1) Overcomplicating your systems prior to certification
When businesses are looking to get certified a common issue is overcooking things. When making changes to your systems you should only do it if you truly believe it will benefit the business. Often companies will make changes purely because they are under the assumption that it will help gain certification; pause and ensure that any changes have a clear purpose and are not just overcomplicating your systems.
2) Lack of Senior Management Support
Any changes to your company’s systems needs to have senior management support. Without this type of leadership meaningful change to your systems is doomed to fail as you will almost certainly have insufficient support, guidance and access to appropriate resources.
3) Thinking that policies and documents are the panacea
Systems are not just about policies and documents, it’s about everything your company is doing. Some companies prior to certification will collate documents thinking it will accurately portray their company’s systems. This won’t cut it, as your system is everything everyone does collectively; that is what you need to focus on, not just policies but rather the actions of your company.
4) Not having a robust internal checking process
Often people are busy doing, doing, doing but lack the appropriate checks and balances to ensure that things are operating efficiently and correctly. There needs to be systems in place so that you company can confidently perform their own internal audits and monitoring activities.
