Getting smart with ISO consultancy

ISO consultancy has a reputation problem: outsiders assume the consultant turns up, reads a checklist and leaves. The people doing the work know the job runs through safety training, audits, accident response and the unglamorous business of keeping two parties talking.

What the job actually involves

ISO consultants are among the most underrated professionals, because the visible part of the work looks simple. The role is to assist the people who need help, sometimes directly for a client and sometimes on behalf of a client to that client's own customers. The scope runs from ISO 9001 consulting to ISO 45001 training on health and safety.

Consultants deliver sessions in operational environments, present in the conditions the standard is meant to control rather than in a meeting room. The workload breaks down into a few recurring duties:

• Explaining protocols to staff new to the standard
• Writing and maintaining the documentation behind a quality system
• Running awareness sessions for more than one company in a group
• Standing by after an incident

Why a group hires one consultant for several firms

Large companies often hire one consultant to raise awareness among their subordinate firms about safety protocols and the precautionary measures needed when something goes wrong. That is why the pay is higher than a single site engagement suggests: the consultant answers for employees across more than one company, and the message has to land in each of them.

Safety culture at the organisational level

People need to be aware of their own safety at the organisational level too, because a workforce that has never been taught the basics will not know how to make its working lives safe. This assistance supports employees and employers, one for protection and the other for continuity.

The test of the arrangement comes after an incident. If damage or an accident occurs, the consultant should be there to keep casualties down and the response orderly. A company without a consultant that suffers an accident faces a question mark over its reputation, and its employees end up in real distress. The consultancy is therefore an insurance policy written in procedures rather than in premiums.

The relationship work nobody sees

Another responsibility is building strong and ongoing relations between employer and employee, and between the employer and its clients. Healthy relationships keep orders coming in and keep a small grievance from turning into a dispute. When one does appear, the consultant works to resolve it in a way both parties can accept rather than in a way that simply ends the argument.

That is why the job is multi dimensional: the consultant moves between training, documentation, incident response and mediation, with little leisure time during working hours.

Judged by that list, the profession deserves more credit. The value is invisible on a good day and decisive on a bad one, which is the kind of work that is easy to undervalue until it is missing.