Practical Tips to Rock Your Virtual Audit

Kristy Kistner, Director, Performance Excellence, ORAU, Harriman, TN, USA

Keywords: Virtual Audits, Remote Audits, Practical Tips

Industry: Services

Level: Basic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a crisis in many dimensions – public health, the economy, communications, and business practices, just to name a few. The pandemic and social distancing have forced many institutions to go virtual. It has also moved virtual auditing from a possibility to a necessity. ISO 9001-registered organizations needed to move to virtual auditing so they could maintain their annual external audit schedule (surveillance or re-registration).

This session will outline how Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) transitioned from an in-person to a virtual audit in 2020 and had a second virtual audit in 2021. The session will address:

-Audit planning

When should you schedule the audit?

Who should attend?

Who will the auditor(s) interview?

How will the auditor observe work?

-Communicating before the audit

What do you communicate to members of top management?

How do you prepare interviewees for the virtual interview experience?

-Managing technology

What should you do if meeting attendees lose connectivity? What if the auditor loses connectivity?

To share or not to share cameras?

“You’re not on mute” – minimizing distractions to keep the meeting focused.

-Information security

How secure is information shared in a virtual meeting?

How can you share electronic copies of business sensitive documents?

-Communicating during the audit

How do you “go around” a virtual meeting room to introduce participants?

How do you avoid meeting attendees interrupting each other?

If a virtual meeting is running over its allotted time, how do you alert attendees for the next meeting?

In addition to learning the above, attendees will receive a Virtual Audit Tip List.