also offers advantages for the auditor himself. Heijnen: "Auditor is a free profession. With this certificate, auditors have a seal of quality from an independent party."

Review

How does the review process work? The entire process takes place online. Heijnen: "We have an online portal, in which the auditors have to upload various pieces of evidence. For example, they provide the following documents: their certificate of the Lead Auditor training, their resume showing that they have two years of experience, registrations of five audits and one anonymous audit report. Once all of that is uploaded and approved, a theory exam follows and finally an interview with an experienced auditor. Using the anonymized audit report, the assessor goes over those situations with the auditors and the experience is checked." As an experienced auditor, the assessor always provides development point(s) for future audits.

Register

DNV has offered CMSA person certification since March of this year. "In time, we want to create a registry so people can easily find certified auditors. We have plans to include a chat feature there as well, so auditors can spar with each other." The certificate is valid for three years and can then be updated with PE points that ensure continued professional competence. "This shows auditors that they continue to develop themselves," says Heijnen. "Because no one ever learns."