Competency Requirement Question

Hello, I have a question regarding this clause in ISO 9001:2015. I just started working for a company and they have completed competency forms for each employee. My concern is we do not have any training records per manager/department. Would it be a nonconformance in an audit only having just competency records?

 

Simply stated training does not equal competency. So "training" records are not required.

7.2(b) provides three general ways to achieve competency -- education, training, or experience. (d) requires documented evidence of competence. So if your company evaluates each employees' competence for the job they are assigned, and maintains a record of that evaluation, you're good to go. That competency evaluation is more important, imo.

 

ISO 9001:2015, recertification. Currently, for our process, we only require competency records. However, when I was with a previous employer we received a nonconformance for not having both training and competence records as the auditor said that we needed evidence of both. I agree, competency evaluation is important/

 

Your last auditor was wrong and probably applied the lazy auditor standard. Seeing training records is a check the box exercise.

 

What are competency records?

“Evidence of competence”, as per clause 7.2d, means proof that a person has the ability to apply his/her knowledge and skills in achieving the intended results (see definition of competence in ISO 9000:2015). Training certificates, school diplomas, even list of trainings attended can only provide evidence of acquisition of the knowledge and skills – not their application.

Records kept on employee job performance assessment to determine whether they have achieved the expected results (e.g., objectives, targets, KRAs, KPIs, outputs, etc.) would fit as “competency records”. Is this what you are referring to? If so, then, as @Golfman25 said, you’re good to go.