Image Courtesy of Pixabay
Almost every commercial, industrial and private company across almost every sector falls under rules, regulations, and guidance where their operating practices and standards are concerned. One of the best ways to show the world how well you adhere to these standards and provide excellent service is through the use of accreditation evaluation.
Accreditors are industry-specific bodies that assess your business, practice, or establishment in order to evaluate your capability when it comes to specific criteria and how you carry your service from start to finish on many levels including professional practice, customer service, and legal requirements to name a few.
The process of accreditation can be tricky and there are usually multiple accreditors for each sector, this small guide aims to highlight the following:
How You Can Get Accreditation
How It Can Help
What to Consider When Choosing an Accreditor
How to Prepare for an Accreditor
What It Means to be Accredited
Accreditation usually has to be applied for but is an easy online process while being recognized by an official accreditor can help your business in multiple ways and there are some things you need to be aware of when deciding on a specific accreditor. Once an accreditor has been chosen you will need to prepare in multiple ways to accommodate an assessor and once passed, an official accreditation can provide more than just peace of mind to customers.
How You Can Get Accreditation
There are many accreditors across multiple industries in various sectors but some of the best examples include Microsoft Certified Systems Engineering (MCSE) for IT technicians, the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) for hospitals, and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) for recognizing quality rehab medical practices. These are all indicators that a particular business or company employs trained personnel with the capabilities to carry out the required work to a very high standard and deliver other industry standards across their entire service.
To be accredited by an industry-standard body requires a high level of dedication across your business and every facet of your business will be scrutinized and assessed to check whether you can deliver the quality of service that is required as outlined in each body’s code of practice. There are accreditation consultancy companies that will allow you to hire a CARF consultant, for example, that can highlight areas of improvement when it comes to preparing for accreditation in rehabilitation. You can get accreditation by applying through each body’s website and following a rigorous assessment, you will be awarded should they deem it warranted.
How It Can Help
Depending on your business type, accreditation consultancy alone can take up to a year as they work with you to ensure that your company is up to standard before the process of accreditation actually begins. This is just as important for them as it is for you since they won't want to be associated with a company that under performs, cuts corners, or delivers a poor service. Following a satisfactory evaluation of your company, a decision will be made on whether to apply for the accreditation of your service or not.
While most industries don’t require accreditation for you to trade, an accreditation lets the public, and therefore any potential clients, know that your business meets or exceeds the high levels of service in your specific sector as outlined by the accrediting body. This has the obvious advantage of boosting business as a whole as clients seek the best, but it also allows potential employees to consider joining your company while giving existing employees something to be proud of knowing that they are officially recognized for their efforts.
What to Consider When Choosing an Accreditor
While your accreditation consultant will advise you to the best of their ability when it comes to what accreditors look for when assessing an industry-specific company, they will not advise you on which accreditation body to choose, since they cannot recommend one over the other for reasons of bias. For this reason, choosing which accreditation body to assess your business falls on you and for most industries, there are various bodies. However, you can of course choose to be evaluated by more than one accreditor.
For the most part, it is best to choose the most widely known accreditor in your field before moving onto further accreditors in the future. If you feel that your business will fail to meet the standards of a particular accreditor then choosing a better fitting one might be best. Any hired consultants will be able to advise which accreditor is best suited to your company and help with preparing for accreditation. Just like your company, any accreditor that you wish to work with should also provide excellent standards in their field, such as:
Customer service
Highly recognized and/or recommended
Professional surveying staff
Account handlers
History of high standards
How to Prepare for an Accreditor
While there is no way of knowing exactly what an accrediting surveyor will be looking for when they visit your business, your consultant, should you hire one, should be able to advise you well when it comes to preparing for an assessment. Many accreditation bodies will require many years worth of records and the ability to demonstrate a high level of the required skills and services on a consistent basis. For this reason, a consultant will also require records for high-quality service for as far back as possible.
When preparing for accreditation, it is advisable to know the policies and procedures that are given the most focus by each independent accreditor as some bodies may focus on some policies more than others, and any good consultant will be aware of each accreditor's standards and can therefore help you prepare for them. An accreditation consultant will be able to help prepare your team for accreditation by changing policies and procedures that better meet desired standards, assigning training tasks, and even filing the necessary paperwork on your behalf.
What It Means to be Accredited
Should you file for accreditation and then subsequently be awarded an official accreditation by a well-respected and recognized body then this will boost your businesses’ public image by showing everyone that you conform to a high level of industry standards and follow well-maintained procedures and policies that ensure the best level of service at all times. However, just being accredited doesn't mean that you can then do what you like. As an accredited member of a particular body, the standards highlighted throughout your accreditation process must be maintained at all times or you actually run the risk of losing your accreditation.
Many bodies will routinely check up on any previously accredited companies in order to ensure that their name is being associated with a company that deserves appreciation and that your company is keeping up to date with industry-wide changes or amendments in practice. It falls down to you as a business owner to make sure that your staff possesses the necessary skills to meet the requirements of your accrediting bodies and that standards are maintained across the company.