Effective Certification - An Interview with Mr. Ben Tsang, Associate Sale Director of Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS) | 真正有效的認證．專訪香港通用公證行有限公司國際認證服務副總裁曾偉明先生

In today’s competitive market, organization have to build up customers’ confidence in order to extend the market reach. One of the effective tools is to obtain worldwide recognized the certification. It is a powerful tool for organizations to show their efficiency and establish corporate image. Since certification is so essential to enterprises’s reputation, the non-professional certification body will make the audit result unable to reflect the operation effectiveness. However, the unprofessional audit result will affect customers’confidence towards the enterprises.

Mr. Ben Tsang, Associate Sale Director of Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A. (SGS), also agrees that the non-professional practice of Certification Body generates poor impression towards certification. ‘As the kind of certifications is increasing, lots of the smart customers will focus on the operation efficiency, financial situation and the robustness of the organization when choosing business partners. Certification issued by prestigious Certification Body is an objective proof to show that the organization are running systematically and efficiently. In Hong Kong approximately 80% are small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Their demand on certifications are still growing.’ Says Tsang. To cater the huge demand, many certification bodies are set up recently. The competition becomes keener especially in Mainland China. Some of these certification bodies adopt extremely low price as a marketing strategy in order to survive. It is not hard to see that these certification bodies are able to attract more customers in a short period of time. However, the number of customer cannot truly reflect the quality of the service which they offer.

When SGS is now facing so many challenges, as a market leader, Tsang believes that providing quality service to customer is the only key to success. ‘In recent years, more and more certification bodies set up greatly enhanced the competition. Price reduction is only a short-term strategy. It can attract more customers in a short period of time, but at the same time, it harms the professionalism of certification audit. The quality of service is the most effective way to retain customer. Without a pool of loyal customers, these certification bodies can hardly survive in the competitive market’.

Hong Kong Certification Bodies

Approximately there are 15 certification bodies in Hong Kong. It is not easy for the organizations to choose the most appropriate one. Tsang suggests a list of self-evaluating questions for organizations to choose their certification body.

Self-evaluating Questions:

- Which certification is suitable for our own business nature?
- Do we have enough time and resources?
- Do the management and the staff get ready for the audit?

In fact, the qualification of the auditors is the fundamental for achieving the most reliable and effective audit result. Inexperienced, unqualified auditors will directly affect the audit result. According to RC Registration, the basic requirement for an auditor is with 4 years working experience. Among the 4 year experience, at least 2 years are relevant to quality management audit. In order to ensure the high service quality, most of the auditors from internal audit firm have 8 years experience at least. In SGS, staff with 10 years experience is very common. Aside from experience, it is ideal for auditors to focus on one or two specific areas to ensure the expertise is developed.

Procedures of the Certification Audit

Apart from the qualification of the auditors, Tsang points out the planning of certification is the most essential. 'From goal setting, certification application, the audit flow to certification issue, a professional certification body should provide the organisation with clear instructions. Auditors will offer the organisation a detailed solution for improvement after the audit. More importantly, I highly recommend that the staff not to do "extra" work before the audit as the may not truly result. The result cannot truly reflect the real operation of the organisation. For the most non-conformances found in certification audit, Tsang advises that the organisation should pay more attention to the common non-conformances in conducting a Customer Satisfaction Study. 'We usually find the non-conformances in Customer Satisfaction Study including adopting a superficial methodology, setting an unrealistic goal, having too many subjective factors and communication problems between internal departments.' says Tsang.

Trend - Qualicert

After discussing the global trend of certification, SGS has recently introduces a new certification system – ‘Qualicert’. It is a breakthrough international service quality management standard which is result-oriented. Different from ISO 9001 or ISO 14000, the audit of ‘Qualicert’ will be carried out by a committee which consists of members from different areas including professional consultants, academics, consumers etc. This standard has been widely adopted in European countries. Among these countries, France has the most outstanding performance. SGS now brings this new service quality management standard to Asia. The first trial has been carried out in Taiwan. It is expected that ‘Qualicert’ will soon create another wave in Hong Kong.

真正有效的認證．專訪香港通用公證行有限公司國際認證服務副總裁曾偉明先生

現今商業社會競爭激烈 ，企業要爭取更多客戶，必須要建立客戶的信心。許多企業都希望通過認證機構認證以確立企業的形象及改善營運效率。換言之，認證機構的服務質素對於各企業是非常重要。若果認證機構服務是不合乎水準，由它們所提供的審核結果是不但不能令企業改善營運效率，更可能直接影響到客戶對
企業的信心。

香港通用公證行有限公司 (SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance S.A., 簡稱「SGS」)j 國際認證服務副總監曾偉明先生 ，本身為IRCA 註冊主任審核員及IATCA驗證審核員，也同意不合水準的認證審核是有如向企業「枉判死罪」。「現今不同行業對認證服務的需求都很大，全球各地的精明客戶在選擇合作夥伴，著眼點都放於企業足否「健康」及穩健，而認證就是一種客觀的方法以向客戶證明企業是有系統及有高效率地運作的。以香港為例，差不多有八成以上是中小型企業，可見企業對認證服務的需求是很大的。」由於需求增加，認證機構 的數量也相應增加，而市場的競爭亦因此而更趨激烈，在中國內地的情況更為嚴重。在激烈的競爭下，有些認證機構便採取「割喉式」減價市場策略，以爭取更多客戶。然而，客戶的多寡並不能反映認證機構的質素。這些機構所提供的服務質素及專業態度的確成疑。

面對市場上這麼多的挑戰，SGS作為市場領導者，曾偉明仍然深信優質的服務是重於一切。「近年有很多的認證機構成立，導致競爭加劇。有些認證機機為求爭取客戶，便以減價方式作招徠，因而令認證機構的專業形象大受影響。以減慣去爭取客戶並非長遠之計，反而服務的質素才是最重要。」

香港的認證機構

現時香港大約有15間認證機構，企業要從中選擇一間最切合公司需要的認證機構確實不易。曾偉明認為，企業在準備申請認證前，必先要考慮幾個因素：

1. 企業本身的業務性質適合哪一極認證?
2. 企業是否有足夠資源和時問去進行?
3. 管理層和員工是否已有充足準備?

要得到最可扉、最有效的認證，審核員的水準最為關鍵，若審核員水準的參差，
或經驗不足，都會直接影響審核結果。根棧RC Registration準則，審核員一般最少要有4年工作經驗，而當中最少2年是品質管理認證的經驗。以SGS為例，為保持優質的認證審核。SGS所有審核員平均都有8年或以上的經驗，擁有10年經驗或以上更是十分普遍。此外，審核員應是專注一至兩個專業範疇的認證。

認證審核過程

除了審核員的水準，曾偉明還指出認證機構在審核過程中，是否提供全面的 服務也是很重要的。「良好的認證機構由設定計劃目標、申請認證、驗證流程、 發出證書以至系列維持等過程都會為機構提供清晰的指引；嚴謹執行審核，而且 審核員亦應提供詳盡的改善方案。我非常鼓勵企業在正式審核前，不應強迫員工 繁記各項審核的細節，雖然這樣做會有可能得到正面的評審結果，但其實此結果 並非反應企業真實的營運狀況。只需以自然輕鬆的心態去應付評審就最好。」曾 偉明認為，在認證審核中最為常見的不符合項目是對客戶進行「顧客滿意度」調 查，企業所採用的研究力法大多太表面、存有太多主觀因素、假設，或在認證審 核前所定下的目標太高，以及企業內部門與部門之間的合作問題等等。通常審核 過後，企業都會知道降低營運效率的主因，然後對症下藥，自然會有整體上的改
善。

未來認證趨勢．「Qualicert」

探討過全球、內地及香港的認證趨勢，SGS研發了一項名為「Qualicert」的嶄新世界性優質服務驗證管理標準。簡單來說，服務驗證就是對從事於服務業之組 織，為其消費客戶所做之服務品質的承諾提供獨立之第三者驗證。「Qualicert」主張以結果為導向的標準，有別於ISO9000或ISO14000，並由來自不同範疇的團體所組成的標準委員會來完成認證審核，其中包括有專業顧問、學者、消費者等等。這套標準已被歐洲多個地方採用，尤以法國的情況最為理想。SGS現正準備將此標準推廣至亞洲，而且已先在台灣進行模擬試驗，相信這套標準很快便會於香港推行，為服務性企業帶來多一項選擇。