Hot mess of an IATF auditor! Anyone else experience such a nightmare?

Sadly, this is not as unusual as you might be led to believe. It's not limited to IATF auditors, either. It affects both big and small CBs. I have had experience across the board, with passive-aggressive auditors, those who screamed at a client - before the start of the audit, to one who actually visited the same client they'd written a major NC against, going back at the weekend to assist in resolving it (they even signed in the visitor book!).

Some CBs have ZERO management staff who have any competency in auditor management. Of course, they cannot do "witness" audits, because the flaky auditors are always going to be on their best behaviors - if the manager knew what they were supposed to do. If you have some time, take a look at LinkedIn and the resumes of the OPs management team at a CB known to you. It's scary, IMHO.

 

Problem with resumes is they cannot convey soft skill or personality traits…

 

Reference checks might pull this out if the references are honest. However many companies actually prohibit employees (especially management) from providing references for legal liability reasons. I was always restricted to verifying employment times frames and job titles…

 

You can give a "personal" reference as long as you state that it is as a friend or acquaintance and do not use anything traceable to your company (including a company email). See link about company policies and link for protecting your self against personal liability.

 

The most important reference a CB auditor has is their other clients and in that regard things get tricky...

 

This is one of those areas where the training of auditors has screwed up and even the various accreditation bodies haven't got much of a clue. They don't consider soft skills! Most available auditor training, even that sanctioned by the various accreditors, such as IRCA, Exemplar Global etc don't place any emphasis on having the right personality traits and how to recognize them in others and then how to accommodate them. It's all technical skills. Figuring out a sampling scheme for what records are audited, know what clause of the standard is most applicable.

Of course, once the auditor is in the class room getting the training, it's too late! I have met countless people who arrived for auditor training and they really should have been the last people who should have been considered as candidates. But then, there's no available training or qualification for an "Audit Program Manager", despite 2 sections of ISO 19011 being devoted to things that would be carried out by someone in that job!

 

These "rules" about auditors having to stay with a client for 3 years and effectively preventing a client from changing CAB in the same period are, while well intentioned, a practical nightmare - when there are ZERO safeguards required to be in place to filter out these bullies. It's difficult to attract the right caliber of auditors into such schemes when the pay is low, the days are long and the qualification bar is raised higher and higher (sometimes to generate revenue?), however, client organizations shouldn't be forced to suffer such indignities.

 

Some CABs pay around $500/550 per day for a vanilla ISO auditor as a contractor. The qualification hoops jumped for IATF and AS9100 might mean a bit of a premium to around $600-$700 (poss a bit more on the west coast of the US). A particular CAB I’m aware of pays less for ISO 9000 auditors and make them pay for some admin costs etc.

 

My experience is that many a) are corporate “refugees” and semi retired or b) have a consulting business on the side. Let’s also not overlook that when on the road as much as some, they spend little of their own money on food etc. I worked with one auditor who hadn’t been to his house in 7 months! Airmiles and hotel points etc accrued can be used for personal benefit too.